Webster's Dictionary

[msstice]

You’re probably using the wrong dictionary « the jsomers.net blog

This popped up on a nerd forum I lurk on. It's a very interesting bit for writer. The nerd bit comes at the end where he discussed how he uses the dictionary on his computer. The interesting bit for writers is at the start where he discusses how Webster's is different from modern dictionaries and gives us a much richer way to explore writing the same thing in different ways.

 

[sknox]

Yep. I knew about strong dictionaries versus weak ones long ago. It first sank in to me when I came across a German-English dictionary from the early 1930s. The thing was printed in fraktur. Oh, there's a *history* to dictionaries! It sank in more when I found I had to consult 19thc dictionaries (or older) because some of the trades I was studying for my dissertation no longer existed. Which meant their vocabulary could no longer be found in modern dictionaries. It got even more obscure than that.

So, some time in the later 1980s, when I found Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary at a mall bookstore, I bought it. For twenty bucks! Not only does it have 2,129 pages worth of words, it has wonderful appendices that include a Dictionary of Geography, Notable Names in Fiction and Mythology, foreign words and phrases, and delights such as Practical Business Mathematics and Special Signs and Symbols. And maps.

It's not quite Oxford Unabridged, which provides those example phrases, but still gives etymologies that can be invaluable. In short, I agree with Somers' point. Some things just don't need a bridge. Er, abridge is what I meant. Abridgement.

 

[tinkerdan]

That's the kind of dictionary that makes me imagine:
A writer gets up early--crack of dawn--and begins his task only to stop and think; then pull up the dictionary. As he sits there searching for his entry and the morning sun is rising he hunkers down to read.
...
Suddenly, his vision dims, as though storm clouds are moving in and he looks up to see that dusk has arrived and the light by the street has come on. He gazes down at the dictionary only to realize he has gone from Balloon to Zeppelin.

In another place in town his publisher throws his glasses onto the desk and growl at his secretary. "We're way behind schedule, for God's sake, get the man a less engaging dictionary."

 

[Biskit]

I read that blog with distinctly mixed feelings. It was interesting seeing how things have changed, but some of the quoted examples left me blank, I think probably because the language has moved on and the explanation literally made no sense to me. I think the one that really stood out was the definition of sport as "a diversion of the field". I read it, I read the example where it had been used, and found myself torn between "that seems very evocative" and "could someone just confirm that this is not a piece of AI-generated gibberish?" With a lot of picking things apart, I could finally see where it was coming from, but overall I think the trouble lay in archaic usages that were not the first interpretations to spring to mind. In fact, there was no springing at all but a slow and painful dragging them out of mental dungeons.