Quote: a dictionary preserves the purity of a language and defines its meanings

Quotation

It was not easy to determine by what rule of distinction the words of this dictionary were to be chosen. The chief intent of it is to preserve the purity, and ascertain the meaning of our English idiom; and this seems to require nothing more than that our language be considered, so far as it is our own; that the words and phrases used in the general intercourse of life, or found in the works of those whom we commonly style polite writers, be selected, without including the terms of particular professions ... This is, perhaps, the exact and pure idea of a grammatical dictionary; but in lexicography, as in other arts, naked science is too delicate for the purposes of life. The value of a work must be estimated by its use; it is not enough that a dictionary delights the critick, unless, at the same time, it instructs the learner ... they that take a dictionary in their hands, have been accustomed to expect from it a solution of almost every difficulty. ... experience has taught my predecessors to spread with a kind of pompous luxuriance over their productions. ... [p. 3] it should comprise, in some degree, the peculiar words of every profession ... if the names of animals be inserted, we must admit those which are more known, as well as those with which we are, by accident, less acquainted   Google-1   Google-2

Published before 1923

Additional Titles

Quote: the value of a work must be estimated by its use; a dictionary must be useful to all

Quote: a dictionary should include all words, even well-known animals and those of particular professions

Related Topics

Topic: dictionary for natural language (41 items)
Topic: non-constraining system (24 items)
Topic: meaning by use (58 items)