My Dictionary Is Older Than I Am!
I need a new dictionary. I have two, but they won't do. I suppose I could look words up on the Internet, but I don’t because it takes too long.
One of my dictionaries is Thorndike Barnhart Comprehensive Desk Dictionary, published in 1951 and updated until 1967. I picked it up at a thrift shop. I don’t like it much because I don’t always find what I’m looking for in it.
My other is The Funk and Wagnalls Concise Standard Dictionary, published in 1921, one year before I was published. That makes it 85 years old! I can’t remember that it ever failed me, but maybe I was looking for easier words than those I was seeking in my other dictionary. Inside it’s worn front cover, my Funk and Wagnalls Concise Standard Dictionary boasts: “It is the most complete, and most sumptuous dictionary in existence; a necessity in every school and study. It is the result of the highest scholarship and expert skill of over 380 of the world’s most distinguished scholars and specialists.”
It goes on to state: Statistics of its Greatness – 450,000 Vocabulary Terms – 50,000 more than any other dictionary; over 380 Editors and Specialists; 32,000 Quotations; 125,000 Synonyms and Antonyms; many Beautiful Colored Plates; 7,000 Illustrations; Cost over $1,450,000. Furthermore, it is endorsed by President John Cavanaugh of Notre Dame, and Chancellor Henry A. Buchtel of The University of Denver.
This dictionary once belonged to my mother, which makes it not only an antique, but an heirloom as well. I need to stop handling it, and retire it again to a safe place so I can pass it along to a person of a younger generation who will appreciate its worthiness.
As I said at the beginning, I need a new dictionary.
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Comments: 11
It's interesting to see how words and language have changed over time.
BTW, the easy way to look up words online is to go to Google, and in the search line, type: define: (word you want) then hit search.
My favorite is American Heritage - filled with etymological (word history) information.
I have many dictionaries, fitting for a linguistics major/high school teacher.
Darcey D.
Leslie - I think I would like an American Heritage dictionary best, too. I love learning the origins of words.
Lynn a - I have always been such an avid reader, I often think I know the meaning of a word when I read it, but when I use it, I'm not sure I always get it right. Got to get a handy dictionary.
Darcey - You constantly amaze me! You taught yourself to read and write by reading a dictionary over and over!!! That's wonderful! You learned well. Also I hope you will tell us more about the accident when you broke your back. What an ordeal you must have experienced! You sure have trod a hard path through life to the happy situation you now have with Karen and Tallara, and your work as an artisan.
Mariana - I have an old medical dictionary where I found a dimly remembered term, dropsy. My daughter, the medical transcriptionist, had never heard of it, because it is so outdated. It is an ailment causing a huge droopy stomach.
TJ - I'm a 20s kid, and I do best seeing things on paper. I live way out in the boonies, and depend on a telephone line for this computer. It is sooooo slow!! I can look up 10 words in a book type dictionary in the time the Internet comes up with the answer.
Thanks everyone for the comments.