Article Written by London swaminathan

Date: 8 November 2015

Post No:2312

Time uploaded in London :– 19-04

(Thanks for the Pictures ) 

DON’T REBLOG IT AT LEAST FOR A WEEK!  DON’T USE THE PICTURES; THEY ARE COPYRIGHTED BY SOMEONE.

1.Mark Twain

Mark Twain occasionally attended the services of Dr.Doane, later Bishop of Albany, but then Rector of an Episcopal church in Hartford. One Sunday morning, Twain said to him at the end of the service, Dr Doane , I enjoyed your service this morning. I welcomed it like an old friend. I have, you know, a book at home containing every word of it.

You have not, said Dr Doane indignantly.

I have so.

Well, you send that book to me. I would like to see it.

I will send it, promised Twain.

The following day he sent Dr Doan an unabridged dictionary.

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2.What is the use of dictionary?

Why don’t you buy a dictionary? Asked the man whose friend repeatedly consulted him as to the spelling of certain words.

What would I do with a dictionary? , was the reply.

If I can’t spell the words, I couldn’t find them and if I can spell them, I don’t need a dictionary.

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3.French dictionary!

A committee of the French academy employed in the preparation of the Academy dictionary, defined the word CRAB: a small red fish which walks backwards.

Commenting on this definition, the celebrated naturalist Cuiver said:

“Your definition, gentlemen, would be perfect only for three exceptions. The crab is not a fish, it is not red and it does not walk backwards”.

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4.Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary

A bookshop owner gave Johnson the idea of producing one of greater accuracy and in 1746 he agreed a fee to produce such a work. With funds available he and his wife Tetty moved to a large new house at Gough Square off Fleet Street in London and six assistants were employed to help with the task. In France forty scholars of the Académie Française took forty years to produce a dictionary of their language but Johnson boasted that an Englishman could complete the equivalent work in just three. In creating it he read not only works of literature but also history, science, theology, and other subjects. Despite his intentions Johnson failed to prevent it becoming an objective work, with numerous personal opinions and jibes included within the definitions. The description for the word ‘dull’ became: “To make dictionaries is dull work.” The task eventually took three times longer than planned but Dictionary of the English Language was published in two large volumes in April 1755 and contained almost forty three thousand entries. It remained the pre-eminent British reference until the publication of the Oxford English Dictionary in about 1930.

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5.Objectionable Words

Two ladies, encountering Dr Johnson soon after the publication of his “Dictionary”, complimented him for having omitted gross, indelicate, and objectionable words.

“What, my dears!” said Dr Johnson, “have you been searching for them?”

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6.Which Webster?

There is a Congressional legend about the newly elected congressman who, in his maiden speech on the floor of the House, said, “As Daniel Webster makes clear in his famous dictionary…….”

He was interrupted from the floor by a cry of “Noah Webster wrote the dictionary.

“Noah nothing”, replied the speaker, “Noah built the ark!”

(Daniel Webster was an American senator and statesman and Noah Webster was an American lexicographer and English spelling reformer).

–Subham–