Dictionaries and the History of English

Dictionaries—especially historical dictionaries—are full of historical facts and judgments about English. Thus, students can find out a lot about English by looking in dictionaries. But they can learn things about the history of English by looking at dictionaries, too. As cultural artifacts, dictionaries help to bridge so-called inner and outer histories of English, which at times seem almost to be competitive concerns in the history of English classroom. Perhaps most important, students in a history of English course can make glossaries and dictionaries, individually or in groups, even groups as large as a whole class. In writing such a glossary, a student isn’t just writing about the history of English but is actually being a historian of English, and the experience, as well as the knowledge it produces, is likely to stay with the student for a long time.