Dictionaries

By 1832 most modern lexicographic conventions were already well established. Numbered sense-divisions in dictionary entries, as well as illustrative quotations or examples, were familiar features. So was information on pronunciation. The advent of the International Phonetic Alphabet in 1888 brought new possibilities for consistent transcription though many dictionaries continued to employ their own, often idiosyncratic, systems. A rich and diverse lexicographic culture was in existence with dictionaries adapted to a range of readers and roles. In some respects, there were obvious continuities with the past. Samuel Johnson, whose Dictionary of the English Language was first published in 1755, John Walker (author of the Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, 1791) and Noah Webster (whose American Dictionary of the English Language was first published in 1828) remained household names, in Britain and in the United States, with their works variously reedited, enlarged, and recombined. Benjamin Smart’s Walker Remodelled (1842) meanwhile brought Walker up to date, codifying what was seen as the social and linguistic salience of a supra-regional Received Pronunciation, a construct formalized in 1869. Webster’s legacy dominated American dictionary making while spurring new and important competitors in the form of work by Joseph Worcester and, toward the end of the century, William Dwight Whitney. Innovative methods and empirical approaches also emerged. Charles Richardson (New Dictionary of the English Language, 1836–1837) experimented with citational evidence instead of definitions for each entry, pioneering aspects of the inductive method while placing usage at the center of lexicographical exegesis. Advances in the synonym dictionary meanwhile produced Peter Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases (1852). General or family dictionaries also flourished, aided by advances in literacy and the consolidation of a national education system. Johnson in 1755 had questioned whether lexicography should focus on words or things. Victorian dictionaries represented both strands though the consensus (in British lexicography), gradually inclined to the former. American lexicography meanwhile often remained far more encyclopedic in its interests and coverage. Notable outliers in Britain included John Ogilvie’s Imperial Dictionary of the English Language (1852–1853) that, in three volumes, included copious illustrations and diagrams and was visibly inspired by Webster’s work. The New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (later known as the Oxford English Dictionary) began publication in 1884 (–1928). Inspired by Continental philology, it brought a new commitment to descriptive historicism and remains groundbreaking in its documentation of English, both past and present, as well as in its painstaking reappraisal of English etymology and derivation. Joseph Wright’s English Dialect Dictionary (EDD), the first part of which appeared in 1898, adopted similar methods while regional lexicography received new impetus from the English Dialect Society (1873–). Across the period, the diversity of English (and Englishes) proved a highly fertile space.