A Monument of Lexicography

Abstract

THE appearance of the long-anticipated second edition of “Webster's New International Dictionary” is an event of considerable and pleasurable importance. “Webster” is suigeneris ‘inimitable in conception and unexcelled in achievement’ and has won, on its merits alone, a place of pre-eminence in a world by no means ill-provided with dictionaries of high rank. Com parisons, we know, are odious, but since the thought of the great “Oxford English Dictionary” must be present in every English-speaking mind as that of the supreme exemplar of lexicography, it is necessary to inquire at once into the relation between that majestic work and the “New Inter national Dictionary”. A very practical difference lies in the disparity of prices, for, even in the form of its cheaper reprint, the O.E.D. is beyond the pocket of the average man, while “Webster” costs no more than a weatherproof. A second utilitarian difference is in the disparity of sizes, for while even the smallest study or office could accommodate “Webster” (which might indeed stand permanently on the corner of a desk), the O.E.D. spreads itself luxuriantly over several feet of shelf-room. We do not, of course, quarrel with either bulk or price when the former is so worthily filled and the latter so fairly set as in the O.E.D.; but when we buy a dictionary they are considera tions of immediate concern. Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language. Second edition, unabridged. Pp. xcvi + 3210. (London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd.; Springfield, Mass.: G. and C. Merriam Co., 1934.) 84s. net; with Thumb Index, 90s. net; 2 vols., 85s. net; with Thumb Index, 90s. net.