Abstract
This article is a personal reflection on the pivotal role of Eric Partridge, how his personality and experience shaped his lexicography, and how the inherited ‘spirit’ of Partridge is invested in the new dictionaries that bear his name. An online version is to be published alongside an updated second edition of the New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (Dalzell and Victor 2012) now in preparation. The process of translating an established dictionary model to a digital environment is not without technical challenges but these are outweighed by new opportunities to gather and define previously unclassifiable items.
Highlights
Criteria for inclusionThis dictionary, at which I have worked harder than (I hope, but would not swear) I shall ever work again and which incorporates the results of a close observation of colloquial speech for many years, is designed to form a humble companion to the monumental Oxford English Dictionary from which I am proud to have learnt a very great amount. (Partridge 1937: Preface, November 11th 1936)
This article is a personal reflection on the pivotal role of Eric Partridge, how his personality and experience shaped his lexicography, and how the inherited ‘spirit’ of Partridge is invested in the new dictionaries that bear his name
Dictionary n. a book that lists the words of a language in alphabetical order and gives their meaning, or that gives the equivalent words in a different language[.] (Oxford American Dictionary)
Summary
This dictionary, at which I have worked harder than (I hope, but would not swear) I shall ever work again and which incorporates the results of a close observation of colloquial speech for many years, is designed to form a humble companion to the monumental Oxford English Dictionary from which I am proud to have learnt a very great amount. (Partridge 1937: Preface, November 11th 1936). It is generally accepted that Partridge, occasionally archaic in tone, is at his strongest while dealing with matters of which he had direct experience or contemporary interest: two World Wars, wine, women and song, as instances He was a man of his time, as described above, who clearly recognised the need to keep up to date, but postwar youth and its cultural preoccupations were not necessarily of interest to him and that is reflected in his coverage. We would enjoy the playfulness of the words in our lexicon and in the tradition (if not the socio-political context) of Eric Partridge we would wear our authorial hearts on our sleeves With these major strategies determined, we came to a realisation: this could no longer be a 9th edition. It would have to be the 1st edition of something fresh
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