TITLE: The Word Came First
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: July 30, 2015 2:45 PM
DESC:
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BODY:
James Somers's article
You're Probably Using the Wrong Dictionary
describes well how a good dictionary can change your life.
In comparing a definition from
Webster's 1913 Revised Unabridged Dictionary
with a definition from the New Oxford Dictionary, which he
offers as an exemplar of the pedestrian dictionaries we use
today, he reminds us that words are elusive and their
definitions only approximations:
Notice, too, how much less certain the Webster definition
seems about itself, even though it's more complete -- as
if to remind you that the word came first, that the word
isn't defined by its definition here, in this humble
dictionary, that definitions grasp, tentatively, at words,
but that what words really are is this haze and halo of
associations and evocations, a little networked cloud of
uses and contexts.
Such poetry is not wasted on words; it is not, too use his
own example from the essay,
fustian.
Words deserve this beauty, and a good dictionary.
There is also a more general reminder just beneath the surface
here. In so many ways, more knowledge makes us less certain,
not more, and more circumspect, not less. It is hard to make
sharp distinctions within a complex web of ideas when you know
a little about the web.
I strongly second Somers's recommendation of John McPhee's work,
which I
blogged about indirectly
a few years ago. I also strongly second his recommendation of
Webster's 1913 Revised Unabridged Dictionary. I learned about
it from another blog article years ago and have been using it
ever since. It's one of the first things I install whenever I
set up a new computer.
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