General explanations (continued)

part 5 of 5

Main words (continued)

IV. The quotations illustrate the forms and uses of the word, showing the age of the word generally, and of its various senses particularly; the earliest and, in obsolete words or senses, the latest, known instances of its occurrence being always quoted. Except in special cases, where the letters of the Greek alphabet, , , , etc. are used to separate parallel forms, the illustration of the forms is subordinated to that of the senses: the quotations illustrating each sense immediately follow the explanation. They are arranged chronologically so as to give about one for each century, though various considerations often render a larger number necessary. The original spelling is retained, as an essential part of the history of the language. But merely graphical or typographical devices, such as contractions, erratic presence of capitals, and (in seventeenth-century books) employment of italics to emphasize words, phrases, or whole passages, are not reproduced; and simple blunders, which would mislead the reader, are tacitly corrected. The recent use of italics, to indicate a doubt about the status of a word, is retained as being often of historical importance.

As to letter, the Old and Middle English 'thorn' ( = th) and Old English 'divided d' or 'edh' (; usually only a variant of '', though sometimes distinguished) are retained; also ME 'open-tailed g', or 'yogh' ( = y initially, gh finally). In Old English, the letter g had the form ', ' (a peculiar British development of the Roman G). Besides the original sound in go, gild, this letter had also (at least in later Old English) a fricative sound as in Dutch dag, or Irish lough (or both), and a palatalized sound, approximately = y in ye, yes. After the Norman Conquest the modern forms 'g, g' were introduced (from French) for the sound in go, and the new sound in ginger; but the OE. form (in process of time slightly modified) was retained for the sounds in lough, yes, till the introduction of printing. In printing Old English modern scholars sometimes reproduce the contemporary ', ' (as is done by Sievers, in his Angel-sachsische Grammatik), but more commonly substitute modern 'g, g'. The adoption of either course exclusively in this work would have broken the historical continuity of the forms; in the one case, we should have had the same word appearing in the eleventh century as 'old', and in the twelfth century as 'gold'; in the other, the same word written in the eleventh century 'ge' and in twelfth century 'e'. To avoid this, both forms are here used in Old English, in accordance with the Middle English distinction in their use; thus, 'gold', 'e', 'dæ'. The reader will understand that 'g' and '' represent the same Old English letter, and that the distinction made between them is purely editorial (though certainly corresponding to a distinction of sound in OE.). For ME. the form '' commonly used in reprints is employed, so that OE. 'e' becomes ME. 'e', modern 'ye'; OE. 'eno', 'enoh', ME. 'yno, inou', mod. 'enough'.

It is to be distinctly borne in mind that the quotations are not merely examples of the fully developed use of the word or special sense under which they are cited: they have also to illustrate its origin, its gradual separation from allied words or senses, or even, by negative evidence, its non-existence at the given date. It would often have been desirable to annotate the quotations, explaining the purpose for which they are adduced; but the exigencies of space render this impossible, and they are therefore left to speak for themselves. Some help has been offered by enclosing within [...] quotations given for what may be called subsidiary purposes.

The need to keep the Dictionary within practicable limits has also rendered it necessary to give only a minimum of quotations selected from the material available, and to make those given as brief as possible. It is to be observed that in their abridged form they simply illustrate the word, phrase, or construction, for which they are given, and do not necessarily express the sentiments of their authors, though in no case have they been intentionally curtailed in such a way as to misrepresent their original meaning. This, however, may always be ascertained, and the full context recovered, by help of the exact reference to author, work, and passage, which it is a special feature of this work to give. Here also the utmost conciseness has been indispensable; the exact date renders the surnames only of authors in many cases sufficient; the titles of books are so abbreviated as to be recognizable by those who know them, or to be adequate for the purpose of reference to a library or bibliographical catalogue. The reader is referred to the List of Abbreviations for the expansion of those most commonly used in citing book titles; details of many of the works cited may be found in the Select Bibliography at the end of the Dictionary.

In order to allow consistent reference to cited works, an approximately uniform value has been given to different forms of numerals. Thus, in all works, roman capitals (IV.) stand for volume; small capitals (IV.) for book, part, or other larger division; lower-case letters (iv.) for chapter or its equivalent; and arabic numerals (42/1) for page and, where relevant, column. Other divisions, as marginal section - the most useful of references, since it is not dependent on the paging of a particular edition - are indicated by special marks. In the Essayists of the eighteenth century (Spectator, etc.), of which the editions are innumerable, the reference is to the paragraphs of each essay or number, counted for this purpose. In poetry, the reference IV. iv. 42 means act, scene, line; or canto, stanza, line, (rarely book, canto, stanza), as the work may be divided. In Shakespeare (where the reading is that of the First Folio, 1623) the lines of the Globe edition are referred to. In dramatic works, or other long poems, of which the lines are not numbered, the arabic numerals mean the page of the edition quoted. Single poems are, whenever possible, cited by name and line; in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, every edition of which has its own order and numbering, the only useful mode of reference was to number the lines of each piece, tale, or prologue, separately. As neither manuscripts nor editions agree as to the junction of the Canon's Yeoman's Prologue and Tale, the two have been reckoned as one piece. Melibeus and the Parson's Tale are referred to by the versicles as divided in the Six-text edition, but numbered separately. In many works, both prose and verse, the only available reference has been to the volume and page of a specified edition, which is thus indicated, 'Wks. 1802, III. 178'.

Whenever practicable, a work is dated and quoted from its first edition: if the reference is to a later edition (as has been often unavoidable), the date of this is added (within parentheses) to the reference.[5] It is necessary to be precise on this point, for later editions often change the spelling: hence, a quotation from them is valid for the use of the word, but not for its spelling, at the date assigned. In the first edition of this Dictionary, reasonable accuracy was attained in dates and references: in the former, absolute accuracy was in many cases impossible, and, for the purposes of this work, was not considered essential; in the latter, errors were inevitable in the work of so many years and so many readers.

The policy governing the supplementary quotations added to this edition is more rigorous with regard to the dating and verification of quotations; the bibliographical conventions stated here may stand for the ideal principles of the Dictionary as a whole. Quotations are normally taken from the earliest available printing of a work; where a later text has been used its date is given in parentheses after the title. Intentional exceptions can be found in often-quoted works whose first editions are rare; fuller details are shown in the Bibliography. Unverified quotations from secondary sources have an attribution in parentheses after the citation (e.g. Morris, Pettman, etc.).

The bold-face date is the date of first printing except for posthumous works. It is sometimes qualified by c (circa) or a (ante = before, not later than). The date of delivery of a lecture or production of a play is not normally accepted: the spoken word is dated by its first appearance in print. The date of composition is accepted, however, for dated letters, journals, and the like (of those which have not been written up for publication), but only exceptionally in other cases and only when there is good evidence for the date. Items in collections (e.g. of short stories) which were published earlier elsewhere are given this earlier date when it is known. It should be noted that these criteria are more severe and produce more conservative datings than those of many other reference works.

Author and title. This part of the citations is used first to identify the user of the quoted word, and secondly to identify the work from which a quotation is taken. Usually there is no conflict, but where there is the identification of the work takes precedence. Monographs are cited either by author and title or by title alone. Corporate authorship is not recognized: the names of institutions, business firms, etc., are not used in place of a personal name, but are added in parentheses at the end of titles. Periodicals and serials are cited by title (usually in abbreviated form); the authors of articles in periodicals are not usually named unless the quotation contains the first use of a word. The information given should be enough to identify the work, but occasionally it is not possible to give an unambiguous indication in the space available; in these cases the Bibliography gives a fuller account.

Form of name. Some frequently quoted authors are cited by surname alone; for most others the title-page of each work is the main authority, with deviations to allow for the standardization of initials where an author's own practice varies or for the purpose of avoiding ambiguity. Pseudonyms are indicated by single quotation marks (except that a few well-known pseudonyms like Geo. Eliot stand without the quotation marks), and authors who have changed their names are cited by the appropriate name for each work. Anonymous works are cited by title, but by author where the authorship has been established and is recognized in common practice. Small capitals usually denote the author of the quotation. The name of an editor of a work, who is not also the author of the actual quotation given, is normally printed in lower case. But quotations from many composite works have been attributed to the editors alone. Illustrative examples embodying typical recent usage of a word or sense, but not attributable to any exterior source, are introduced by the abbreviation 'Mod', preceded, where necessary, by a date, which is that of the fascicle of the first edition in which they were first printed.

5. In the case of some well-known and often-quoted works, where the reference is always to a standard edition or modern literal reprint, it was not thought necessary by the first edition's editors to insert the date of it. Owing to the continual growth of literary and historical scholarship during and after their time, many of these are now no longer the most recent standard edition. [return]

part 5 of 5