Lexicographer, n. A pestilent fellow who, under the pretense of recording some particular stage in the development of a language, does what he can to arrest its growth, stiffen its flexibility and mechanize its methods. For your lexicographer, having written his dictionary, comes to be considered “as one having authority,” whereas his function is only […]
Dictionary Quotes
Dictionary, n. A malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic. This (my) dictionary, however, is a most useful work.
It is often forgotten that (dictionaries) are artificial repositories, put together well after the languages they define. The roots of language are irrational and of a magical nature.
Adams: But Sir, how can you do this in three years? Johnson: Sir, I have no doubt I can do it in three years. Adams: But the French Academy, which consists of forty members, took forty years to compile their dictionary. Johnson: Sir, thus it is. This is the proportion. Let me see; forty times […]
In three moments a laborer will remove an obstructing rock, but three moons will pass without two wise men agreeing on the meaning of a single vowel.
At painful times, when composition is impossible and reading is not enough, grammars and dictionaries are excellent for distraction.
A Definition is the enclosing a wilderness of idea within a wall of words.
Do you ever open the dictionary right to the page you want? Doesn’t that feel good?
Had Johnson left us nothing but his Dictionary, we might have traced there a great intellect, a genuine man.
Every definition is dangerous.
