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Dictionary-Makers
Dictionary-Makers
Do Dictionary-Makers ever make mistakes?
Everyone makes mistakes and lexicographers are no exception. Even now when most dictionaries are produced by large teams, errors ranging from typos to incorrect definitions can make their way in. After all dictionaries are big books that take a lot of work to write.
Samuel Johnson famously defined pastern as the knee of a horse (it is in fact a part of the horse’s foot) and when asked why, he is said to have replied ignorance, Madam, pure ignorance.
More recently, a famous mistake appeared in the 1934 Webster’s New International Dictionary, Second Edition, which included the word dord defined as a term in physics and chemistry meaning density. What had happened was that an editor had written on a definition slip D or d Physics & Chem. density meaning that either D (the uppercase letter) or d (the lowercase letter) could be used as an abbreviation for the word density. In the seven years it took to find and correct this mistake, it was copied into several other dictionaries.
Mistakes can also arise from omission—the editors of the First Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary decided to omit appendicitis and radium because they seemed likely to be short-lived terms!
Related Links:
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• Do you include words used on the Internet?
• Are Lexicographers good spellers?
• Are Dictionaries really necessary?
• Are dictionaries always in Alphabetical Order?
• What is a Dictionary?
• What are the Oxford Dictionary?
• Are other languages recorded in huge Multi-Volume Dictionaries?
• Do Dictionary-Makers ever make mistakes?
• What is the chronology of events relevant to the history of the OED?
• How can I access Dictionary Online?
• How do you decide What To Include in a dictionary?
• How do you decide If a New Word should go in an Oxford Dictionary?
• Will the Dictionary-Makers put MY NEW WORD into their dictionaries?
• How will be a Dictionary In 2050?
• How has Computer Technology affected dictionary-making?
• How do you know what a word means?
• Dictionaries have changed over the years. How?
• When will the Third Edition of the OED be published?
• What skills and talents does a Lexicographer need?
• How will The Revision affect the size of the OED?
