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Abstract

The English dictionary has greatly evolved from Cawdrey in 1604, through Johnson to

the current online dictionary. The work first appeared in the year 1946, and it was recognized as

unique work of scholarship, with the author Gertrude Noyes and De Witt earning much praise

and gratitude from scholars in English language field. The idea of English dictionary came in

1852 when a list of 8000 words without definitions was printed by Richard Mulcaster. Oxford

English dictionary began in 1857 and improvements were made until 1992 when electronic

dictionary was made available. For nearly decades, scholars across the globe are still interested

in studying the process of making the dictionary and the role it plays in transmitting and

preserving knowledge.

Keywords: Dictionary, Cawdrey, Electronic.

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The History of English Dictionary

The first dictionary, The English Dictionary from Cawdrey to Johnson, 1604-1755,

appeared in 1946 and since then, a lot of studies have been done in order to understand the

process of making the dictionary and its role in transmitting and preserving knowledge. The idea

had been found in 1500s where the initial attempt to produce an English dictionary came, and the

first simple list with 8000 words without definitions, Mulcaster’s Elementarie, was published in

1852. The dictionary included features that were crucial during the lexical formation of English

language. There is no work that can be compared with the earlier modern times and the lexicon

of early stages of English have remained the same since then. The studies done before the

scholarly publications of Professor Noyes had mainly focused on specific bilingual English-Latin

dictionary.

The initial studies of bilingual dictionaries had been done before by Albert Way in the

year 1843. The work referred to as Promptorium Parvulorum Sive Clericorum was later revised

by A. Mayhew in 1908 (Stein 20). In 1867, the first English rhyming dictionary referred to as

Manipulus Vocabulorum was published by Henry Wheatley, and S. Herttage released the second

edition of bilingual English-Latin dictionary, the Catholicon Anglicum, in the year 1881. Some

of the major lists in the early stages compiled for the purpose of assessing dictionary publications

were done by Joseph Worcester in 1860 through publishing the Dictionary of the English

Language (Hartmann 219).

Manipulus Elementary was printed a century after William Caxton first took a printer to

England, and English spelling was not that consolidated then. The Elementarie was written as a
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pedagogical guide to make English language and culture popular, more respected, and easily

accessible. Not until 16th century, Latin was the main language spoken with many scholars

despising English language that it was only suitable for plays and books. Mulcaster wanted

English to be recognized by scholars for its vitality and richness. The list was however not

classified as English dictionary since there were no any definitions. At the time, no clear

understanding of how English dictionary would like. It was an attempt to organize English

language. Mulcaster, unable to print a compressive dictionary, wrote in Elemenatie: “It were a

thing verie praiseworthie in my opinion . . . if som one well learned and as laborious a man, wold

gather all the words which we use in our English tung . . . out of all professions, as well learned

as not, into one dictionarie, and besides the right writing . . . wold open to us therein, both their

naturall force and proper use”(Upward 296).

Robert Cawdrey published the first English Dictionary in 1604 titled Table Alhabetical.

This first single-language dictionary had a list of 3000 words each with brief definition. Many of

the words in the list were derived from ancient languages such as Greek, Hebrew, French or

Latin. Cawdrey created the dictionary because he wanted to organize English language and help

people better understand difficult words. He wrote: “Ladies, gentlewomen, or any other

unskilfull persons. Whereby they may more easily and better understand many hard English

wordes, which they shall heare or read in the Scriptures, Sermons, or elsewhere, and also be

made able to vse the same aptly themselues “(Shapiro 17). Cawdrey was optimist that his

dictionary will spread knowledge help people especially most girls who were not attending

schools to learn writing and reading skills. The definitions in his dictionary were easy to

understand.
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Thomas Blount’s made an improvement to Cawdrey’s dictionary and published his

Glossographia in 1656. The dictionary had about 11,000 words with their definitions. Blount

explained words that he derived from Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Saxon, Turkish, Spanish, and

French. He also defined special words used in technical fields such as anatomy, mathematics,

and architecture. Unlike Cawdrey and Mulcaster, Blount provided more information to words,

including their origins. Glossographia became the first monolingual dictionary to state and

explain the origins of words. During this period, many dictionaries were being written and

dictionary authors were trying many techniques to make their dictionaries relevant (Millward

235).

In 1730, Nathan Bailey came up with the largest dictionary containing 48,000 words. The

Bailey’s dictionary, Dictionarium britannicum, was became very popular because it was

comprehensive than other dictionaries at the time. Bailey’s dictionary covered across many

fields. He included both complex and technical words in his dictionary, adding names of people

and places in Britain. Bailey intended his dictionary to be used by people across many fields, as

he wrote in the preface: “...as well for the Entertainment of the Curious, as the Information of the

Ignorant, and for the Benefit of young Students, Artificers, Tradesmen and Foreigners, who are

desirous thorowly to understand what they Speak, Read, or Write ” (Kerling 212). Bailey used

other techniques to make his dictionary more useful. He added slang, dialect, and taboo words.

Samuel Johnson transformed the process of making dictionary. In 1755, he published

Dictionary of the English Language, which gained popularity and became one of the most

famous dictionaries of all time. Johnson’s dictionary took at six workers about 8 years to compile

and list 40,000 words. Each word contained detailed definition, and illustration across all fields

of learning. Dictionary of the English Language became the best achievement by scholars
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because it was more comprehensive and extensive than its predecessors. The dictionary had

approximately 114,000 quotations, and Johnson became the first lexicographer to apply citations

in his work (Hartmann 221).

Francis Grose’s published a dictionary of slang words in 1785 named Classical

Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Grose compiled slang words spoken in many societies. The

making of the dictionary involved Grose with his assistant, Tom Cocking, walking at night in the

streets of London, collecting slang words in drinking dens and slams, and adding them to the

collection (Kerling 215).

The two other dictionaries published included Alisopp’s Caribbean Dictionary, and

Rosten’s Joys of Yiddish. The Alisopp’s Caribbean Dictionary was compiled and published by

Richard Allisopp in the year 1996. It has a rich variety of words spoken by many communities

scattered across one million square miles. The Rosten’s Joys of Yiddish, published in 1968 by

Rosten, represents variety of languages spoken across the world. The dictionary has Yiddish

words that have been included in the English dictionary.

Oxford dictionary was established in 1879 after a decision by the Philological Society of

London called for a new English Dictionary in 1957. The society felt that the current dictionaries

at that time were incomplete and were not efficient. It made a mutual agreement with James

Murray and Oxford University Press to start working on the first Oxford dictionary, New English

Dictionary. The dictionary would include all English vocabulary from 1150AD, and other words

that were used later. The project was estimated to be 6,400 pages, written in four volumes, and

would take 10 years. However, the the language kept evolving and it took Murray and his team

longer time to publish the first part, which was done in 1884. The work kept increasing and

many people joined the team, which was led by himself, W.A Craigie, Henry Bradley, and C.T.
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Onions. Finally, the last volume was published in 1928, having over 400,000 words and phrases

in ten volumes instead of four volumes that were projected, with a different new name, A New

English Dictionary on Historiccal Principles. Sadly, it was unfortunate that the team leader,

James Murray, who had devoted his life for the making of the dictionary, did not live to see the

completion of his work when he died in 1915. The English language kept on evolving and after

few years of the first Oxford dictionary had been published, Onions and Graigie began the

process of updating it. They published one volume Supplement to the dictionary in 1933.

Reprinting of the first edition into twelve volumes was taking on at that same time, and was

given a new name, the Oxford English Dictionary. Numerous changes were made after the

appointment of Robert Burchfield as Editor 1957. He made some changes to the Supplement of

1933 by adding new information collected over years. The language was monitored closely and

new words from Australia, South Africa, North America, New Zealand, Caribbean, and South

Asia were added. The new Supplement edition substantially became longer than its predecessor

of 1933 edition, and it was published between 1972 and 1986 in four volumes. There are two

forms of dictionaries; monolingual and bilingual. Monolingual dictionary explains the definitions

of words in one language, while bilingual gives an explanation or translation in a different

language. Such dictionaries include American and British dictionaries. They differ in terms of

spelling and pronunciations of some words (Béjoint & Henri).

In 1982, when Robert Burchfield’s project was nearing completion, the Oxford

University Press embarked on a journey of making the dictionary modern. They would later

agree to update all compiling entries and transfer them from paper to electronic medium. The

team formed to work on the project published an integrated print edition with full electronic text

in 1989. The electronic text was to form a basis for future extension and revision. In 1992, CD-
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ROM edition of the dictionary was published, and this was the one of the greatest achievements

ever made by Oxford editors (Jucker 1).

Today, electronic dictionaries are widely used in homes, schools, and even at work

places. They are convenient than printed dictionaries. A person can use quick search feature to

locate the word and its definitions easily. Electronic dictionaries can pronounce words correctly,

and provide examples on how the word is used in a sentence. Some electronic dictionaries have

history feature where searched words are stored, helping a person to remember previous difficult

words. Electronic dictionaries are portable, and can be carried easily by anyone with a personal

computer. The disadvantages of electronic dictionaries are; people tend to rely so much on

electronic dictionaries and some do not put any effort to learn new words and expressions

included in print dictionaries. Some definitions in electronic dictionaries lack credibility because

they may be inaccurate or incomplete. Electronic dictionaries can impact pedagogy and linguistic

changes in a positive way. Correct spelling and pronunciation of different words can be

mastered. Electronic dictionaries have large spaces and can allow storage of many words with

their meaning.
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Work Cited

Béjoint, Henri. The lexicography of English. Vol. 318. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Hartmann, R. R. K., & James, G. (2002). Dictionary of lexicography. Routledge.

Kerling, Johan. "Nathan Bailey: An Universal Etymological English Dictionary (1721)."

Chaucer in Early English Dictionaries. Springer, Dordrecht, 1979. 212-232.

Micklethwait, David. Noah Webster and the American dictionary. McFarland, 2005.

Millward, Celia M., and Mary Hayes. A biography of the English language. Nelson Education,

2011.

Reddick, Allen, and Samuel Johnson. The Making of Johnson's Dictionary 1746-1773.

Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Starnes, DeWitt Talmage, and Gertrude Elizabeth Noyes. The English Dictionary from Cawdrey

to Johnson, 1604-1755. Vol. 57. John Benjamins Publishing, 1991.

Stein, Gabriele. "The Catholicon Anglicum (1483): A Reconsideration." Nordic Journal of

English Studies 3.1 (2004): 109-124.

Upward, Christopher, and George Davidson. The history of English spelling. Vol. 26. John

Wiley & Sons, 2011.

Jucker, A. H. (1994). New dimensions in vocabulary studies: review article of the Oxford

English Dictionary on CD-ROM. Literary and Linguistic Computing, 9(2), 149-154.

Shapiro, Rebecca. “Historical Thesaurus of the OED.” Age of Johnson (2015): n. pag. Print.