One of the frustrations of working in a reference library is the wish of enquirers to know the exact meaning of a word or its proper use when such precision is not possible. As Elizabeth Knowles demonstrates clearly in this book, language is not fixed; it is an evolutionary process, with words constantly changing their meanings, associations, and other characteristics.
Knowles is a “historical lexicographer” having worked as a library researcher for the Oxford English Dictionary Supplement, a senior editor for the fourth edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (RR 2008/353), and editor of the seventh edition of Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (RR 2010/154). Here she has written a “how to” guide on how to approach a word or phrase, identifying both the questions you can ask and how to answer them. Although this pocket‐sized book is not a reference book per se, it is a guide to using that major category of reference books: dictionaries. Which ones? What for? How? Why? This is no academic or technical treatise, but a down‐to‐earth and clear guide to the world of dictionaries written by one who compiles them.
Encountering an unfamiliar word or phrase, or noticing for the first time some aspect of a known word, is a provocation to find out more. We might want to know what a word means or where it comes from. We might wonder what other meanings it has had in the past or how it is pronounced and if there more than one way of saying it. Does it have particular social, cultural, or historical associations? Does it originate in a particular local dialect? As the author comments, “(T)here has probably never been a time when someone who wished to explore words has had such rich resources to hand”.
The first half of the book features seven short chapters introducing the reader to dictionaries, the elements that go to make up a dictionary, and how best to use the various types. Using a large number of examples Knowles considers the everlasting quest for the ultimate dictionary authority: Webster's New International? Funk and Wagnell's New Standard? or the New Century Dictionary? Amusingly, she charts the developing story of George W. Bush's misuse of the word “Strategery”. The divide between historical and current dictionaries is well made. What did the word mean in Jane Austen's time? What does it mean today? New Words are born, such as “staycation”; others are reborn such as “redaction”, used in the recent British MP's expenses scandal. What did The Times newspaper mean when it claimed that Michael Martin was the first Speaker of the House of Commons to be “redacted”? And should it be allowed?
A separate chapter looks at the elements that go to make up a dictionary and problems encountered in using them. Spelling, origins and meanings are all considered. I see my pet dislike of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) puts me on the side of US practice of using alternative spellings. We are advised of what questions to ask and then shown “beyond the dictionary” to online “corpora” such as the British National Corpus and the Time Magazine Corpus (both with one hundred million words) and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (with a mere four hundred million words!). Looking further afield there are regional and dialect dictionaries such as the English Dialect Dictionary and DARE (Dictionary of American Regional English) and, of course, other online sources such as Wikipedia and Google's “define” function.
In Chapter 8 the author takes us on a tour to find the origin of the word “satsuma”, and in so doing shows how much of her foregoing exposition is called into play: a detailed illustrated example. Throughout the book there are a number of boxed examples of key words and also facsimiles of pages from various dictionaries to illustrate specific points. Unsurprisingly, the publisher's own dictionaries are well represented!
There are several useful appendixes: Pathways to English is a brief history of the English language from the Celtic and Old English noting foreign borrowings. The Overview of Dictionary History is particularly useful for understanding the place of such pioneers as Samuel Johnson, Noah Webster, the OED and regional variants such as the Scottish National Dictionary and the Dictionary of American English on Historical Principles. Where to Look– A Selection of Online Resources is a “must read” for library staff prior to bookmarking useful sources: 23 sites are noted including wiktionary, word sites and “corpora”, all with excellent annotations. Key Tips for Searching gives the student nine steps from Be Aware of What is Available to Formulate the Question Clearly. There is a brief Glossary of terms used around dictionaries such as homophone and lemma. The Endnotes section is a generously annotated bibliography. There are two indexes, one for subjects and the second for words featured.
For anyone interested in dictionaries, and in getting the best out of them, this is an excellent little text: ideal for library and information science students and novices at the enquiry desk.
