It s hard to imagine today how someone with an extensive vocabulary could acquire it without the use of dictionaries; however, that is exactly what the ole Bard did. You see, English dictionaries in Elizabethan times simply did not exist. The English dictionary, the widely used list of words arranged in alphabetical order that many of us cherish and use every day, is really a modern invention in the English language.
As a Spanish to English translator dictionaries are my bread and butter and I can t imagine working without them anymore that I can imagine attempting to write a piece of Shakespearean prose without one.
Although lists of words had existed for centuries before Shakespeare, we know of bilingual lists of words between Latin and other languages that date back to the thirteenth century. These lists were meant to assist in the translation of Latin works into other languages and it was a great resource for English translators. But the idea of a dictionary which included the definition of the word in the same language had yet to taken root in early seventeenth century England.
By the beginning of the seventeenth century other countries were well under way to establish a fixed and formal structure for the languages, most notably France, Italy, Spain and Germany. Some of these countries even established institutions to maintain their linguistic heritage.
English was far behind and had no unified consensus on basic concepts as spelling or grammar. This presented a real challenge for a language that was becoming of age as England expanded its global reach. English was destined to become the international lingua franca, but to do so it needed to define the language in lexicographical terms.
In the mid seventeenth century, it became apparent to some that dictionaries could be a useful tool although early authors were only attempting to provide high vocabulary for the masses. Some of early works were lists of pompous words by several authors that did not include everyday words. For example, the author of the early dictionary, A Table Alphabeticall… of hard unusual English Word, described the purpose of his work for the benefit and help of ladies, gentlemen and any other unskilful persons .
Although these early initiatives produced seven major dictionaries, one of which had a total of close to forty thousand words, but they were lacking on one mayor front: None of these works even attempted to include all words in the language and create an “inventory” of words which would encompass the whole language.
In the new eighteenth century better efforts began to yield better publications. But it was not until the Great Cham came into the scene. Who was this Great Cham? No other and no less than the famous Samuel Johnson who revolutionized the English literary and lexicographical world by publishing the first systematic compilation English words as they appeared in literature. His work A Dictionary of the English Language became a major milestone and was the premier work of reference for the English language for almost 100 years.
The ultimate work of reference for the English language was undertaken in the mid nineteenth century, the famous hefty Oxford English Dictionary which took 70 years to compile… but that is another long story.
If you want to learn more about this, pick up a copy of The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester, it is a wonderful read about the history of the making of the Oxford English Dictionary.
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