Frequently Asked Questions
Dictionaries
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, 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!
Other questions in this section: What is a dictionary?
What are people referring to when they talk about the 'Oxford Dictionary'?
Are dictionaries always in alphabetical order?
Are dictionaries really necessary?
Are lexicographers good spellers?
Are other languages besides English recorded in huge multi-volume dictionaries?
Do dictionary-makers ever make mistakes?
Do you include words used on the Internet?
How can I access OED Online?
How do you decide if a new word should go in an Oxford dictionary?
How do you decide what to include in a dictionary?
How do you know what a word means?
How has computer technology affected dictionary-making?
How have dictionaries changed over the years?
How will a dictionary look in 2050?
How will revision affect the size of the OED?
Is there an official committee which regulates the English language?
What skills and talents does a lexicographer need?
When will the Third Edition of the OED be published?
Will you put the word I have invented into the dictionary?
If, after browsing the FAQs, you still can't find the answer to your question then submit your query to the AskOxford Language Query team.
|
Printer Friendly Version
