What is Dictionary ?

4. THE FIRST MERRIAM-WEBSTER DICTIONARY COST SIX DOLLARS.

After Webster died in 1843, George and Charles Merriam bought the rights to revise Webster's An American Dictionary of the English Language, Corrected and Enlarged.

Why remove the dictionary? After a parent told the principal of Oak Meadows Elementary School that the dictionary contained an explicit definition of a sex act, the school district decided to remove the books.

The two brothers printed and sold books in Springfield, Massachusetts, and their intellectual property purchase paid off. In the fall of 1847, the Merriams issued the first revised Webster dictionary for six dollars.

The book sold well, and the G. & C. Merriam Co. was eventually renamed Merriam-Webster, Inc. in 1982. Merriam-Webster continues to publish popular print and electronic dictionaries today.

A committee of teachers, administrators, and parents decided that the dictionary was age-appropriate, and the copies of Merriam-Webster were returned to the classroom. Here's hoping that parent never discovers Urban Dictionary!

5. IT TOOK ALMOST 50 YEARS TO CREATE THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY.

At first glance, the old dictionary seems outdated, and it might even look simple – you just have a bunch of words and their meaning. The truth, in all honesty, is much more complicated, and the amount of work it takes to create a dictionary is immense. Words are listed in alphabetical order so you can access words fast. This is a fact that everybody knows.

In 1857, the Philological Society of London first called for a comprehensive English language dictionary, including words from the 12th century to the present. In 1879, the Philological Society joined forces with Oxford University Press, and work commenced.

In 1884, Oxford University Press published the first part of the dictionary (A to Ant), and the final volume was published in 1928. Called A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, the dictionary listed more than 400,000 words and phrases. Today, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is one of the most respected and widely used dictionaries.

But there are many other secrets that the dictionary holds, which is the reason why I created this list, so you can learn to appreciate this dying creation more before it goes extinct from our bookshops. Without further ado, let me introduce you to some odd trivia about the mysterious and intricate art of dictionary-making.

6. J.R.R. TOLKIEN RESEARCHED WORD ETYMOLOGIES FOR THE OED.

The first thing you might not know is the fact that it takes a lot of work and time to add a new word into the database. This is because not all words are here to stay, and a possible new addition has to be used for a specific period and by a standard number of people before linguists decide it is time we introduced it in our official language.

After serving in World War I, J.R.R. Tolkien worked as an editor's assistant on the OED. His job was to research the etymologies of certain words that started with the letter w. Tolkien also composed multiple drafts of definitions for words such as waggle, walnut, walrus, and waistcoat.

You have to document its genesis and source, conduct database research, and put it into context – who uses it, why and when. After all that hard work is done, an editor committee will review it and decide if it is worthy of holding a place in the dictionary. Each publishing house that creates dictionaries has its own committee, that’s why you can find a word in some dictionaries while in others you can’t.

After his time at the OED, Tolkien went on to work as an English professor and write The Lord of the Rings. Subsequently, the OED has added terms that Tolkien himself coined, such as hobbit, mithril, and mathom.

Did you know that in the beginning, the Merriam-Webster dictionary, arguably the most famous one in the English language history, used to cost only six dollars? The two Merriam brothers acquired the rights to the preexisting Webster Dictionary and printed the book in Springfield, Massachusetts. It sold surprisingly well, which allowed them to publish many new editions. Now, it even branched out into the online environment.

7. SOMETIMES FAKE WORDS MAKE THEIR WAY INTO THE DICTIONARY.

Our third exciting fact is mindblowing. Everyone has heard of The Oxford Dictionary, but very few know that it took more than fifty years to create it. The Philological Society of London decided in 1857 that it was time to create an updated and comprehensive dictionary that included words from the 12th century until that point. They contracted the Oxford University Press for the task, and the years of work resulted in the most respected dictionary of all time.

Due to human error, a handful of fake words have appeared in dictionaries over the centuries. Some words, like phantomnation, which appeared in an 1864 edition of Webster's, are the result of missing hyphens.

Others are typographical errors. A 1934 edition of Webster’s New International Dictionary defined dord as density, the result of confusion over spacing.

Another peculiar thing is the fact that fake words make it into the final edit of a dictionary. This happens because of human errors and sometimes because tricksters feel the need to make jokes at a high level. Some words appear distorted because of spelling mistakes like missing hyphens, and they make it into the mainstream changing the words entirely into our collective minds. This shows that language is alive and not something rigid.

For the last fact, we have to go back to Noah Webster. He used to handwrite most of the entries in his dictionary, and he would only choose hard words as worthy of his creation. Moreover, he decided he wanted to be the first person to write an all American dictionary, with the American way of spelling and pronunciation of the English words.

Some dictionary editors have even intentionally included fake words, such as esquivalience in The New Oxford American Dictionary, to protect their copyright.

8. THE OED NEEDS YOUR HELP.