Definition:
The process of writing, editing, and/or compiling a dictionary.
An author or editor of a dictionary is called a lexicographer.
See also:
- Ambrose Bierce on Lexicographers
- Applied Linguistics
- Lexicographicolatry
- Lexicology
- Lexicon
- The Earliest English Dictionaries
- The Real "Webster's Dictionary"
- Introduction to Noah Webster
Etymology:
From the Greek, "word" + "write"Examples and Observations:
- "I am not yet so lost in lexicography, as to forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven."
(Samuel Johnson) - "LEXICOGRAPHER, n. A pestilent fellow who, under the pretense of recording some particular stage in the development of a language, does what he can to arrest its growth, stiffen its flexibility and mechanize its methods."
(Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, 1911) - "The beginnings of English lexicography go back to the Old English period . . .. The language of the Roman Church was Latin; its priests and monks needed to be competent in Latin in order to conduct services, and to read the Bible . . .. As English monks studied these Latin manuscripts, they would sometimes write the English translation above (or below) a Latin word in the text, to help their own learning, and as a guide to subsequent readers. These one-word translations, written between the lines of a manuscript, are called 'interlinear glosses'; they are seen as the beginnings of (bilingual) lexicography."
(Howard Jackson, Lexicography: An Introduction. Routledge, 2002) - "[Samuel] Johnson was not only innovative in his use of 114,000 citations to prove his definitions and the usage of words and connotations, he also noted the author who had first used a word or collocation and who had last used an obsolete word. He also took the liberty of adding prescriptive commentaries whenever there was doubt about usage."
(Piet Van van Sterkenburg, A Practical Guide to Lexicography. John Benjamins, 2003)
Pronunciation: LEK-si-KOG-ra-fee
