Page 180 - Encyclopedia Of World History

530 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

Johnson’s Definitions

One of the most famous biographies in English is
The Life of Samuel Johnson, the story of the great,
and eccentric, man of letters who created the first pearing in 1928. Since that time there have been several
English language dictionary. Here are some of the supplements with a twenty-volume, second edition
more surprising and humorous of his definitions. being published in 1989. Today, it is available online
and in CD-ROM, which allows quarterly updating,
Tory: One who adheres to the ancient constitu-
including at least 1,000 new and revised entries. With
tion or the state and the apostolical hierarchy of
its precise definitions, illustrative quotations, variant
the church or England, opposed to a whig.
spellings, and comprehensive etymologies, the OED is
Whig: The name of a faction.
an indispensable tool for the study of English.
Pension: An allowance made to any one without
an equivalent. In England it is generally under- Encyclopedias
stood to mean pay given to a state hireling for The Romans laid the foundation of the written encyclo-
treason to his country. pedia. The Praecepta ad Filium (184 BCE) by the famed
Oats: A grain which in England is generally given Roman orator Marcus Terentius Cato (Cato the Elder) is
to horses, but in Scotland supports the people. considered the first extant written encyclopedia. Taking
the form of letters to his son, the Praecepta is known to
Excise: A hateful tax levied upon commodities,
have included sections on “agriculture, medicine, rhetoric
and adjudged not by the common judges of
and possibly law and warfare” (Collison 1964, 23).
property, but wretches hired by those to whom
Other similar works exist, but two particularly, stand out.
excise is paid.
Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BCE) was an extraordi-
Let it, however, be remembered, that this indul- nary scholar credited with seventy-four separate works in
gence does not display itself only in sarcasm 620 volumes. His Disciplinarum Libri Novem devoted
towards others, but sometimes in playful allusion individual volumes to each of the seven liberal arts, as
to the notions commonly entertained of his own well as medicine and architecture, and foreshadowed the
laborious task.Thus: “Grub-street, the name of a trivium (“the three roads”: grammar, rhetoric, and dialec-
street in London, much inhabited by writers of tic) and quadrivium (“the four roads”: mathematics,
small histories, dictionaries, and temporary geometry, astronomy, and music) of later medieval edu-
poems; whence any mean production is called cation. Pliny the Elder’s Historia Naturalis (77 CE) con-
Grub-street.”—“Lexicographer, a writer of dic- sisted of thirty-seven books covering topics as diverse as
tionaries, a harmless drudge.” metallurgy and the fine arts. In addition he was one of the
Source: Boswell, J. (1755). The life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. Retrieved 28 July first to cite his sources, and his work influenced encyclo-
2004, from http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/b/b74l/chap18.html
pedia making up to the Renaissance.

Eastern Traditions
name Merriam-Webster is still one of the most respected The encyclopedia tradition is as rich in China, as in the
in dictionary publishing. West. Although early Chinese encyclopedias also use
The greatest of all English dictionaries is undoubtedly classified arrangements, they are usually collections of sig-
the fabled Oxford English Dictionary. The OED, as it is nificant prior works, with dictionary elements. From the
often referred to, was conceived as a recorder of actual beginning these works were motivated by the need to edu-
historic usage, not as a standard, dictating proper En- cate civil administrators. The first Chinese encyclopedia
glish (Landau 1989). Under the editorship of the bril- appeared around 220 CE. It was entitled Huang Ian and
liant, if eccentric, James Murray, the first volume of the was compiled by order of the emperor. Other early Chi-
OED was published in 1884, with the final volume ap- nese encyclopedias included the Ch’u Hsüeh chi (700 CE)