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What Does It Take to Write a New English Etymological Dictionary Today?

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What Does It Take to Write a New English Etymological Dictionary Today? What does it take to write a new English etymological dictionary today? English etymological lexicography had English words, but he, too, left his mark two peaks: the 4th edition of Skeat’s only in a handful of entries. The dilemma dictionary (Skeat 1910) and etymological that Scott and Wyld faced is familiar: comments in those fascicles of the OED both were imaginative scholars, but they that James A. H. Murray and Henry dealt with thousands of words about Bradley edited. Of the other authors, which they had nothing new to say; Ernest Weekley (1921) deserves a hence mistakes, gaps in the presentation, Anatoly Liberman was born mention, though his forte was borrowings and absurdities, as Weekley, himself an (1937) and educated in Russia, inhabitant of a glass house, called them. received his PhD (1965) at proper names. The rest is based on Skeat The time has come to stop producing and the OED. Weekley’s failure is typical: commercial etymological dictionaries Leningrad University, and is of English. Those who need some Doctor of Philological Sciences new treatment of several hundred words, basic information on the origin of (French-German Habilitation, but a full-scale etymological dictionary 1972) from the Academy of requires a superhuman effort, for who “shorter” Oxford dictionaries, Webster, Sciences of the USSR. In 1975 can delve into and re-evaluate the history the Heritage, and The Random House he moved to the USA, and has of the entire vocabulary of English? Dictionary, to mention a few. Specialists since been teaching Germanic All the post-Weekley dictionaries are will continue using the OED, Skeat, Wyld, Philology at the University of derivative: published only to be sold, the dictionaries of other languages (to the they recycle the same hypotheses and extent that, while examining cognates, Minnesota. His main areas of add nothing to what can be found they feature English vocabulary), and specialization are general and elsewhere. The Oxford Dictionary of occasional publications. The main historical phonology (with English Etymology ([ODEE], 1965; difference between the fourth edition of strong emphasis on Germanic), numerous reprints) presents the material Skeat and the dictionaries of Sanskrit, etymology, medieval literature, from the OED in a condensed form Latin, etc, referred to in the opening folklore, history of linguistics, but shows almost no traces of original paragraph of this essay is obvious: those poetic translation, and research. As a result, contemporary discuss the scholarly literature on every poetry. Professor Liberman English etymological dictionaries are at word, whereas Skeat cited the opinions of the level reached a hundred years ago; his predecessors rarely, only when he saw has published extensively they cannot even be compared with (nearly 500 articles), his the best samples of Sanskrit, Classical he took to be the best solutions, rather main books on language Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, issues include Islandskaia Gothic, German, Dutch, Old Icelandic, how closely he followed the philological Prosodika [Icelandic Prosody] Lithuanian, and Slavic lexicography. journals published abroad (his German (Leningrad, 1971, in Russian), Students of Ossetic and Sorbian [sic] are and Scandinavian colleagues constantly Germanic Accentology, Vol. better off in this respect than those who pointed to his lack of familiarity with 1 (Minneapolis, 1982), Word study English, despite the fact that no their work) and whether in his old age other Indo-European language has been he was as avid a reader of linguistic Heath (Rome, 1994), and Word investigated so thoroughly, one may say literature as in his youth. The editors Origins… And How We Know with such excessive zeal. of the OED made every effort to keep Them (Oxford, 2005). He is Detailed comments on etymology abreast of the times, but etymology the editor of Stefán Einarsson’s also occur in our “thick” dictionaries, constituted a small (though important) selected writings, and editor two of which are outstanding in this part of their work. Murray’s policy and translator into English of respect: The Century Dictionary and was to say “origin unknown” when no the works by N.S. Trubetzkoy Wyld (1932). Charles P. G. Scott, the reasonable etymology of a word existed. and Vladimir Propp. author of the etymologies in The Century And quite naturally, “thick” dictionaries, Dictionary, summarized everything that with the sole exception of Wyld, never [email protected] had been known about the origin of give references to the literature (Wyld’s English words and added the Germanic references are also sporadic and vague: and the Indo-European perspective to “As Kluge suggests” and the like). his explanations. He relied on the third By contrast, the authors of the Greek, edition of Skeat (which was no more than Latin, Gothic, and other etymological dictionaries list numerous hypotheses and consider their merits and demerits. in several “concise” versions of his opus When they say “origin unknown,” we magnum and in the fourth edition) and the early fascicles of the OED. Wyld, the efforts of so many researchers and an outstanding language historian, had what data are missing for formulating many non-trivial ideas on the origin of we are told that the word has attracted no one’s attention (consequently, if we German comparativists. In England and want to discover its history, we must the United States, such names will not begin the work from scratch). But, and th century this is an especially important point, we etymology remained a German discipline. come away with a full bibliography of Later de Saussure and Meillet contributed the question and can pick up where our to its glory, but Germanic was not at the predecessors left off. Such dictionaries center of their interests (a mere dialect can be called encyclopedic, or analytic, within Indo-European). Benveniste in contradistinction to the dogmatic continued the same tradition. format Skeat and his successors chose. It is thus not fortuitous that the ODEE English etymological dictionaries have appeared only in 1965 and did not go not always been dogmatic. 17th and 18th beyond the partly outdated information century authors listed (and accepted or amassed by its model. While English Dizionario PASSPORT refuted) the ideas of their predecessors etymological lexicography remained Junior because what at that time passed for dormant (popularization can be ignored), etymological research did not rely on articles and books on the origin of Inglese-Italiano • Italiano- strict procedures. Students of antiquities English words kept appearing in a steady Inglese sought for look-alikes in Hebrew, Greek, stream. Dictionary makers sometimes including CD-ROM Latin, Old English, Irish, or Dutch, reproduced the latest proposals with ELI depending on their predilections, and undue deference (a classic case is the Loreto, Italy derived English words from the words treatment of boy in the post-OED era: September 2005 of those languages. Occasionally their the word was said to be of French 644 pages, 215 x 155 mm. derivations proved to be right, but in origin), but, as a rule, such proposals did ISBN 88-536-0283-X the absence of method everybody’s not make a stir, for authorities of Skeat’s suggestion seemed to be worthy of at and Murray’s caliber were no longer in Price: 19.90 EUR least some respect. A modern user of view. The golden age of etymology had http://elionline.com our oldest etymological dictionaries receded into the past. At the same time http://kdictionaries.com/ historical linguistics lost its prestige. products/junior/ppit.html invaluable surveys of the oldest views The epoch of structuralism set in, fewer and forms an idea of how knowledge and fewer students were trained in the From the series developed. For a historian of science, old periods of the Germanic languages, KERNERMAN SEMI- the way to the truth is no less interesting and those who were soon realized BILINGUAL DICTIONARIES than the truth itself. Then comparative that departments of English, let alone linguistics came into its own, and sound linguistics, did not vie for the honor laws were discovered. Guesswork gave of hiring them. The shrinking demand way to the science of etymology. The nearly killed the source of supply. limitations of this science became clear Fortunately, the public knew nothing much later, but the core of comparative of those developments and kept asking linguistics withstood all attacks, even where words come from. An army of though nowadays it is more customary well-meaning journalists catered to their to refer to sound correspondences rather curiosity, but they had neither the time nor than sound laws. Polemic continued the expertise for independent research. to rage in journals, while dictionaries They, too, recycled the OED. Most included what was certain and left out “thick” dictionaries keep an etymologist the controversial parts. on their staff or hire consultants. Their The pendulum swung in the opposite contribution to “revised and enlarged” direction only in the 20th century. By editions cannot make up for the absence of a full-scale analytic dictionary of relevant literature. Even in Germany English etymology. However much the one could not be sure that a proposed press may pay its consultants, they won’t etymology had not been offered earlier. be able to explain the origin of bird, Scholars realized a need for digests, and Cockney, dwarf, god, man, wife, etc, by analytic dictionaries appeared. I can think the deadline. Whether they will be able to do so later is beyond the scope of the on English studies. First, the OED was present discussion. such an incomparable achievement that About twenty years ago, I embarked further work in etymology did not seem on writing an analytic etymological to be necessary. Oxford University Press dictionary of English. At the moment, we launched several successful abridgments do not have even the smallest clearing of the OED and became the capital of house of suggestions on the origin of English lexicography, with a perennial English words.
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