Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun One who writes, compiles, or edits a dictionary.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A compiler of a lexicon or dictionary; one employed in the making of a vocabulary or wordbook of a language, and giving definitions, with or without other explanatory matter, in the same or another language.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The author or compiler of a lexicon or dictionary.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun one who writes or compiles a
dictionary
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a compiler or writer of a dictionary; a student of the lexical component of language
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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We now know that the duty of the lexicographer is to record and not to criticize, that refined speech and elegant speech are the delusions of a mistaken optimism, and that the only people who now speak English with any approach to historical correctness are the few surviving agricultural laborers who are old enough to have escaped the devastating effects of the Elementary Education Act. Johnson's Dictionary went far to accomplish, in the eighteenth century, what the Italian and French Academies had unsuccessfully attempted in the seventeenth.
On Dictionaries 1969
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We now know that the duty of the lexicographer is to record and not to criticize, that refined speech and elegant speech are the delusions of a mistaken optimism, and that the only people who now speak English with any approach to historical correctness are the few surviving agricultural laborers who are old enough to have escaped the devastating effects of the Elementary Education Act. Johnson's Dictionary went far to accomplish, in the eighteenth century, what the Italian and French Academies had unsuccessfully attempted in the seventeenth.
On Dictionaries 1924
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If you know the word lexicographer, there’s a better-than-even chance you also know Samuel Johnson’s self-mocking definition of it: “a writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Guestblogging Dictionary Myths (Pt 4): 2007
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If you know the word lexicographer, there’s a better-than-even chance you also know Samuel Johnson’s self-mocking definition of it: “a writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification ofwords.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Guestblogging Dictionary Myths (Pt 4): 2007
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If you know the word lexicographer, there’s a better-than-even chance you also know Samuel Johnson’s self-mocking definition of it: “a writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification ofwords.”
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Jonathon Green, the leading slang lexicographer of our time.
languagehat.com languagehat 2010
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In the golden prime and high noon of English speech; when from the lips of the great Elizabethans fell words that made their own meaning and carried it in their very sound; when a Shakespeare and a Bacon were possible, and the language now rapidly perishing at one end and slowly renewed at the other was in vigorous growth and hardy preservation -- sweeter than honey and stronger than a lion -- the lexicographer was a person unknown, the dictionary a creation which his Creator had not created him to create.
INTERNET WIRETAP: The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce (1993 Edition) 1911
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Jesting at himself he defined 'lexicographer' as 'a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge. '
A History of English Literature Robert Huntington Fletcher
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For example, he defined "lexicographer" as "a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge."
Capitol Hill Blue - The oldest political news site on the Internet 2008
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If Dr Samuel Johnson were given the chance to join the web 2.0 generation and post a video definition of his favourite word on the internet, he may have chosen "lexicographer".
Telegraph Blogs 2008
john commented on the word lexicographer
Defined by Samuel Johnson (in his 1755 A Dictionary of the English Language) as "A writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge," according to WikiQuote.
October 4, 2007
hernesheir commented on the word lexicographer
"Every other authour may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach." - Samuel Johnson
February 21, 2011
TankHughes commented on the word lexicographer
The full definition from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary (1755)
"lexicographer: A writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words."
October 9, 2015