![]() ![]() ‘See WORK’ would mean ‘See that word in the Dictionary’. The crossreferences will present no difficulty, for if one word is to be sought at another, as for instance erg at work, and if the latter entry be at all long, the long entry is divided into numbered paragraphs. Having assimilated the table of abbreviations and the lists of Prefixes, Suffixes, Elements, inquirers will find consultation easy and reading unimpeded. Yet the list of elements will reveal that the word is compounded of calypto-, meaning ‘covered’, hence ‘hidden’, and -rhynchus, ‘beak’. Take, for example, Calyptorhynchus, a genus of dark-coloured cockatoos such a word has no right to appear in an etymological dictionary and no privilege to appear in any ‘straight’ dictionary other than one of the Universal Stores class. This list of compound-forming elements will enable inquirers to ascertain the etymology of most of the innumerable learned words-scientific and technical, philosophical and psychological, economic and sociological, linguistic and literary- missing from the dictionary these are specialist terms. ![]() My list, however, is more than twice as long as his and, in treatment, much more spacious, for Origins differs considerably from the Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française. Like his, my list is confined to learned elements: where he omits such elements as, in the fact, are self-contained French words, I omit such elements as are English words recorded in the dictionary itself. By the way, the prefixes and suffixes are my own idea the list of compound-forming elements (this list, too, is etymological), that of an eminent and humane, practical yet imaginative French philologist, the late M. If he wishes to be in a position to understand words in their fullest implications and subtleties, in their nuances and most delicate modifications, he will do well to study the list of suffixes and then the little less important list of prefixes lists that are themselves etymological. If the reader intends to use this book extensively and even if he intends merely to consult it occasionally, he will spare himself much time and trouble if he previously familiarizes himself with the list of abbreviations immediately preceding the dictionary proper. Wherever the meaning of a word has notably changed, the sensetransformation is explained, as, for instance, in knave, marshal, phoney, adjectival rum: here we enter the domain of semantics, the science of meanings, for semantics will sometimes resolve an otherwise insoluble problem. Here, pronunciation is indicated only where it affects the origin or the development of a word and definitions only where, in little-known words, they are necessary to an understanding of the problem. ![]() AN etymological dictionary supplies neither pronunciations nor definitions. ![]()
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