A new dictionary of the English language.
London: William Pickering, 1836-37. First edition, 2 volumes, 4to, pp. [4], 1183, [1]; [4], 1185-2222, [1]; contemporary and probably original full calf, double gilt-ruled borders, gilt-decorated spine in 5 compartments, gilt-lettered in 2; rebacked, original spines laid down; spines a little rubbed, else very good and sound. "First published as part of the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana (1818-37), it consisted of a great many illustrative quotations drawn from literature, but with relatively few and brief definitions … Richardson's approach was based on the notion that quotations alone, if sufficient in number, could serve to elucidate 'true etymological meaning.' He went far beyond Johnson in collecting quotations, beginning at the fourteenth century [Johnson went back only to the end of the 16th century] … Richardson sought by his vast collection of quotations to justify the preposterous theory of John Horne Tooke that each word had a single immutable meaning. In his own work, each word and its derivatives were given one etymology and one meaning. His etymologies were as preposterous as his theories, but his dictionary was of great interest to lexicographers because it foreshadowed the historical collections of quotations that were later to form the basis of the Oxford English Dictionary" (Landau, Dictionaries, p. 66). "Richardson was an ardent philologist of the school of Horne Tooke … His principle was to arrive at the original and proper meaning which was inherent in a word from its etymology" (see DNB). Based on the "historical principle" of lexicography, this work formed the most substantial link between Johnson and the O.E.D. Item #31189
Price: $2,250.00
