My Random House Dictionary weighs at least seven pounds and it takes both my arms to lug it around. Its copyright date is 1966 and I think I bought mine in about 1970. Forty three+ years ago. Its pages are ‘paper-thin’ (pun intended) and very fragile. It is my reference book when I write this series: Words being my box of chocolates.
Word Crafters! Did you know this bit of trivia? ‘Webster’s’ as the short name for a dictionary, most likely referred originally to the comprehensive dictionary, An American Dictionary of the English Language, written over the course of 27 years by Noah Webster (1758-1843) and first published in 1828. This was not Webster’s first dictionary (that one, much smaller, was published in 1806 as A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language ). Nor was Webster necessarily the author of the very first American English dictionary; some scholars assign that honor to one Samuel Johnson (not the Samuel Johnson, famed British lexicographer of a century earlier). But Noah Webster’s major dictionary may well be thought of as the first to Americanize the English lexicon, incorporating many words that were distinct parts of American life, like skunk and squash, words that had not previously been recorded in dictionaries, and simplifying British spellings—for example, substituting color for colour and center for centre .
Of course words like blog, sick, ridiculous, email do not appear in my old Dictionary.
Blog:
email: e-mail or e·mail also E-mail n. A system for sending and receiving messages electronically over a computer network, as between personal computers. an electronic note or letter. I believe I sent my first one in 1993-94 when I signed up with AOL; the only game in town.
Sick n. : Suffering from or affected with a physical illness; ailing. Of or for sick persons: sick wards. Nauseated. or Too wonderful, fabulous.
It used to…no, still does mean to be unwell.
ridiculous: ri·dic·u·lous adj.: Deserving or inspiring ridicule; absurd, preposterous. or Beyond wonderful, fabulous.
factotum:
Primogeniture:
epistolary
redolent
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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! “The Writer’s Corner”
In addition to my twice weekly blog I will also feature an interview with another author once a month. These authors have already responded and you can read their interviews by clicking on their name: Janet Evanovitch, Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Karen Robards, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Tasha Alexander, Patrick Taylor, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Cathy Lamb, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Raymond Benson, Andrew Grant, Heidi Jon Schmidt, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Walter Mosley, and many others.
So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! Patrick Taylor joined us in November. Heidi Jon Schmidt will be under your Christmas tree. Raymond Benson will be my January author. Slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter. Loretta Chase will be featured later this year. Raymond Benson is my January author.
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