New English. Dictionary. Edited by Dr. James A. II. Murray.
" Diffiuent " to " Disburden." Vol. III. (Clarendon Press.) This is the third of the quarterly instalments for the year. It is interesting to compare from time to time the progress of this great undertaking with what has been accomplished in works most nearly resembling it in scale, though, indeed, there is nothing simile aut secunduns. The corresponding portion in the latest and fullest form of " Webster" occupies about eight and a half pages. This instalment contains sixty-four. Taking the pages to be of about equal capacity (the New English is larger, but the difference of size is about compensated by the use of larger type for quotations), we arrive at the conclusion that the 1,681 pages of " Webster " will be expanded in the New English. to 12,608. The proportion of D so far, however, is not quite so largo. It stands—" Webster," 55 pages; New English, 408. Is not the array of quotations a little excessive? Under " disarm " we see Washington Irving quoted, "You disarm poverty of its sharpest sting ; " under 3 C, " To deprive (an animal) of its natural organs of attack or defence, to divest anything of that with which it is armed." But how does this differ from 5 fig., " His hostility was soon disarmed " ?
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