ON CONSULTING THE DICTIONARY.
[To THE EDITOR OF TIE SPECTATOR:I
Sra,—The English dictionary which " A. S." and " W. W." " cherish" is described as " a three-and-sixpenny thing that is . . . comparatively little and really good," " a miracle of scholarship and cheapness," and a work which " supersedes all other cheap dictionaries." I think many of your readers would be glad to know the name and address of this book. The description exactly fits " The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English, Adapted by H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler from tho Oxford Dictionary, Clarendon Press, 1911," of which I have been a constant and grateful user for several years ; and at first I assumed without hesitation that your correspondents wore referring to this work. But they were not. It does not contain the entries and definitions quoted; and it does not go in either for humour or for pictorial embellishment. For the absence of those latter features the succinct etymologies given—based on Murray and Skeat--afford in my opinion
abundant componsation.—I am, Sir, &e., C. L D.
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