A New Dictionary of English
HERE is a practical dictionary, without frills. It omits etymologies, and does not use the International Phonetic Alphabet ; one regrets yet approves the omission, and only a churl could fail to recognise the great merit of the key to pronunciation. There are few quota- tions or other explanatory examples. Lest that should sound like adverse criticism, 1 hasten to add that the editor knew exactly what he was doing. He has achieved his purpose, that of providing at a remarkably low price a dictionary at once comprehensive and
efficient. The roughly 36,000 entries are more than most people need, far more than most people use. The definitions are clear, simple, modern and, with extremely few exceptions, precise and accurate. Occasionally the simplicity goes a shade too far, as in caitiff," a mean, bad person."
Those who know that both the late Dr. Edward Thorndike, " the father of the twentieth-century dictionary " (American), and Pro- fessor Clarence L. Barnhart, of the University of Minnesota, are
Americans, will inevitably ask, " Is the spelling American ? Do we look for arbour at arbor, honour at honor ? " We do not. For the British market the spelling has been anglicised ; the British market has, indeed, been fully considered. Take such an example as this : "homely . . 1. Simple, every day. 2. Am. not• good-looking ; ugly, plain."
The " Thorndike-Barnhart "—admissible to every home, suitable to every school and reference-library—is based upon those frequency tests which, so inadequate for literary and etymological purposes, are invaluable for general purposes, hence for this particular dictionary. This is a dictionary neither for the scholar nor for the philologist
a dictionary for the ordinary man or woman and for an enquiring child. We find, for instance, common sense but not good sense, which has virtually superseded wise and wisdom in " He is a person of good sense " or " He possesses that rarest of all senses, good sense."
Clarence L. Barnhart is the editor of the best college dictionary ever published, The American College Dictionary ; Edward Masters Thorndike, the editor of Thorndike's Junior Dictionary. Together, they prepared the Thorndike-Barnhart Comprehensive Desk Dictionary, extremely good in its own special way. All three books are readily obtainable in Britain, and all three represent a modern trend in lexicography, for they meet the demands of those who are neither scholars nor writers and professional journalists nor students of English language and literature, but who need a practical, dependable, reasonably comprehensive dictionary : in short, ninety per cent. of the British and American peoples. Nor do these works in general, this Handy Pocket Dictionary in particular, lack scholarliness ; to use it is easy, pleasant, profitable.
It is hard to see how the " Thorndike-Barnhart " can fail to achieve and long maintain a very considerable success. It deserves
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