Dictionaries come in two basic philosophies, prescriptive and descriptive. The OED is descriptive, and attempts to describe actual usage. Noah Webster, on the other hand, changed the meanings and pronunciation of numerous words. |
Dictionaries come in two basic philosophies, prescriptive and descriptive. The OED is descriptive, and attempts to describe actual usage. Noah Webster, on the other hand, changed the meanings and pronunciation of numerous words. The art and craft of writing dictionaries is callled lexicography. |
* New Oxford American Dictionary |
* Everything2 (http://everything2.com/) contains among other things the entire "Webster 1913" dictionary. |
Dictionaries come in two basic philosophies, prescriptive and descriptive. The OED is descriptive, and attempts to describe actual usage. Noah Webster, on the other hand, changed the meanings and pronunciation of numerous words. The art and craft of writing dictionaries is callled lexicography.
See also Thesaurus.
Examples: