Lexicographer Quotes

• Patriotism, n. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name. In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit it is the first.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Names, Patriotism, Ambitious

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.160, 谷月社

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• Every other author may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach.

  Samuel Johnson

  May, Praise, Aspire

  A Dictionary of the English Language preface (1755)

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• Lexicographer: a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words.

  Samuel Johnson

  Literature, Dictionary, Tracing

  Samuel Johnson, John Walker (1835). “Johnson's English Dictionary”, p.559

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• A lexicographer, a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge.

  Samuel Johnson

  Book, Reading, Dictionary

  A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)

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• LEXICOGRAPHER, n. A pestilent fellow who, under the pretense of recording some particular stage in the development of a language, does what he can to arrest its growth, stiffen its flexibility and mechanize its methods.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Growth, Doe, Development

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “The Devil's Dictionary: Complete & Unabridged”, p.147, Courier Corporation

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• I am not so lost in lexicography as to forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven.

  Samuel Johnson

  Daughter, Art, Son

  A Dictionary of the English Language preface (1755)

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• Exact science and its practical movements are no checks on the greatest poet, but always his encouragement and support ... The sailor and traveller, the anatomist, chemist, astronomer, geologist, phrenologist, spiritualist, mathematician, historian and lexicographer are not poets, but they are the lawgivers of poets and their construction underlies the structure of every perfect poem.

  Walt Whitman

  Encouragement, Art, Science

  Walt Whitman (1868). “Poems”, p.46

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• Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.

  Samuel Johnson

  Art, Philosophy, History

  Letter to Francesco Sastres, 21 Aug. 1784

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• OBSOLETE, adj. No longer used by the timid. Said chiefly of words. A word which some lexicographer has marked obsolete is ever thereafter an object of dread and loathing to the fool writer . . .

  Ambrose Bierce

  Fool, Loathing, Used

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.152, 谷月社

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• The makers of dictionaries are dependent upon specialists for their definitions. A specialist's definition may be true or it may be erroneous. But its truth cannot be increased or its error diminished by its acceptance by the lexicographer. Each definition must stand on its own merits.

  Benjamin Tucker

  Acceptance, Errors, May

  Benjamin Ricketson Tucker (1972). “Instead of a Book”

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• 

  Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.

  Samuel Johnson

  Education, Curiosity, Genius

  The Rambler, No. 103, March 12, 1751.

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• By the time the traditionally male lexicographers become interested in looking at fashion words, their origins are lost in the mists of time.

  Erin McKean

  Fashion, Males, Lost

  "Erin McKean comes to terms with fashion" by Beth Hughes, www.sfgate.com. August 6, 2012.

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• Lexicographers are language reporters.

  Erin McKean

  Language, Reporters

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• Funeralese has had its ups and downs. The word 'morticians,' first used in Embalmers Monthly for February, 1895, was barred by the Chicago Tribune in 1932, 'not for lack of sympathy with the ambition of undertakers to be well regarded, but because of it. If they haven't the sense to save themselves from their own lexicographers, we shall not be guilty of abetting them in their folly.

  Jessica Mitford

  Ambition, Firsts, Chicago

  JESSICA MITFORD (1963). “THE AMERICAN WAY OF DEATH”

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• You can define a net two ways, depending on your point of view. Normally you would say it is a meshed instrument designed to catch fish. But you could, with no great injury to logic, reverse the image and define the net as a jocular lexicographer once did: he called it a collection of holes tied together with string.

  Julian Barnes

  Views, Two, Together

  Julian Barnes (1985). “Flaubert's parrot”, Alfred a Knopf Inc

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• Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble.

  Samuel Johnson

  Being Yourself, Criminal Mind, I Love Myself

  The Rambler, No. 135, July 02, 1751.

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• KISS, n. A word invented by the poets as a rhyme for "bliss." It is supposed to signify, in a general way, some kind of rite or ceremony appertaining to a good understanding; but the manner of its performance is unknown to this lexicographer.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Kissing, Understanding, Way

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.120, 谷月社

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• Education is useless without the Bible. The Bible was America's basic text book in all fields. God's Word, contained in the Bible, has furnished all necessary rules to direct our conduct.

  Noah Webster

  Bible, God, Education

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• If we wish that the name Israel be not extinguished, then we are in duty bound
  to create something which may serve as a center for our entire people, like the
  heart in an organism, from which the blood will stream into all the arteries of
  the national body and fill it with life.

  Eliezer Ben-Yehuda

  Life, Heart, Israel

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• The Hebrew language will go from the synagogue to the house of study, and from the house of study to the school, and from the school it will come into the home and... become a living language

  Eliezer Ben-Yehuda

  Home, School, House

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• It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.

  Samuel Johnson

  Death, Time, Men

  Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for 26 Oct. 1769)

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• The bold and discerning writer who, recognizing the truth that language must grow by innovation if it grow at all, makes new words and uses the old in an unfamiliar sense has no following and is tartly reminded that 'it isn't in the dictionary' - although down to the time of the first lexicographer no author ever had used a word that was in the dictionary.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Innovation, Use, Firsts

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.149, University of Georgia Press

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• Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.

  Samuel Johnson

  Book, Beer, Men

  Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for 8 May 1781)

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• ABNORMAL, adj. Not conforming to standard. In matters of thought and conduct, to be independent is to be abnormal, to be abnormal is to be detested. Wherefore the lexicographer adviseth a striving toward the straiter [sic] resemblance of the Average Man than he hath to himself. Whoso attaineth thereto shall have peace, the prospect of death and the hope of Hell.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Independent, Men, Average

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.3, 谷月社

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• MAGIC, n. An art of converting superstition into coin. There are other arts serving the same high purpose, but the discreet lexicographer does not name them.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Art, Names, Magic

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.159, University of Georgia Press

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