Dictionary of New Words [antikvár]

THE NEW WORDAn Introduction by Eric PartridgeAny dictionary of new or hard words is worthy of respect and atten-tion. This particular dictionary is worthy of more. It should be used,consulted, read.To talk about the usefulness of this dictionary would be to talkabout the obvious. Quite apart from its practical, day-to-day uses, thiswork is valuable for a reason that, mainly concerning the erudite, canbe enjoyed by those who have and doubtless enjoy the good fortuneof not being erudite: it keeps philologists and linguists on their toesand prevents them from becoming complacent; what's more, it remindslexicographers of something they forget at their own risktheir fal-libility. In short, this dictionary renders to all scholars, not merely tolexicographers (a small and hardy band, seeming, to the laity, virtuallyindestructible), a notable service, for which they should, althoughmany won't, be properly and permanently grateful, the inestimableservice of at once supplying them with food and ammunition and ofcausing them, one hopes, to be grateful for that supply.But to laymen, many of them educated and cultured, shrewd andintelligent, a good dictionary of new words performs services no lessconsiderable; the most important being that it puts at their disposalan easily accessible storehouse of information. (Come to think of it,such a dictionary also does this for the scholar, the scientist, the tech-nologist; these people, rarely knowing much outside their particularsubject, are experts in only one thing. Exceptions exist, but in start-lingly small numbers.) It's reassuring to learn that berkelium, whichI had suspected was some kind of insect-pest, is merely a chemicalelement, and not even a very important one. One has seen the wordoperation, with a capital O, so many times that one could be excusedfor committing mayhem if one saw it again: and yet there's somethingroguish and endearing in the formidable list of operations to befound in this book. Palynology, if one meets with it in the course ofdipping into some improving magazine, has nothing to do with the