The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English [antikvár]

I preface to the fifth edition N this edition the etymologies have been thoroughly revised, and _ for the most part rewritten, by G. W. S. Friedrichsen, to whom I express my sincere thanks for undertaking a laborious task. Numerous correspondents have sent in useful suggestions for improving the dictionary, all of which are gratefully acknowledged and many of which have been adopted in part or in fuU. Particular mention must be made of the contributions of P. B. M. AUan, R. W. Burchfield (who read through the proofs), the late Dr R. W. Chapman, L. F. Schooling, and G. C. Vaimeck. With regard to hyphening, some doubt is often felt when the hyphen in a word coincides with the end of a line. To clarify the matter a true hyphen is repeated at the beginning of the following line. E. McI., 1963 PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION IN this completely revised and reset edition numerous corrections and additions have been made to bring the book up to date. Thanks are due to the many correspondents who have pointed out errors or suggested improvements. Especially must I express my gratitude to Dr Scholes, Dr Honeyman, and Mr J. M. Wyllie for the valuable assistance given for musical terms, chemical terms, and many technical terms. The officials of the Clarendon Press too, past and present, have throughout been most helpful. In this edition the system of pronunciation devised for the Pocket Oxford Dictionary has been adopted, the senses have been usually numbered, the general abbreviations have been collected into an appendix, and the swung dash has been freely employed. Swimg dash (rw). To save space the 'swung dash' or 'tilde' is very frequently used in the body of the article or the list of derivatives. It represents either the complete word at thé beginning of the article or the un-mflected part of that word often marked by a vertical line. As, for example, in the article repeat, ~ stands for repeat {or repeat), for repeated, ^edLY^ for repeatedLY^, —ing for repeating, for repeatERi; and in the article reverber|ate we have rating, ~ate, '^tORY, ~ATiON, ~ATiVB, -'^ANT representing reverheraiing, rever-*» berate, reverberatoRY, reverberATioN, reverberATivE, rever- berAiîT. E. Mol., 1950 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A DICTIONARY-MAKER, unless he is a monster of omniscience, must deal with a great many matters of which he has no firsthand knowledge. That he has been guilty of errors and omissions in some of these he will learn soon after publication, sometimes with gratitude to his enlightener, sometimes otherwise. The first letter we received after C.O.D. appeared was a demand for repayment of the book's cost, on the ground that it failed to give gal{l)iot, to settle the spelling of which it had been bought. Even for that announcement of an omission I am now grateful, as affording a good illustration of the less friendly form of correction, and reminding me to assure the public that to one revising for a new edition no correction is (ultimately) unwelcome; all is grist that comes to his mill. At the other end of the scale is the friend, knovra to me only by correspondence, who for years sent me fortnightly packets of foolscap devoted to perfecting a still contingent second edition—all this for love of the language not as a philological playground, but as the medium of exchange and bond of union among the English-speakei-s of the world. Castigavit et emendavit Byron F. Caivs might have stood with justice at the foot of our title-page. Other helpers have been many, some with systematic lists, others with a few isolated but valuable points; to all those in the hst below I would fain offer—what some of them are no longer living to receive —my heartiest thanks : Leslie J. Berlin Esq.; Major B. F. Caws; Dr R. W. Chapman; Mr S. K. N. Chaudhuri; *Sir Arthur Church K.C.V.O.; Rev. G. P. Ford; H. Gilbert-Carter Esq.; *Prof. Marcus Hartog; the Very Reverend Dr J. H. Hertz; Rev. J. Clare Hudson; Rev. F. E. Hutchinson; Lindsay Johnson M.D., F.R.S.; Rev. D. Evans Jones; Major C. V. N. Lyne; D. C. Macgregor Esq.; F. Morland Esq.; C. O. Ovington Esq.; George Pernet M.D.; Prof. Sir Flinders Petrie F.R.S.; Rev. S. de Saram; Kenneth Sisam Esq.; W. H. Thompson Esq.; B. H. Tower Esq.; F. F. Urquhart Esq.; *Rev. M. N. Walde; E. B. F. Wareing Esq.; *Dr F. H. P. van Wely; J. Beach Whitmore Esq.; Ernest W. Wignall Esq.; C. F. Williams F.G.S.; *Sir Dawson Williams C.B.E. H. W. F. • Those whose names are thus marked are known to me to be no longer living; and 1 fear the same may be true of some others, whom I have failed to reach by postal inquiries.