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The more English there was in the world, the more God-fearing its peoples would be.
The tongue, they insisted, had by the turn of the seventeenth century become sufficiently refined and pure that it could only remain static or else thenceforward deteriorate.
what is deem’d polite and elegant in one age, may be accounted uncouth and barbarous in another.”
A dictionary should be a record of all words that enjoy any recognized life span in the standard language.
January 7, 1858, when the plan was adopted, is normally reckoned the starting point, at least on paper.
underlines a sad and ironic reality: Dr. William Minor, who was among the greatest of contributors to the finest dictionary in all the English language, died forgotten in obscurity, and is buried beside a slum.
Other dictionaries in other languages took longer to make; but none was greater, grander, or had more authority than this. The greatest effort since the invention of printing. The longest sensational serial ever written.
