Cocker's English dictionary, containing an explanation of the most refined and difficult words and terms . publish'd from the author's copy: and in this second edition very much enlarged and altered: by John Hawkins

Cocker, Edward

Published by printed for T. Norris at the Looking-Glass on London-Bridge, C. Brown at the Crown in Newgate-Street, and A. Bettesworth at the Red Lyon in Pater-Noster-Row, London, 1715

About this Item

12mo, pp. [288]; lexicon in triple column; prelims and terminals a bit soiled and spotted, top corner of title page torn, affecting the ruled border; all else good and sound in recent brown morocco-backed brown cloth boards, gilt-lettered direct on spine, endpapers renewed. Early ownership signature of "Richd. Harding" at the top of B1. First published in 1704, only three editions of this dictionary were ever produced. "The authorship of this work is suspect, since Cocker died in 1676, and Hawkins in 1692, but Hawkins was also responsible for publishing Cocker's Arithmetic (1678) and his Decimal Arithmetic (1685). H.B. Wheatley ("Who Was Cocker?", The Bibliography, VI, 1884, 25-30) regarded the Dictionary as a bookseller's fraud. Heal has suggested that the work may be the product of Edward Cocker junior. Cocker's dictionary has sections devoted to proper names (based, like other similar lists, on Charles Estienne's Dictionarium historicum, Paris 1553), "An explanation of terms used in the art of war" (based on Guillet de Saint George's Les Arts de l'homme d'epee which was translated into English in 1705 as The Gentleman's Dictionary), and "An alphabetical explanation of the most difficult terms used in trade and merchandize" (based on Edward Hatton's The Merchants magazine, 1697)" (Alston). Alston V, 87; Kennedy 6205; Vancil, p. 53. Seller Inventory # 64588

Bibliographic Details

Title: Cocker's English dictionary, containing an ...

Publisher: printed for T. Norris at the Looking-Glass on London-Bridge, C. Brown at the Crown in Newgate-Street, and A. Bettesworth at the Red Lyon in Pater-Noster-Row, London

Publication Date: 1715

Binding: Soft cover