An English and Swedish dictionary: wherein the generality of words and various significations are rendered into Swedish and Latin . thereunto is added a large collection of terms of trade and navigation, and an herbal or index of plants.

Serenius, Jacob

Published by printed at Harg and Stenbro near Nykoping in Sweden, by Pet. Momma, 1757

About this Item

Second edition, with large additions and amendments, 4to, pp. [8], 16 & unpaginated lexicon in double column, edges rubbed, small cracks starting at the tops and bottoms of the joints, but generally a very good copy in contemporary quarter calf over marbled boards; binding firm. With a 'Table of Terms of Trade and Navigation' and 'Words of Command and Sea-Terms' occupying 17 pages at the back, and another on herbal terms occupying another 12 pages. Serenius was chaplin to the Swedish embassy in London 1725-35, where he tried to strengthen the relations between Sweden and Great Britain. It was during this time that he began work on his dictionary, Dictionarium Suethico-Anglo-Latinum, first published in Stockholm in 1741. Termed the second edition, the present work is basically a new undertaking, being twice the size of the original, with a much expanded emphasis on etymology. Serenius states in his preface that he has been influenced by Edward Lye, and 'in a manner excited by the late lexicographer Mr. Johnson, that prodigy of laboriousness and sagacity, who in the preface to his excellent Dictionary complains of a scanty knowledge in northern literature . I must own that the judicious author is aright." This must be one of the earliest acknowledgements by a foreign lexicographer of the achievements of Johnson. Serenius does not say so, but it seems likely that some of the etymologies were borrowed from him. Seller Inventory # 1079

Bibliographic Details

Title: An English and Swedish dictionary: wherein ...

Publisher: printed at Harg and Stenbro near Nykoping in Sweden, by Pet. Momma

Publication Date: 1757

Binding: Hardcover