A new universal etymological English dictionary: containing not only explanations of the words … with authorities from the best writers… but also their etymologies, from the ancient and modern languages … revised and corrected by Joseph Nicol Scott

Bailey, N[athan]

Published by printed for T. Osborne; J. Buckland, and R. Baldwin; and W. Johnston, London, 1764

About this Item

Large folio, pp. xviii plus unpaginated lexicon in double column; engraved frontispiece, 12 engraved plates (on 11 sheets); full contemporary calf, joints and spine ends strengthened, extremities rubbed, nice enough copy. First printed in 1755, the year of the first edition of Johnson, the so-called Scott-Bailey was published to recapture its waning influence in the dictionary market. Philip B. Gove, in "Notes on Serialization and Competitive Publishing: Johnson's and Bailey's Dictionaries, 1755," Oxford Bib. Soc., 1955 notes: "The attempt of the Bailey proprietors to enter a folio to rival Johnson's great Dictionary remained alive through 1772, three years after Scott's death. The dates of the new title pages, 1764 and 1772, precede respectively by one year those of the third and fourth editions of Johnson." See Starnes & Noyes, chapter XXII for a full treatment; Alston V, 175: "The revisions and additions are extensive enough to warrant this being regarded as a new work.".

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: A new universal etymological English dictionary: containing not only explanations of the words … with authorities from the best writers… but also their etymologies, from the ancient and modern languages … revised and corrected by Joseph Nicol Scott
• Publisher: printed for T. Osborne; J. Buckland, and R. Baldwin; and W. Johnston, London
• Publication Date: 1764
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