On the study of words: lectures addressed (originally) to the pupils at the Diocesan training school, Wincester

Trench, Richard Chenivix

Published by John W. Parker and Son, London, 1853

About this Item

Fourth edition, revised; sm 8vo, pp. vii, [1], 216, 8 (ads); orig. brown embossed cloth with gilt lettering on spine; very good, sound copy. Laid in an autograph sentiment reading: "Yours truly, Trench, 26 October, 1882" on embossed stationery. Trench is an unrecognized hero in English lexicography. Not only did he popularize "a rational and scientific study of language," but he suggested and laid out the overall plan for the Oxford English Dictionary in 1857-58. He published two small books The Study of Words (1851), and English Past and Present (1855), and a seminal paper "On Some Deficiencies in Our English Dictionaries" (1857), the last of which is honored as "a statement of what an English dictionary ought to be. No one who reads it can fail to see how clearly he anticipated the lines on which the [Philological] Society's dictionary was ultimatley compiled--all of them, indeed, a necessary result from the historical principle which he laid down as the only sound basis for the work" (from the Historical Introduction to the O.E.D., by Craige and Onions, 1933). Seller Inventory # 18423

Bibliographic Details

Title: On the study of words: lectures addressed (...

Publisher: John W. Parker and Son, London

Publication Date: 1853

Binding: Hardcover