Once there was no dictionary.
Simon Winchester, in The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary, notes that even though it surely was needed, there was no English dictionary before 1604, although inexpensive printed books had been available since 1476. Even the 1604 book was not a true dictionary, but simply a list of 3,000 “hard usuall [sic] English words” with brief, often one word synonyms.… Continue Reading
The May 14, 2007 issue of National Review had several memorial tributes to the late Patricia Taylor Buckley, the wife of National Review founder and retired Editor at Large William F. Buckley, Jr. In his tribute to his wife, Buckley included a portion of a letter from a friend that praised her elegant greatness. “I am a confirmed nonbeliever, but for once I would like to be mistaken, and hope that, for you, this is not goodbye, but hasta luego (“See you later”—BP).”… Continue Reading
