OED first uses

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 12/4/03 7:59:00 AM, fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU writes:


> ... a remark that appears less snide now in view of the ease with which
>  I and Barry and OED3 are demolishing OED first uses).
>
Well, "demolish" strikes me as rather too strong a word. S seems to suggest
that the OED was primarily conceived of as a dictionary of first uses.

In fact, though interesting and occasionally even useful, "first uses" is a
relatively trivial aspect of lexicography, aqnd marginal predatings by only a
few years is even moreso. The OED clearly meant to suggest only that "these are
the first uses that we've come up with so far," not "these are the first uses
that anyone will ever find."

It is a truism of lexicography that true first uses will never be in a
dictionary, since they almost always are oral, not written. The fact that someone
may find that, say, UNEMPLOYMENT was first used in print 5 years before the
particular cite that the OED printed is certainly nice to have, but the OED is
scacely "demolished" therby.