Antedating of "Lexicographer"

[Fred Shapiro]

lexicographer (OED 1658)

1656 Stephens, Nathaniel, _A plain and easie calculation of the name,
mark, and number of the name of the beast... humbly presented to the
studious observers of Scripture-prophecies, God's works, and the times_
172 (Early English Books Online)  But let us now come to give some special
instance for this out of the Old Testament. And here, if we go to the
times of Antiochus Epiphanes, we shall finde a cleer instance of the
Character or Mark of the Beast in the times of the Graecian Antichrist.
For there is mention made of one Iason, when he had bought the High
Priesthood for Money, and did assign 150 Talents more, if he might have
license to set up a place for Exercise, and for the training up of Youth
in the Fashions of the Heathen; and to write them of Hierusalem, by the
Name of Antiochians.  Which, when the King had granted, and he had gotten
the Rule into his hand, it is expressly said of this Iason, [gap]. Our
En|glish hath it, He forthwith brought his own Nation to the Greekish
Fashion. Iunius, and Montanus, and the Lexicographer Sca|pula, have it, Ad
Graecum Ritum.

Fred Shapiro


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------