copy of A Few Words Not in the Dictionaries

Wed Mar 31 10:01:42 UTC 2010

Attached is the complete text of the article. Aside from the wrong
publication date for Hamst's book, there is a number of other typos, of
which I caught only a handful, and corrected fewer still.

But, I thought, the whole piece should be posted, for a number of
reasons. There are a few interesting juicy bits in it, including the
mention of "initialism" that I have already covered. I also wanted to
single out "functionality" that Henkle identifies with Earle--just like
the OED. Unfortunately, they are both wrong. That will be the topic of
the next post.

     VS-)

http://bit.ly/cNQmMR
The National Teacher. Vol. 3:7. July, 1873.
http://bit.ly/b80h9l
The Ohio Educational Monthly: Organ of the Ohio Teachers' Association.
New Series, Vol. 14:7. July, 1873.
A Few Words Not in the Dictionaries. William Downs Henkle (Salem, Ohio).
p. 252
> Notwithstanding the last editions of the great quarto dictionaries of
> Worcester and Webster are claimed to contain the definitions of
> 104,000 and 114,000 words respectively, yet they fail to include all
> the words of the English language. The adverb /normally/, now so
> frequently used, is found in neither of these works, although it has
> been inserted in the new edition of Johnson by Latham. Another word
> occasionally seen, namely, /circumnavigatory/, has not yet found a
> place in the dictionaries. The overlooking by the dictionary makers of
> words like /normally/ and /circumnavigatory/ is a venial offence,
> since their meanings are so apparent that few would ever look in a
> dictionary for them. The defects of dictionaries are felt most when
> unusual words are looked for. But it is impossible to remove these
> defects entirely, as scholars are constantly coining new words.
> A noted English writer, Augustus de Morgan, in a notice of the
> Vestiges of Creation, uses the following sentence:
>> "I confess I never hear a man of note talk fluently about it without
>> a curious glance at his proportions, to see whether there may be
>> ground to conjecture that he may have more of 'mortal coil' than
>> others in anaxyridical concealment."
> As the English dictionaries have no such word as /anaxyridical/, how
> is the unclassical reader to get the full force of De Morgan's remark
> ? The Greek scholar knows that /anaxyrides/ is a word used by
> Herodotus and Xenophon for the /trousers/ worn by eastern nations,
> which, according to Bähr, were not the /thulakoi/, or loose trousers,
> but a tighter kind like the Gallic /trews/. Sir Walter Scott uses the
> word /trews/ in the sentence, "He wore trews, or close trousers, made
> of tartan." It is plain now that De Morgan meant by /anaxyridical/,
> /trouseral or pantaloonal/.
> The following is another of De Morgan's sentences :
>> "Having thus disposed of Mr. James Smith, we proceed to a few remarks
>> on the subject ; it is one which a journal would never originate, but
>> which is rendered necessary from time to time by the attempts of the
>> autopseudic to become heteropseudic."
> The great American dictionaries again fail the reader as to the
> meaning of /autopseudic/ and /heteropseudic/. The Greek scholar is,
> however, able to decide that the /autopseudic/ are those who deceive
> themselves, and the /heteropseudic/ are those who deceive others.
>> "A man was summoned for a glutolactic assault ; he complained of the
>> publication of his proceeding. I kicked, etc., /in confidence/, he said."
> This is another of De Morgan's sentences. What does /glucolactic/ mean
> ? It is not to be found in either Webster's or Worcester's Dictionary,
> nor am I able to tell what it means. I forbear to make the conjectures
> that might be based on several Latin words that might be considered
> components of the word, because none of these conjectures seem to suit
> the connection in which the word is used.
> The following words used by De Morgan have not found a place in the
> dictionaries. The meaning of nearly all of them is apparent:--
>> /Anonyme, antipodal, cyclometer, quadrator, notorified, surrounder,
>> doctrinalist, impositioned, whizgig, paradoxer, onymatic,
>> foolometers, rhythmopoetic, deostracism./
> A /quadrator/ is one who claims to have found the square that is
> exactly equal in area to a given circle, and a /cyclometer/ is one who
> claims to have found the exact length of the circumference of a
> circle, or the exact ratio of the circumference to the diameter.
> Olphar Hamst, Esq., is the author of a book entitled "Handbook for
> Fictitious Names", published in London in 1568 [sic], He coins the
> folowing new words for the different modes of concealing or indicating
> authorship:
>> /Initialism, titlonym, pseudo-titlonym, semi-initialism, phraseonym,
>> ironym, geonym, phreonym, demonym, apocryph, prenonym,
>> phreno-demonym, enigmatic-initialism, geo-demonym, phreno-geonym,
>> pseudo-geonym, scenonym, polynym, crytograph, psendadry [sic, s/b
>> pseudoandry], aristonym, anastroph, translationym, allonym, telonism,
>> pseudojyn, ananym, cryptonym, pharmaconym, alphabetism,
>> pseudo-initialism, antonym./
> It is a case of /pseudoandry/ when a woman adopts a man's name ; for
> instance, Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, afterward Dudevant, signed
> herself George Sand, and a /pseudojyn/ (better /pseudogyn/) when a man
> adopts a woman's name. It would be a case of /telonism/ if I, William
> Downs Henkle, should sign myself M. S. E., these being the final
> letters of my three names.
> I give below a few additional words not to be found in the last
> edition of Webster's. The authorities for the words are given :
>> /Agamogenetic/, Huxley ; /a-gley/, Burns ; /althings/, Lond. Q.
>> Review ; /anallaxis/, /Anglish/, /Anglic/, Haldeman ; /anterioric/,
>> quoted by Western Review ; /appredicate/, Sir W. Hamilton ;
>> /aquilarium/, Tribune ; /asexualiy/ [sic, s/b asexually?], Huxley ;
>> /bathometer/, S. E. Morse in Tribune ; /Bedouinism/, Cin. Gazette ;
>> /bilaterally/, Hamilton ; /Biogenesis/, /Biogeny/, Huxley ;
>> /bondocracy/, Tribune ; /bondless/, Emily Fister ; /Brachyurous/,
>> Huxley ; /brumming/, Agassiz ; /bummers/, Tribune ; /bursal/,
>> Hamilton ; /cartful/, Kelly ; /casualism/, Hamilton ;
>> /Catastrophism/, Huxley ; /catheterism/, Bergeret ; /cerebellic/,
>> Hamilton ; /ceryx/, Lon. Q. Review ; /chiaroscurist/, Ruskin ;
>> /chordant/, W. H. Venable ; /churchly/, Whedon in Meth. Q. Review ;
>> /coachee/, W. Irving; /co-arrangement/, Hamilton ; /coccoliths/,
>> /coccospheres/, Huxley ; /cogitabundity/, Frend ; /co-inhere/,
>> Hamilton ; /colloquiality/, Holloway ; /colliquenscence/, Hamilton ;
>> /commandite/, Western Review ; /Comtism/, /Comtist/, /Comtian/,
>> /Comtean/, Huxley ; /concrescent/, Hamilton ; /condensible/, West.
>> Review ; /confliction/, Hamilton ; /confusive/, Hamilton ;
>> /conservatively/, Ohio Ed. Monthly ; /consonanted/ Halderman ;
>> /construable/, Hamilton ; /continentally/, Alex. Hamilton ;
>> /convoluting/, West. Review ; /co-operationists/, Thos. J. Butler ;
>> /coöriginal/, Hamilton ; /corduroying/, Tribune ; /correality/,
>> Hamilton ; /cosmophonography/, /cosmophonetic/, Haldeman ;
>> /costermongering/, Ruskin ; /cotrustee/, Irving ; /crackmen/, Tribune
>> ; /cubhood/, Huxley ; /cyclesis/, Halderman ; /cyclonist/, T. B.
>> Moury ; /cyprianism/, Tribune ; /Darwinian/, /Darwinically/,
>> Darwinism/, Huxley ; /degenerescenses/, Bergeret ; /descecrative/, A.
>> P. Calhoun ; /diarrheal/, Tribune ; /dilemmatic/, Hamilton ;
>> /dimorphic/, Wallace ; /disponent/, Hamilton ; /distributional/,
>> Huxley ; /divellent/, D. Kirkwood ; /diverticulum/, Darwin ;
>> /eductively/, Hamilton ; /Fprrotic/ [sic], Müller ; /epithalial/
>> [sic], Acton ; /ethnographically/, Hamilton ; /etymologic/, Haldeman
>> ; /evitability/, Hamilton ; /evolvers/, Hamilton ; /evolutionism/,
>> Huxley ; /exceptionality/, Tribune ; /far-farer/, Lon. Q. Review ;
>> /Fourierist/, West. Review ; /frauding/, Bergeret ; /Frumentarian/,
>> Blackwood ; /functionality/, Earle ; /gackel/, /gackting/, Agassiz ;
>> /genesiac/, Bergeret ; /Germanist/, North Amer. Review ;
>> /ghostified/, An. Sci. Dis. ; /glabellar/, Hamilton ; /glottossis/,
>> Haldeman ; /glottic/, North Amer. Review ; /hamza/, Haldeman ;
>> /heteronymous/, /heteronymously/, Le Conte ; /hexadactyle/, Huxley ;
>> /historiador/, Irving ; /homolaxis/, Huxley ; /honorability/, quoted
>> by M. D. Conway ; /hymnist/, Kelley ; /illogicallity/, Huxley ;
>> /labiality/, Haldeman.
>
> I shall not continue this list further. I have gone only half through
> the alphabet, and have omitted in the first half many words that I
> have noted in my reading. The above will be sufficient to show the
> reader that the fullest dictionary falls short in its vocabulary of
> the whole number of words in present use.

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