[Ads-l] help wanted: information on a mid-18th C English dictionary

Sun Oct 3 18:26:55 UTC 2021

There seems to be three copies at the British Library Explore the British Library Search - A General Dictionary of the English Language, Compiled with the Greatest Care from the Best Authors and Dictionaries Now Extant (bl.uk)<http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?fn=search&ct=search&initialSearch=true&mode=Basic&tab=local_tab&indx=1&dum=true&srt=rank&vid=BLVU1&frbg=&tb=t&vl%28freeText0%29=A+General+Dictionary+of+the+English+Language%2C+Compiled+with+the+Greatest+Care+from+the+Best+Authors+and+Dictionaries+Now+Extant&scp.scps=scope%3A%28BLCONTENT%29&vl%282084770704UI0%29=any&vl%282084770704UI0%29=title&vl%282084770704UI0%29=any>

One of these is digitised A general dictionary of the English language : compiled with the greatest care from the best authors and dictionaries now extant. By a society of gentlemen (bl.uk)<http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100037043014.0x000001#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=6&xywh=-107%2C-1%2C5005%2C2991>

There are a few entries by "a Society of Gentlemen".  As these are at irregular intervals and in different places, I think that it was a means of staying anonymous.
[https://api.bl.uk/image/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100037043120.0x000005/full/!324,400/0/default.jpg]<http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100037043014.0x000001#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=6&xywh=-107%2C-1%2C5005%2C2991>
A general dictionary of the English language : compiled with the greatest care from the best authors and dictionaries now extant. By a society of gentlemen<http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100037043014.0x000001#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=6&xywh=-107%2C-1%2C5005%2C2991>
Item supplied by the British Library
access.bl.uk

________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Sammy Dean <sammydean at MYPOSTOFFICE.CO.UK>
Sent: 30 September 2021 18:15
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: help wanted: information on a mid-18th C English dictionary

The Society of Gentlemen could be The Royal Society of Arts.  Have you tried looking in Encyclopaedia Britannica?  I'm sure it has articles about the history of dictionaries and you might pick up something there.

SD
----- Original Message -----
From: Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Sent: Thu, 30 Sep 2021 01:49:08 +0100 (BST)
Subject: Re: help wanted: information on a mid-18th C English dictionary

This is a remarkable discovery.  I never expected to see "baseball" spelled as one word that early.

Fred Shapiro

________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2021 2:52 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: help wanted: information on a mid-18th C English dictionary

Google Books has a digital copy in full view of the dictionary that
was scanned from a copy at the British Library. GAT is looking for
reviews of the dictionary, and this reply does not point to reviews.
Nevertheless it may be helpful to people who want to look at scans of
the dictionary with the baseball definition.

https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com%2Fbooks%3Fid%3DDQMaLg65mo0C%26q%3Dbaseball%23v%3Dsnippet%26&data=04%7C01%7C%7Cbf7dedef4a3b4375702708d9843e55a6%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637686225533112143%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=tAFVaCGG8gvSgihT62gXTvW%2BN%2FsFhZtGEa%2Fvzwd4SjY%3D&reserved=0

Year: 1768 MDCCLXVIII
Title: A General Dictionary of the English Language: Compiled with the
Greatest Care from the Best Authors and Dictionaries Now Extant. By a
Society of Gentlemen
Publication Info: Printed for J. and R. Fuller, in Ave-Maria-Lane; and
Sold by All Other Booksellers in Great-Britain
Original from: The British Library
Digitized: Oct 4, 2016
Length: 728 pages

The scanned pages at the beginning mention Elizabeth Wortley and
Benjamin Wortley

Garson

On Tue, Sep 28, 2021 at 12:40 PM George Thompson
<george.thompson at nyu.edu> wrote:
>
> David Block, who has done remarkable research into the prehistory of
> baseball, posted this to another site:
> "BASEBALL, (From base and ball) A rural game in which the person striking
> the ball must run to his base or goal."
> Additionally, the dictionary lists the following as one of its definitions
> for the word "base":
> BASE "A rural play, also called baseball."
>
> These entries come from a dictionary entitled "A General Dictionary of the
> English Language, Compiled with the Greatest Care from the Best Authors and
> Dictionaries Now Extant." Its authors are "A Society of Gentlemen" and it
> was published in London in 1768.
>
> It of course would be nice to know something about this book.  It seems to
> have fallen with a thud when published.  It has been microfilmed as part of
> the immense collection of 18th C books in English, and from that has been
> digitized in ECCO, but there are danged few paper copies kicking around.  I
> have searched 2 files of 18th C English journals, and have not found
> anything resembling a review, nor even an announcement from the publisher
> that it had been issued.
>
> Is there a stupefyingly thorough history of 18th C dictionaries that might
> have a page on it?  Or any other ideas?
>
> GAT
> --
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
>
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