Not a very clear or helpful distinction in my opinion. A bit vague. 🤔
"A treatise is a formal written paper about a specific subject. It’s like an essay but longer. A treatise is usually about a serious subject, so you might read a treatise on democracy, but you probably won't read a treatise about chewing gum."
Roget's Thesaurus, created by retired British physician Peter Mark Roget, is first published as Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases Classified and Arranged so as to Facilitate the Expression of Ideas and Assist in Literary Composition in London.
Publication of the Oxford English Dictionary is completed.
The 125th & last fascicle covered words from Wise to the end of W & was published in 1928, and the full dictionary in bound volumes followed immediately. William Shakespeare is the most-quoted writer in the completed dictionary, with Hamlet his most-quoted work. George Eliot is the most-quoted female writer. Collectively, the Bible is the most-quoted work; the most-quoted single work is Cursor Mundi.
#OTD in 1755. Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language is published in London.
Johnson's dictionary was not just a list of words with their meanings; it also included extensive quotations from various literary works to illustrate the usage of each word. It played a significant role in standardizing English spelling and usage, helping to establish a common linguistic framework for communication.
New entries! We're famously fond of time travel chez HDSF, so here's "changewar" (from 1958; associated with Fritz Leiber) and its synonym "timewar" (1950; with various specific associations):
British physician, natural theologian, lexicographer Peter Mark Roget was born #OTD in 1779. He is best known for publishing, in 1852, the Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases, a classified collection of related words. Roget's schema of classes and their subdivisions is based on the philosophical work of Leibniz, itself following a long tradition of epistemological work starting with Aristotle. Some of Aristotle's Categories are included in Roget's first class, "abstract relations".#dictionary
New HDSF entry! The SF cliché "food pill", something that has always been regarded as coming in the future (like jetpacks and flying cars). Examples from the 1880s (they eat them in "Moonland"!) onwards.
Time-travel fans: really nice HDSF antedating of "time track", once-favored synonym of the (now preferred) timeline, from 1942 to Edmond Hamilton in 1931 (and now earlier than timeline itself (1935)).
📚 Every year the big dictionary publishers decide on the year's most important word. This year's Oxford Word of the Year is 'Rizz'.
Word of Mouth is a podcast about language and how it evolves, presented by poet and educator Michael Rosen.
There are over 250 episodes on BBC Sounds, covering every aspect of language - from chatbots to 'goblin mode' to Shakespeare to sci-fi to Yiddish to apostrophes…
HDSF news: Still working on that important group of entries, but meanwhile, here are big antedatings of shuttle (1940 to 1930) and shuttlecraft (1967 to 1953) (also cleaned up both entries):
French lexicographer & author Pierre Larousse was born #OTD in 1817.
He published many of the outstanding educational & reference works of 19th-century France, including the 15-volume Grand dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle, from which Le Petit Larousse was later drawn.
The publishing house Éditions Larousse still survives, but was acquired by Compagnie Européenne de Publication in 1984, Havas in 1997, Vivendi Universal in 1998, & the Lagardère Group in 2002. via @wikipedia
American lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English-language spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and author Noah Webster Jr. was born #OTD in 1758.
He has been called the "Father of American Scholarship and Education". Webster's name has become synonymous with "dictionary" in the United States, especially the modern Merriam-Webster dictionary that was first published in 1828 as An American Dictionary of the English Language. via @wikipedia
In HDSF news, I'm working on a connected series of important entries, but meanwhile, here's one for "Cthulhu Mythos", for all of you #Lovecraft fans. First recorded in 1942, from (no surprise) August Derleth.
Help revise The F-Word: @jessesheidlower is looking for suggestions, quotations, antedatings, and anecdotes for the fourth edition of his dictionary of "fuck"