THE AUTHENTIC UNABRIDGED REVISED AND ENLARGED.....

Dictionary that is.

Actually Webster's International Dictionary. Comprising the issues of 1864, 1879 and 1884.

With a voluminous appendix. Published 1895.

I am a fan of dictionaries---in print form of course! There is nothing like taking a page at random and discovering new words, new concepts. Opening up whole new adventures.

This dictionary was a  present from Steve..years ago....it is a hefty tome, 12 cm thick. The leather cover faded and worn, scraped and scratched, the embossing worn to a mere glint, vanished in many areas...yet so tactile. 

It invites you to to touch it, to run your fingers over it's worn hide...then it invites you in closer.

It wants...no demands you to take a chance, to open it. To discover a world that no longer exists.

The wearing of the chemisette ...

to smoke a segar....to visit a chophouse.....to see a gurl.....to have a prettyism.......or to twattle a cat.

Yep, it is in so many ways another world. A fascinating world.

A world where a koala, a tailless marsupial found in Australia is also known as the native sloth.

Today, a world where the English language is being destroyed every second...where words are being taken and abused...it is so very nice to reacquaint myself with what once was.

A world where gay meant 'excited with merriment'....when bastard was not a term of endearment....and the f word has yet to exist.


Where the platypus was merely a duck mole.

Dictionaries are becoming a thing of the past.  Kids use google for everything and believe Wikipedia as though set down in stone.  Using a keyboard means that you will often find a red line that indicates the computer has never heard of the word....or else that you are using proper English when your computer would rather you use American spelling. It has a hissy fit when you include words from another language or culture.

This dictionary begins with A....
and ends with zuleika.
It has never heard or a zwanziger....zwinger ...or zyzzogetons.

Does that make it wrong? Or merely outdated?

To me it doesn't matter...I'm simply going to open another page....find another word...or two...or dozen....and escape.

I recommend you do the same.


Vicki
http://vickithornton.weebly.com/

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