Big Word Day – April 21, 2024

History of Big Word Day

We use words in our day-to-day life, many of which can be found in a dictionary. An Englishman named John of Garland coined the term ‘dictionary’ in 1220 while writing a book called “Dictionarius” to aid Latin diction. From that time onwards, several attempts at writing a dictionary were made. It wasn’t until Samuel Johnson’s “A Dictionary of the English Language” that a more reliable English dictionary was created (1755). “Johnson’s Dictionary,” first published in 1775, is highly regarded by lexicographers today. In addition to creating the methodical tone of reference books, Johnson produced a widely emulated style of biography and literary critique.

His dictionary was the first to cover both written and spoken English. It was also the first attempt to impose a spelling and grammar standard on an unruly English language that lacked an equivalent of an academy to defend its use as proper or improper. “Johnson’s dictionary” was the English-language standard for over 150 years, until 1884, when the Oxford University Press began developing and publishing the “Oxford English Dictionary” in short fascicles. It took over 50 years to complete this massive project, and the “O.E.D.” was finally published in twelve volumes in 1928.

In 1807, Webster began compiling an American Dictionary of the English Language, which he completed during his year abroad in Paris, France, and at the University of Cambridge in 1825. His book contained seventy thousand terms, twelve thousand of which had never appeared in a dictionary. In 1840, the second edition was published in two volumes. G & C Merriam Co. bought Webster’s dictionary after his death in 1843, and Encyclopedia Britannica bought Merriam-Webster in 1964.