The aim has been to include all the common words in literary and conversational English, together with words obsolete save in the pages of Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, and the Authorised Version of the Bible. An attempt has been made also to include the common terms of the sciences and the arts of life, the vocabulary of sport, those Scotch and provincial words which assert themselves in Burns, Scott, the Brontës, and George Eliot, and even the coinages of word-masters like Carlyle, Browning, and Meredith. Numberless compound idiomatic phrases have also been given a place, in each case under the head of the significant word.
Correctness in technical matters has been ensured by consulting such books as Smyth's Sailor's Word-Book, Voyle's Military Dictionary, Wilson's Stock-Exchange Glossary, Lee's Glossary of Liturgical and Ecclesiastical Terms, &c. Besides books of this class, the Editor has made constant use of special books such as Schmidt's Shakespeare-Lexicon, Calderwood's edition of Fleming's Vocabulary of Philosophy, Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary, the Stanford Dictionary of Anglicised Words and Phrases, Yule and Burnell's Anglo-Indian Glossary, Addis and Arnold's Catholic Dictionary, and the Dictionaries of the Bible of Sir William Smith and Dr Hastings.
In Latin, his authority is Lewis and Short; in Greek, Liddell and Scott; in Romance Philology, Diez and Scheler; in French, Littré; in Spanish, Velazquez; in German, Weigand and Flügel; in Gaelic, Macleod and Dewar, and M'Bain; in Hebrew, Gesenius.
In English etymology the Editor has consulted Professor Skeat's Dictionary and his Principles of English Etymology—First and Second Series; the magistral New English Dictionary of Dr James A. H. Murray and Mr Henry Bradley, so far as completed; and the only less valuable English Dialect Dictionary of Professor Wright (begun 1896).
Two complete American English Dictionaries still hold the first place as works of reference, Professor Whitney's Century Dictionary and Funk and Wagnall's Standard Dictionary.
The Editor has great pleasure in acknowledging his personal obligations to his brothers, the Rev. Robert P. Davidson, B.A., of Trinity College, Oxford, and David G. Davidson, M.D., Edinburgh; and to his equally capable and courteous colleagues, Mr J. R. Pairman and David Patrick, LL.D., Editor of Chambers's Encyclopædia.
T. D.
CONTENTS.
| PAGE | |
| PREFACE | iii |
| EXPLANATIONS TO THE STUDENT | v |
| LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THIS DICTIONARY | vii |
| THE DICTIONARY | 1-1150 |
| PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES | 1151 |
| ETYMOLOGY OF NAMES OF PLACES, ETC. | 1158 |
| LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, TOGETHER WITH SIGNS AND SYMBOLS USED IN MEDICINE AND MUSIC | 1161 |
| CORRECT CEREMONIOUS FORMS OF ADDRESS | 1174 |
| PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY OF SCRIPTURE PROPER NAMES | 1176 |
| THE MORE COMMON ENGLISH CHRISTIAN NAMES, WITH THEIR ORIGIN AND MEANING | 1178 |
| WORDS AND PHRASES IN MORE OR LESS CURRENT USE FROM LATIN, GREEK, AND MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGES | 1184 |
| ADDENDA | 1208 |