2004-3-7
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VOICE ONE:
Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve
Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. This week -- a look inside the world
of dictionaries.
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VOICE ONE:
If you call someone "fat," spelled F-A-T, it means overweight.
But if you call someone "phat," spelled P-H-A-T, it means highly
good looking. Some dictionaries now include this word as slang.
The editors of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary explained
how it reached their Eleventh Edition published last year.
VOICE TWO:
The editors read everything they can to search for new words and
meanings. They keep electronic records. They also record words on
individual citation cards. Over the years, their company has
collected more than 15,000,000 citations. Editors continually
consider and reconsider them for placement in their dictionaries.
The editors found enough uses of "phat" over time to judge the
word to be popular and long lasting. So they added it to the more
than 225,000 explanations of words and phrases in the Collegiate.
VOICE ONE:
One of the early uses of "phat" that they found in print appeared
in a magazine in 1994. A writer used it in relation to hip-hop music
to mean excellent.
But usage can change by the time a word appears in a dictionary.
This is especially true of slang. Some teen-agers say phat is an old
word already.
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VOICE TWO:
Many of the 10,000 new words in the Eleventh Edition of the
Collegiate Dictionary involve computers. Among them is the term
drag-and-drop. This means to move a computer file across a screen.
Technology terms like this are an example of how dictionaries
show the influence of the times. Another example is the word
"chairperson." It first appeared in the Random House Webster's
College Dictionary in the nineteen-seventies. It recognized that
women as well as men serve as leaders.
"Carjacking" entered dictionaries in the 1990's. To carjack means
to take someone's car by force.
The Fourth Edition of the Webster's New World College Dictionary
also includes "mosh." This is a way to dance to heavy metal music.
Dancers crash into each other in a mosh pit in front of the band.
VOICE ONE:
Just because a word enters the dictionary does not mean it will
stay. An example is "Macarena."
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Many people did the Macarena dance. The Random House Webster's
College Dictionary listed Macarena in 1997. But a year later, this
word disappeared ... much like the dance itself.
VOICE TWO:
There is a word that the McDonald's Corporation would like to see
disappear from the Eleventh Edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate.
The word is "McJob." It is defined as a job with low pay and little
chance for improvement. It is meant to describe the sort of job that
a worker who prepares fast food might have.
But the chairman and chief executive officer of McDonald's, Jim
Cantalupo, denounced this definition. He said it insults the
12,000,000 people who work for McDonald's. Also, the company itself
uses the term "McJob" in its employment program for people with
mental and physical disabilities.
But editors of dictionaries say they do not invent words, they
only record the ones people use.
VOICE ONE:
Dictionaries usually list their number of entries instead of
their number of words. No one can say how many words are in the
English language. There are always new ones, and new uses for old
ones. Some words disappear. Others reappear with a different
meaning. Then there are all the new groupings of words into phrases
with meanings of their own.
College dictionaries have about two-hundred-thousand or more
definitions. This compares with 300,0000 or 400,000 in many
unabridged dictionaries.
Today many people use the Internet to look up words. Over the
centuries, many people have looked to dictionaries to settle
arguments about the correct way to use a word. But dictionaries
these days do not judge how a word should be used. They simply
describe how people use them. and Random House, for example, have
free online services. Two others are dictionary.com and
yourdictionary.com. Some online dictionaries let users also hear how
to say words.
VOICE TWO:
Some dictionaries are limited to subject areas. For example,
Artlex.com provides free definitions for more than three-thousand
terms related to art. The address is www.artlex.com.
There are many other kinds of dictionaries online, in print or
both. There are biographical dictionaries of people and geographical
dictionaries of places.
OK, time for a question. Can you think of a word that you would
find in both a medical dictionary and a music dictionary, but with
different meanings? Keep listening -- we'll tell you what we thought
of.
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VOICE ONE:
Now we step back 400 years in the history of dictionary making.
In 1604, a British school director named Robert Cawdrey produced
a book that defined about 3,000 English words. These came from other
languages.
More than a century later, the writer Samuel Johnson published
what he called a "Dictionary of the English Language." It appeared
in 1855. Then, in 1791, another Englishman, John Walker, also
produced a dictionary.
An American, Noah Webster, wanted to create a dictionary as good
as those others. Webster wanted to publish an American dictionary.
And he did, in 1806, with a dictionary for schoolchildren. Experts
say this work launched American dictionaries as we know them today.
VOICE TWO:
Noah Webster was born in 1858 in West Hartford, Connecticut. He
became a teacher and studied law. He did not like the books he was
supposed to use to teach. So he created many American schoolbooks.
Later he became a political journalist. Historians say that after a
few years, he returned to producing schoolbooks because he got tired
of political disputes.
His first dictionary, in 1806, was called "A Compendious
Dictionary of the English Language." The next year, he published a
shorter version, a dictionary "Compiled for the Use of Common
Schools." A new version appeared in 1817.
VOICE ONE:
After that Webster produced what he called "An American
Dictionary of the English Language." It was published in 1828. It
contained 70,000 definitions. It was really two books. He corrected
and enlarged it into what became known as "Webster's Unabridged."
Webster proved himself untraditional as a maker of English
language dictionaries. He included terms popular only in America. He
spelled some words in untraditional ways. The same was true for the
ways he listed to say words and to use them.
Some critics denounced his work. They did not understand that
Noah Webster had established the beginnings of many American
dictionaries of the future.
VOICE TWO:
Noah Webster died in 1843. Two printers in Worcester,
Massachusetts, bought the rights to continue his dictionary and
publish their own. The two were brothers, Charles and George
Merriam.
Today the dictionary publishers at the Merriam-Webster company
note that many of their competitors use the name "Webster." But
their company is able to claim a historical link.
Over the centuries, many people have looked to dictionaries to
settle arguments about the correct way to use a word. But
dictionaries these days do not judge how a word should be used. They
simply describe how people use them. They will, however, often warn
if a word is considered offensive.
VOICE ONE:
It would be interesting to know what the man whose name appears
on so many modern dictionaries would think of them. They follow the
spirit of the times. But so did Noah Webster. Who knows, maybe he
would have included phat, P-H-A-T, in his dictionaries, too.
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Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. Earlier, we asked if you could think
of a word with unrelated meanings in both a medical dictionary and a
music dictionary. We thought of one, organ. Our producer, Caty
Weaver, gets the credit.
VOICE ONE:
Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special
English.