A new dictionary of the English language

London: William Pickering, 1844. 2 volumes, 4to, pp. [36], 1183, [1]; [4], 1185-2226, [2]; slightly later full polished tan, gilt-paneled spines in 6 compartments, citron and brown morocco labels; all edges marbled, some rubbing but generally very good. The most substantial lexicographical undertaking in England between that of Samuel Johnson and the O.E.D. "First published as part of the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana (1818-37), it consisted of a great many illustrative quotations drawn from literature, but with relatively few and brief definitions … Richardson's approach was based on the notion that quotations alone, if sufficient in number, could serve (truncated) to elucidate 'true etymological meaning.' He went far beyond Johnson in collecting quotations, beginning at the fourteenth century [Johnson went back only to the end of the 16th century] … Richardson sought by his vast collection of quotations to justify the preposterous theory of John Horne Tooke that each word had a single immutable meaning. In his own work, each word and its derivatives were given one etymology and one meaning. His etymologies were as preposterous as his theories, but his dictionary was of great interest to lexicographers because it foreshadowed the historical collections of quotations that were later to form the basis of the Oxford English Dictionary" (Landau, Dictionaries, p. 66). Based on the "historical principle" of lexicography, this work formed an important link between Johnson and the O.E.D. Kennedy 6437. (Inventory #: 34089)