The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon (Classic Reprint)

This dictionary was undertaken at the request of the Delegates of the Clarendon Press, who, feeling the want of an abridgement of the large Anglo Saxon dictionary (BT) still in progress, applied to me. From a variety of reasons I felt myself obliged to undertake the work. As the book was wanted as soon as possible, with a view to forestalling unauthorized abridgements, I could only undertake to do my best within a limited space and a limited period. Every dictionary is necessarily a compromise. If done ideally well and on an adequate scale, it is never finished and an unfinished dictionary is worse than useless or, if finished, is never uniform as regards materials and treatment. A dictionary which is good from a practical point of view that is, which is finished within a reasonable time, and is kept within reasonable limits of space must necessarily fall far short of ideal requirements. In short, we may almost venture on the paradox that a good dictionary is necessarily a bad one. Sources. When I first began this work all the existing A nglo-S axon dictionaries were completely antiquated. The old Bosworth is an uncritical compilation, which falls far short of the scientific requirements even of the period of its first publication. Ettmiiller s Lexicon A nglosaxoniciim is far superior as regards accuracy and fullness, but its unhappy arrangement of the words under hypothetical roots makes it practically useless to the beginner.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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