Read The Highly Selective Dictionary for the Extraordinarily Literate Online
Authors: Eugene Ehrlich
Tags: #Language Arts & Disciplines, #General, #Reference, #Dictionaries
The Highly Selective Dictionary for the Extraordinarily Literate
The
HIGHLY SELECTIVE DICTIONARY
FOR THE
EXTRAORDINARILY LITERATE
Introduction by
Richard Lederer
EUGENE EHRLICH
To Norma
The Dictionary
The Highly Selective Dictionary
can be thought of as an antidote to the ongoing, poisonous effects wrought by the forces of linguistic darkness—aided by permissive lexicographers who blithely acquiesce to the depredations of unrestrained language butchers.
When these permissive lexicographers perceive that journalists and other voracious consumers of Canadian wood pulp are using an existing English word in a new sense, bingo! A new definition is added to an existing dictionary entry. And—you can count on it—the addition is noticed by the lexicographic competition and is copied widely.
With what result? The functionally illiterate take this new sense as acceptable, giving them license to say, “Well, it's in the dictionary, so it's OK to use.”
By contrast,
The Highly Selective Dictionary
is prescriptive, suggesting that its principal task is to define words carefully and conservatively, paying special attention to what the entry words usually mean and counseling readers not to fall for new meanings of entry words that have resulted from blunders by writers and the cooperation of permissive lexicographers.
This is not to say that new words cannot be used in writing and speaking. In fact, the English language has grown healthily over the years and is still growing at an ever-increasing rate. This is one of the reasons why English will continue to be the language of the entire world.
The Highly Selective Dictionary
supplies spellings, pronunciations, and definitions for interesting words that make life rewarding for readers, writers, and public speakers. It enables users to learn the correct meanings of words they may not already know. It wastes no space on useless entries, offers a single pronunciation for most entries, and bites the bullet in pointing out confusions in the use of words.
A word must be said about the great amount of time lexicographers spend on defining common words—words whose meanings are widely known—time that could better be spent on selecting and defining entry words that readers genuinely need. While definitions supplied for common words are often admirably and ingeniously constructed, the products of this enormous effort are hundreds, if not thousands, of useless entries that do nothing for most dictionary users.
A single example of a useless entry will make clear my impatience with lexicographers. Consider the noun
door
—and who does not know what a door is? Here are the first two definitions of
door
in the great
Webster's New International Dictionary
of 1934:
1. The movable frame or barrier of boards, or other material, usually turning on hinges or pivots or sliding, by which an entranceway into a house or apartment is closed and opened; also, a similar part of a piece of furniture, as in a cabinet or bookcase.
2. An opening in the wall of a house or of an apartment, by which to go in and out; an entranceway; a doorway.
Who does not admire the scholarship and thoroughness of the lexicographer who produced these definitions? And who does not admire the latest generation of lexicographers who go on producing such definitions to this day? But who can fail to wonder why so much effort should be expended to produce them?
Finally, who are the children, women, and men who do not know what a door is and would consult a dictionary to find out?
And would the definitions given above do them any good?
The Highly Selective Dictionary for the Extraordinarily Literate
, by choosing to forgo such useless entries, facilitates the reader's search for useful entries. Gone is the clutter of never-consulted entries defining words everybody knows well. Consider, for example, the paper and ink and the countless hours of word processor time and human effort devoted to defining
a, an, and, daughter, exit, promise, sky, son, sun, trouble, unfit
, and
zoo
.
Most dictionaries produced by permissive lexicographers also are willing to countenance poor pronunciations that arise from mistakes made by ill-educated radio hosts, so-called television anchorpersons, and public figures—all of them unequipped to read aloud correctly.
One example will suffice to illustrate this problem. Consider the word
nuclear
, which is not included as an entry word in the present book because it is commonly understood. We have all heard it mistakenly pronounced as NOO-ky
e
-l
e
r instead of correctly as NOO-klee-
e
r or NYOO-klee-
e
r. Yet, following the principle of permissiveness, leading dictionaries sanction the mispronunciation, thereby giving solace to the bumblers—among them every member of our “nucyular navy” and most members of the U.S. Congress—who never fail to mispronounce
nuclear
.
We may have snickered when Dwight D. Eisenhower regularly mispronounced this word, and marveled at Jimmy Carter's struggles to pronounce the word correctly. Though most speakers do not aspire to high office, they can learn to speak better than most politicians.
Unfortunately, many people regard their favorite dictionary as a linguistic bible, to be accepted unquestioningly and used—along with the
Guinness Book of World Records
—in settling barroom bets. With this awesome responsibility implicitly bestowed on lexicographers, dictionaries will in time take more courageous stands on what they will sanction and what they will not.
And they may begin to overcome those who combine daily to beat our language down to a state of complete mush. Until they do, we will continue to lose good word after good word to the forces of darkness, ultimately bowing to the dictum of Lewis Carroll's Humpty Dumpty: “When
I
use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”
Eugene Ehrlich
The pronunciation of American English words follows few hard-and-fast rules and varies from region to region. In pronouncing the entry words of this highly selective dictionary, the editor has considered all the pronunciations given in standard sources and then tried to select the most common pronunciations. Notwithstanding, some of the pronunciations supplied indulge the editor's own preferences.
Each pronunciation is shown in parentheses just after the entry word, and the pronunciation is followed by the part of speech of the entry word. In almost all cases, only one pronunciation is given, although one of the entry words,
joust
, is given three pronunciations. When two pronunciations are considered to be equally desirable, they are connected by
or
.
For the convenience of the reader, pronunciations of the entry words employ a respelling scheme that is readily interpretable rather than the International Phonetic Alphabet, which many people find difficult to interpret.
Fully stressed syllables are shown in capital letters. Syllables that receive secondary stress are shown in small capital letters. Unstressed syllables are shown in lower case letters, as are pronunciations of words of one syllable. Three examples will suffice:
hangnail
(HANG-
NAYL
)
noun
infer
(in-FUR)
verb
stick
(stik)
noun
One exception to respelling is the use of the schwa (
e
), which is defined as an indistinct vowel sound, as in the second syllable of
single
(SING-g
e
l) or in the last two syllables of
incredible
(in-KRED-
e
-b
e
l).
Another exception to respelling is the use of
I
,
I
, and
I
to indicate a long vowel sound, as in
my
(m
I
),
finite
(F
I
-n
I
t), and
diagnostic
(
D
I
-
e
g-NOS-tik).
A few additional examples will suffice to show the ease with which the supplied pronunciations can be interpreted:
abstemious
(ab-STEE-mee-
e
s)
adjective
accede
(ak-SEED)
verb
adduce
(
e
-DOOS)
verb
adscititious
(
AD
-si-TISH-
e
s)
adjective
Two other representations of sounds depart from straightforward respelling.
As will be seen in the chart supplied below,
n
indicates an n that is only partially pronounced, as in many words of French origin.
Again,
th
is used to make the initial sound of the word “this,” which is given as
this
, and to pronounce “rather,” which is given as RA
TH
-
e
r. In pronouncing “thin” and “both,” the sound of th is not italicized.
PRONUNCIATION KEY
a
as in
a
ct, h
a
t, c
a
rry
ah
as in
b
a
lm, c
a
lm, f
a
ther
ahr
as in
f
a
r, j
ar
, d
ar
ling
air
as in
f
air
y, sc
are
, decl
are
aw
as in
au
dit, w
a
lk, g
aw
k, s
aw
ay
as in
a
ge, b
ay
, h
ei
nous
b
as in
b
ake,
b
a
bb
le,
b
oo
b
ch
as in
ch
oose,
ch
ur
ch
, prea
ch
d
as in
d
are, fu
dd
le
d
, mu
d
e
as in
e
mpty, l
e
d, b
e
rry
ee
as in
ea
se,
ei
ther, m
ea
t, s
ee
eer
as in
ear
,
eer
ie, p
ier
, sn
eer
f
as in
f
in, da
ff
y, belie
f
g
as in
g
ust, bar
g
ain, ho
g
h
as in
h
airy,
h
ot,
h
uddle
hw
as in
wh
ere,
wh
et, any
wh
ere
i
as in
i
n, h
i
t, w
o
m
e
n, tw
i
st
I
as in
b
i
te, l
i
ght, p
ie
, sp
y
I
as in
colon
i
ze, synchron
i
ze
I
as in
m
i
ghty, l
i
ghtning, surpr
i
se
j
as in
g
in,
j
ust,
j
u
dg
e, garba
ge
k
as in
k
erchief, spo
k
en, ra
ck
l
as in
l
ag,
l
ad
l
e, se
ll
m
as in
m
any, co
mm
on,
m
ada
m
n
as in
n
ote,
kn
ee, ma
nn
er,
n
apki
n
n as in
dénoueme
nt
, frisso
n
, soupço
n
ng
as in
hu
ng
er, swi
ng
i
ng
, bri
ng
o
as in
o
pportune, h
o
t, cr
o
p
oh
as in
opp
o
se, m
o
st, t
oa
st, s
e
w
oo
as in
oo
dles, p
oo
l, r
u
ler
oor
as in
p
oor
, t
our
, s
ure
or
as in
aur
al, b
or
der, m
or
tal
ow
as in
ow
l,
ou
st, h
ou
se, all
ow
oy
as in
oi
l, j
oi
n, b
oy
p
as in
p
rint,
p
a
p
er, slee
p
r
as in
r
ash, ta
rr
y, poo
r
s
as in
c
ent,
sc
ent, le
ss
en
sh
as in
s
ugar,
sh
u
sh
, ca
sh
t
as in
t
alk, u
tt
er, hea
t
th
as in
th
ink, wra
th
, loa
th
th as in
th
en, bo
th
er, loa
th
e
u
as in
u
gly, m
u
tter, c
o
me
ur
as in
ur
ge, h
er
, f
ir
, sabot
eur
uu
as in
br
oo
k, f
u
ll, w
o
man
v
as in
v
ery, e
v
ery, bra
v
e
w
as in
w
ell, a
w
ash, allo
w
y
as in
y
et, abe
y
ance,
u
seful
z
as in
z
ap, ga
z
ebo, tea
s
e
zh
as in
plea
s
ure, vi
s
ion, persifla
ge
Note
: Headwords that are considered still to be foreign terms are given in italics.
