Thomas Blount's Glossographia Flashcards
Give me 2 contextual things about this dictionary.
The dictionary was first published in 1656
It was published by Thomas Blount
Contained 11,000 words.
Who was the intended audience?
The intended audience was everyone so they would be able to look up words they don’t understand in books and gain a full understanding of what they are reading. This was the first time that words related to trade or industry were included.
What were 2 reasons for writing the dictionary?
This idea was built around how he had read books and not understood what they were talking about in special fields such as maths, anatomy, war, music and architecture.
He also wanted to include the new words such as coffee, chocolate, drapery, boot, omeletteorbalcony, these were brought in by sailors and merchants and were used in shops or other public places - drinking houses, tailors, shoemakers or barber.
Explain how Blout’s dicitonary holds an descriptivist attitude.
Blount accepted words that weren’t ‘just words’ they were taken from trades, specialist to subjects and sometimes new to English. He included words based on what was being used at the time which links to the descriptivist view that “language is defined by what people do with it” which means that when new words are being introduced to English they should be included because they are what people are starting to use.
Examples of 2 recognisable words
In which words such ascoffee and balcony and still recognised even until today.
Examples of 3 obsolete/unrecognisable words
Turbants, daulphin, and obelisks)
