Back on October 29, which was my son’s birthday, Neil, the creator of the blog Yorkshire Pudding, published a post titled “"Quotations.".” He wrote about The Quotation Dictionary and how he used it when writing academic essays as a student at the University of Stirling in Scotland back in the 1970s. He still has that book.
In that respect, Neil and I are kindred spirits. I, too, have held on to some of the old reference books from my college days. And just recently, I added another one to my collection when I purchased a Webster’s New Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language at a friend’s garage sale.
My love for dictionaries goes back to fifth and sixth grades. When the class was learning how to use one, our teacher gave us a weekly exercise involving our spelling words. First, we had to alphabetize the words in our spelling books. Then we would take out a couple of sheets of paper, look up each word in the dictionary, write it down, underline it, identify its part of speech, indicate its syllabication, and finally write its definition. Whatever we didn’t finish in class became homework.
There was plenty of moaning and groaning from some of my classmates, but not from me. I actually enjoyed the exercise. I liked searching for the words, discovering their meanings, and learning something new along the way. Looking back, those assignments probably helped develop my appreciation for words and the English language.
Now, back to my Webster’s Dictionary. It is an absolute giant! The pages measure 8 by 11 inches, and the book is 5.5 inches thick. There are 2,006 pages devoted just to A-to-Z words and their definitions. But that’s not all. It also contains sections listing the populations of U.S. cities and foreign cities, information about U.S. presidents, maps of countries, a digest of the purposes of current federal agencies, and so much more. This eight-pound tome is practically a reference library all by itself.
I imagine that most students today rarely, if ever, use a physical dictionary. With resources such as Merriam-Webster Online, Dictionary.com, the Cambridge Dictionary, and the Oxford English Dictionary, definitions, word origins, and thesaurus tools are just a few clicks or taps away. Information is instantly available at their fingertips, without having to thumb through page after page to find what they need.
And while I appreciate the convenience of online dictionaries, there is something special about holding a big, old-fashioned dictionary in your hands. You can open it to look up one word and, before you know it, find yourself exploring several others along the way. Sometimes the words you stumble upon are just as interesting as the one you originally set out to find.
That's what I miss most about the physical dictionary: the journey of discovery. Looking up a word was never just about finding a definition. It was about learning, exploring, and occasionally getting sidetracked. Technology may have made finding words faster, but I think there is still room on the bookshelf for a good old dictionary.
