General French and English dictionary, newly composed from the French dictionaries of the French Academy ... / from the English dictionaries of Johnson, Webster ... etc.
- Alexander Spiers
- Date:
- 1849
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: General French and English dictionary, newly composed from the French dictionaries of the French Academy ... / from the English dictionaries of Johnson, Webster ... etc. Source: Wellcome Collection.
7/640
![Examples of words fabricaled. Partition in music for score; pass-rose for holly-hock; English taffely for court plaslei ; fagoneo: fagona for pancréas ; redhibitory for selling aside a contract of sale. To translate the English word walrus the dictionaries invented walrus, walros, and torwac for morse. Examples of mistranslations. Actuellement is translated by actually ; really instead of at présent because of the resemblance ; billion, billion (instead of a thousand millions; billion in English means a million of millions); détrempe, water- colours (for distempcr [in painting]); dissidence, scission (for différence, schism; scission signifiescuttingp, emphase, emphasis (instead of magniloquence, pompousness); inofficieux, inoflicious, unkind ((or thaï disinherits the legitimate heir ; trüïion, trillion (for billion); vindicte, vengeance (for prosecution of crime); vindicte publique, avenging the public (for prosecution of crime by the public prosecutor). Pomme de pin bas been so invariably translated by pine-apple, and vice versa, that ail lhe French journals, in their account of the city feast of the 9lh of November, until within the last two or three years, annually charged our aldermen of London, prover- bially renowned for their good taste, with having eaten (peace to their digestions!) so many hundred fir-cones !... in French pommes de pin. One of the innumerable erroneous indications is presented to the reader, as it proves how entirely these works bave been left as they were by the self-styled authors of new dictionaries, the principal novelty of which consists of the new name they bear and some new blunders added to the already plentiful stock. At the word Louvre, the reader will find in nearly ail dictionaries the king of France’s palace at Paris. This was true in the reign of Charles IX, and of Henry îV, down to that of Louis XIV. But no king of France has inhabited it since Louis XV. It would be as well to define it the king of France’s hunting-seat, as it was in the good old time of Dagobert, or his strong-hold, because it was so under Philip Augustus. For a hundred and fifty years then has this définition been erroneous; but it has remained as it was written perhaps by the first lexicographer, whose définition was probably right when he penned it. These extracts assuredly prove the truth of the preceding assertions; they mighthave been increased ten or a hundredfold. HISTORY OF THE DICTIONARIES OF THE TWO LANGUAGES. The history of the dictionaries of the two languages explains their insufficiency. The earliest French and English dictionary of which I find any record is an anony- mous publication of 1570. In 1611 Colgrave^s appeared and of this Johnson speaks in ternis of high encomium, calling it “ a truly valuable work” and “ a rich store-house ot old French and English also.” Boyer’s name replaced or perhaps supplanted Cotgrave’s; Boyer’s alone has survived. The French and English dictionaries are but reprints of Boyer and Chambaud with mere changes in the size, sometimes with insignificant corrections and additions and frequently with fresh faults. Boniface put inLo octavo what was before a quarto, added his name, the announcement of 5000 lamiliar terms and many new faults (1). Wilson selecled among the materials of Boyer; but as he does not appear to hâve known French (a slight disadvantage it must be confessed), he was naturally and necessarily directed by chance. The smaller dictionaries are made from the larger ones or rather in what they give they are the larger ones in a diminulive form. Boyer and Chambaud. Boyer was a French protestant who sought a refuge in England at the révocation of the edict of Nantes. He died in 1729. He published his dictionary in 1699 or 1702. The first édition of the dictionary of the French Academy appeared in 1694; the second, not until 1718; so that Boyer must hâve compiled his from the first. Johnson’s great work which will ever be the basis, the foundation of English lexico- graphy was not published till 1755, i. e., twenty-six years after Boyer’s death. Tliere existed before Jqhnson’s, accordingto Lord Cheslerfield, no English dictionary, nolhing but word-books in which “ ail words, good and bad,” says he, “ are there jumbled imvV V ^n(^u^um Boniface corrected un pendule into une pendule ( which means a dock) and at licence cal led patente and en i>y Boyer, Chambaud and Wilson as droit d'auban, the old name for it, Boniface has corrected itinto droit d'aubaine.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2201391x_0007.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
