An English dictionary, explaining the difficult terms that are used in divinity, husbandry, physick, philosophy, law, navigation, mathematicks, and other arts and sciences containing many thousand of hard words … together with the etymological derivation

Coles, E[lisha]

Published by printed by S. Collins, for R. Bonwick, T. Goodwin, J. Walthoe, M. Wotton, J. Nicholson, B. Tooke, R. Wilkin, S. Manship, R. Smith and T. Ward, London, 1717

About this Item

Tenth edition, small 8vo, pp. [336]; some foxing, later half calf over marbled boards, red morocco label on spine; nice copy. Coles (?1640-1680) was the author of a number of "useful and necessary books for the instruction of beginners," among which were his popular A Dictionary English-Latin and Latin-English (London, 1677) which was still in use in schools even after the arrival of Ainsworth's Thesaurus in 1736; and An English Dictionary (London, 1676, et al.). "Still in the "hard words" tradition, Coles included thousands of "old words," obsolete from Chaucer's day. His dictionary contained twenty-five thousand words, eight thousand more than the last, augmented edition of Phillips. He shortened Phillips' already brief definitions in order to include more words and more etymological information. Coles did break new ground in including cant (thieves' argot) and dialectical terms. These, taken from other specialized dictionaries, had never before been included in a general English dictionary" (Landau, Dictionaries, p.43). Alston V, 72.

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: An English dictionary, explaining the difficult terms that are used in divinity, husbandry, physick, philosophy, law, navigation, mathematicks, and other arts and sciences containing many thousand of hard words … together with the etymological derivation
• Publisher: printed by S. Collins, for R. Bonwick, T. Goodwin, J. Walthoe, M. Wotton, J. Nicholson, B. Tooke, R. Wilkin, S. Manship, R. Smith and T. Ward, London
• Publication Date: 1717
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