I’m writing this post as much for myself as for anyone else…
I’m a writer; though, I’ve never been a professional critic (but, my literary criticisms lie strewn across my writerly landscape…); and, of all things, I’ve been extremely critical of many critics…
Perhaps we can avoid the dangerous territory of definitions and test the more solid rock of etymologies of “critic”.
From the Oxford Dictionary of English:
origin late 16th century : from Latin criticus , from Greek kritikos, from kritēs ‘a judge ’, from krinein ‘ judge , decide ’.
1580s, “one who passes judgment,” from Middle French critique (14c.), from Latin criticus “a judge, literary critic,” from Greek kritikos “able to make judgments,” from krinein “to separate, decide” (from PIE root *krei- “to sieve,” thus “discriminate, distinguish”). Meaning “one who judges merits of books, plays, etc.” is from c. 1600. The English word always had overtones of “censurer, faultfinder.”
For those who wonder at my avoidance of dictionaries and my embrace of etymologies, ’tis true that most etymologies lie in dictionaries; and, the etymology of “etymology” is:
late 14c., ethimolegia “facts of the origin and development of a word,” from Old French etimologie, ethimologie (14c., Modern French étymologie), from Latin etymologia, from Greek etymologia “analysis of a word to find its true origin,” properly “study of the true sense (of a word),” with -logia “study of, a speaking of” (see -logy) + etymon “true sense,” neuter of etymos “true, real, actual,” related to eteos “true,” which perhaps is cognate with Sanskrit satyah, Gothic sunjis, Old English soð “true.”
Anyone who’s just waded through all those blockquotes deserves to be given a charm against all critics…
“I grew up with a very critical father; and then, guess what, I became a critic myself. Not too surprising, right?”
Then, this brilliant revelation:
“…as the old Biblical adage goes, the son inherits the sins of the father, and I became a journalist and a literary critic. My job? Read books, find faults and pass judgment on them, in much the same way that my father and his father passed judgment. Ironic, right? In a way, I had become what I despised—a person who found fault with others and their works.”
So…
If you’re a writer (or, a serious reader), you may wonder what would become of the world if the realm of literature were to lose its critics…
A few more excerpts from that article:
“When I ‘panned’ a book—gave it a negative review—it reminded me of all the criticism I had withstood as a child. I thought about the author of the book reading my review, and how it had the potential to hurt that writer. All of this affected my spirit, and I began to think about finding another line of work.”
The author decided to write only positive reviews:
“Needless to say, my editors didn’t always agree. Any critic who only writes positive reviews doesn’t often develop a discerning reputation in our current culture, which delights in rampant and even vicious criticism. In fact, the most famous, celebrated and best-compensated literary critics today are often the savage attackers, the ones who write extremely negative and even cruel reviews.”
That author ends their article with this quote:
“One must see in every human being only that which is worthy of praise. When this is done, one can be a friend to the whole human race. If, however, we look at people from the standpoint of their faults, then being a friend to them is a formidable task.”
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“Naturally, the dictionary is managed by the University of Oxford—”It is the oldest university in the English-speaking world, and the second-oldest surviving university in the world.”
With Additional Material from A Thesaurus of Old English
Edited by Christian Kay, Jane Roberts, Michael Samuels, and Irené Wotherspoon
A unique thesaurus resource – the very first historical thesaurus to be compiled for any of the world’s languages
The largest thesaurus resource in the world, covering more than 920,000 words and meanings from Old English to the present day based, on the Oxford English Dictionary
Synonyms listed with dates of first recorded use in English, in chronological order, with earliest synonyms first
Uses a thematic system of classification, with synonyms and related words forming part of a detailed semantic hierarchy
Comprehensive index enables complete cross-referencing of nearly one million words and meanings
Contains a comprehensive sense inventory of Old English
Includes a free fold-out color chart which shows the top levels of the classification structure
Made up of two volumes: The main text, comprising numbers sections for semantic categories, and the index, comprising a full A-Z look up of nearly one million lexical items
Go on over and find a few books that are within your budget :-)
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Naturally, the dictionary is managed by the University of Oxford—“It is the oldest university in the English-speaking world, and the second-oldest surviving university in the world.”
So, how many of those entries did you already know?
Did you take any of the links to check out Oxford’s definitions?
So…
Here’s how the Oxford chooses new words—I’m sure other dictionaries follow similar procedures :-)
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I even did a calculation of my small budget and determined I could float $50 on my credit card for the few extra months it would take to pay off a new expense…
OK, I’m going to give you some reasons to consider parting with half-a-hundred-per-year but, in case you could care less, there’s a totally cool video down at the bottom of this post :-)
I should point out that the free edition does let you choose between U.S. English and World English, it does have articles on Better Writing—spelling, grammar, etc.—along with Learner’s Dictionaries and Word Puzzles; but, there’s no linked thesaurus and the writing tips are minimal (but, still, helpful).
So, the Pro Edition:
* Go from a dictionary entry straight to the thesaurus entry or vise versa.
* Browse the dictionary in various categories: Subject, Meaning, People & Places, Usage, Region, and Word Class.
* There are 1.9 million Example Sentences (fully searchable).
* It’s updated every quarter.
* Plus:
Language resources
Searchable complete versions of New Hart’s Rules, Pocket Fowler’s Modern English Usage, and Garner’s Modern American Usage
Specialist dictionaries for writers and editors include New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors, and Garner’s Dictionary of Legal Usage
Link directly from dictionary headwords to relevant chapters or entries in the Writers and Editors sections
Comprehensive Writing Skills including grammar and punctuation where good writing starts, style and usage to write effectively and create the right impression, and quick spelling tips
Use the Vocabulary Builder to enrich creative writing
* And, if you’re a librarian, there’s even more :-)
I’ll share one use I’ve made of this radically cool dictionary.
I have an excellent friend who lives in Australia (I’m in the U.S.) and I did a search that filtered the dictionary for Australian, Informal, Nouns for the words “man” and “woman” (the other Country Filters are British, Canadian, Indian English, Irish English, North American, Northern English, New Zealand, Scottish, South African, and US; the other Usage Filters are archaic, dated, derogatory, dialect, euphemistic, figurative, formal, historical, humorous, literary, rare, and technical; and, the other Word Class Filters are adjective, adverb, verb, abbreviation, conjunction, contraction, combining form, determiner, exclamation, plural noun, predeterminer, prefix, preposition, pronoun, and suffix).
There was one word for women that my friend said she’d never heard used…
She even checked a well-known, specifically Australian dictionary…
She mentioned another, related word that she’s heard used and the dictionary had it defined but didn’t say it was Australian usage…
We had a lively discussion of the whys and where-fors of which words end up in which dictionaries…
She’s going to survey her writers’ group and I’m eager to hear what they say :-)
As far as what words end up in which dictionaries and which dictionaries are best suited for certain uses, plus lots of other mega-cool lexicographical information (delivered with compelling style) check out this video of Erin McKean (former principal editor of one of Oxford’s dictionaries) as she talks to the folks at Google about her profession…
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That title is only the beginning of a quote from the comedian Bill Cosby.
Here’s the full quote: “A word to the wise ain’t necessary—it’s the stupid ones that need the advice.”
Using dictionaries is undeniably important in Reading, Writing, and Publishing—the three main topics of this blog.
Last year, I wrote a post called Dictionary Evangelist. I do hope you’ll take that link and watch the video there—go ahead—I’ll wait right here…
So, that was Erin McKean, a founder and the CEO of the online dictionary Wordnik and, previously, the Principal Editor of The New Oxford American Dictionary.
Wordnik is irrevocably Cool since it’s a dictionary that you can add words to—based on Erin’s philosophy that dictionaries shouldn’t be compiled by traffic cops but by folks who fish…
This woman is definitely a phenomenon…
Plus, she has a great article in The New York Times called Using Undictionaried Words—here’s an excerpt:
“…serve as your own lexicographer and shine your own light on largely undiscovered words. For it’s a kind of lexical Catch-22: since editors at most traditional dictionaries won’t include a word until they see published evidence of its use, holding off on using a word just because it’s not in the dictionary can actually delay its inclusion.”
Not hard to see why I, a man whose favorite word is “word”, find this woman’s work fascinating…
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