Creator
T[homas] B[lount]
Title
Glossographia; or, A Dictionary, Interpreting All Such Hard Words . . . as are now used in our refined English Tongue
Coverage
London
Publisher
Printed by Tho. Newcomb for Humphrey Moseley
Date
1656
Description
A lawyer precluded from practice by his Catholicism, Blount wrote the most scholarly general dictionary to date. Innovations include consistently citing authorities and registering etymologies, which he also did in his well-regarded law dictionary. He was besotted with hard words, some of which he might have coined: buxiferous, diventilate, fatiferous, nemorivagant, venustate . . . Though borrowing freely from predecessors, Blount was outraged when Edward Phillips and others did the same to him. He railed against “the beggarly half-witted” scholars who “surreptitiously . . . transcribed and mutilated” his work.
Source
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 16
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