In:Processes of Change: Studies in Late Modern and Present-Day English
Edited by Sandra Jansen and Lucia Siebers
[Studies in Language Variation 21] 2019
► pp. 95–114
Chapter 6Scotland’s contribution to English vocabulary in Late Modern times
Published online: 13 August 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.21.06dos
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.21.06dos
This chapter discusses some nineteenth-century Scottish authors, lexicographers, and periodicals that are
frequently cited as sources in the Oxford English Dictionary, in order to assess their role in the
expansion of English vocabulary that occurred throughout Late Modern times. As these citations concern the first
instances of both new lexical items and of new meanings, their proportion is analyzed paying special attention to
the former. Literary sources are considered on account of their relative popularity at different points in time, but
the article also discusses periodicals and dictionaries, which could have a greater or lesser encyclopaedic approach
to the vocabulary they collected. The study shows that the complexity of lexical accretion in Late Modern times
requires the study of a broad range of materials in the cultural framework in which they were produced and received.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 1.1Late Modern Scotland between antiquity and innovation
- 2.The Scottish roots of the OED
- 3.Scottish sources in the OED
- 3.1Literary voices
- 3.2Scottish lexicographers in the OED
- 3.3Scottish periodicals in the OED
- 4.Concluding remarks
Notes References
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