Lexicographer

Definition: Lexicographer

Lexicographer

Noun

1. A compiler or writer of a dictionary; a student of the lexical component of language.

Date "lexicographer" was first used: 1658. (references)

Specialty Definitions: Lexicographer

Domain	Definitions
Satire	LEXICOGRAPHER, n. A pestilent fellow who, under the pretense of recording some particular stage in the development of a language, does what he can to arrest its growth, stiffen its flexibility and mechanize its methods. For your lexicographer, having written his dictionary, comes to be considered "as one having authority," whereas his function is only to make a record, not to give a law. The natural servility of the human understanding having invested him with judicial power, surrenders its right of reason and submits itself to a chronicle as if it were a statue. Let the dictionary (for example) mark a good word as "obsolete" or "obsolescent" and few men thereafter venture to use it, whatever their need of it and however desirable its restoration to favor -- whereby the process of improverishment is accelerated and speech decays. On the contrary, recognizing the truth that language must grow by innovation if it grow at all, makes new words and uses the old in an unfamiliar sense, has no following and is tartly reminded that "it isn't in the dictionary" -- although down to the time of the first lexicographer (Heaven forgive him!) no author ever had used a word that was in the dictionary. In the golden prime and high noon of English speech; when from the lips of the great Elizabethans fell words that made their own meaning and carried it in their very sound; when a Shakespeare and a Bacon were possible, and the language now rapidly perishing at one end and slowly renewed at the other was in vigorous growth and hardy preservation -- sweeter than honey and stronger than a lion -- the lexicographer was a person unknown, the dictionary a creation which his Creator had not created him to create. God said: "Let Spirit perish into Form," And lexicographers arose, a swarm! Thought fled and left her clothing, which they took, And catalogued each garment in a book. Now, from her leafy covert when she cries: "Give me my clothes and I'll return," they rise And scan the list, and say without compassion: "Excuse us -- they are mostly out of fashion." Sigismund Smith. Source: Devil's Dictionary.
Occupations	Researches information about words that make up language and writes and reviews definitions for publication in dictionary: Conducts or directs research to discover origin, spelling, syllabication, pronunciation, meaning, and usage of words. Organizes research material and writes dictionary definition. May study or conduct surveys to determine factors, such as frequency of use for a specific word, or word use by particular segment of population in order to select words for inclusion in dictionary. May perform related editorial duties. May select drawings or other graphic material to illustrate word meaning. May specialize in particular type of dictionary, such as medical, electronic, or industrial. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top

Specialty Definition: Lexicographer

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

A lexicographer is a person devoted to the study of lexicography, especially an author of a dictionary.

Some famous lexicographers:

Samuel Johnson
Noah Webster
Isaac Kaufmann Funk
James Murray
Henry Bradley
William Craigie
Charles Talbut Onions
Henry Watson Fowler
A. S. Hornby

Johnson famously defined a lexicographer as "Lexicographer: A writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words".

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Lexicographer."

Top

Synonym: Lexicographer

Synonym: lexicologist (n). (additional references)

Top

Synonyms within Context: Lexicographer

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Scholar	Noun: scholar, connoisseur, savant, pundit, schoolman, professor, graduate, wrangler; academician, academist; master of arts, doctor, licentitate, gownsman; philosopher, master of math; scientist, clerk; sophist, sophister; linguist; glossolinguist, philologist; philologer; lexicographer, glossographer; grammarian; litterateur, literati, dilettanti, illuminati, cogniscenti; fellow, Hebraist, lexicologist, mullah, munshi, Sanskritish; sinologist, sinologue; Mezzofanti, admirable Crichton, Mecaenas.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Top

Crosswords: Lexicographer

English words defined with "lexicographer": Bailey ♦ Craigie ♦ Dictionalrian, Dr. Johnson ♦ etymologist ♦ Florio, Fowler ♦ Henry Watson Fowler ♦ James Augustus Henry Murray, James Augustus Murray, James Murray, John Florio, Johnson, Joseph Emerson Worcester ♦ Larousse, Lexicographist, Littre ♦ Maximilien Paul Emile Littre, Murray ♦ Nathan Bailey, Nathaniel Bailey, neologist, Noah Webster ♦ Pierre Athanase Larousse, Pierre Larousse ♦ Samuel Johnson, Sir James Augustus Henry Murray, Sir James Augustus Murray, Sir James Murray, Sir William Alexander Craigie ♦ Vocabulist ♦ Webster, William A. Craigie, Worcester. (references)

Specialty definitions using "lexicographer": Abnormal ♦ HANGMAN ♦ KISS ♦ lexicographer ♦ magic ♦ Obsolete ♦ Patriotism, Poker ♦ riches, Rosalinde. (references)

Top

Commercial Usage: Lexicographer

Domain	Title
Books	Festschrift to honor F. Wilbur Gingrich, lexicographer, scholar, teacher, and committed Christian layman (reference) In the tracks of a lexicographer : secondary documentation in Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English language (1755) (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top

Non-Fiction Usage: Lexicographer

Subject	Topic	Quote
Lexicography	Devil's Dictionary	ABNORMAL, adj. Not conforming to standard. In matters of thought and conduct, to be independent is to be abnormal, to be abnormal is to be detested. Wherefore the lexicographer adviseth a striving toward the straiter [sic] resemblance of the Average Man than he hath to himself. Whoso attaineth thereto shall have peace, the prospect of death and the hope of Hell.
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Top

Usage Frequency: Lexicographer

"Lexicographer" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 97.53% of the time. "Lexicographer" is used about 81 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	97.53%	79	37,388
Noun (proper)	2.47%	2	245,945
Total	100.00%	81	N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

Top

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Lexicographer

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day
john lexicographer	45
lexicographer	28
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top

Modern Translations: Lexicographer

Language		Translations for "lexicographer"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		leksikograf, hartues fjalorësh. (various references)

Arabic		‏مؤلف المعجم أو القاموس, ‏المعجمي. (various references)

Bulgarian		съставител на речници, речникар, лексикограф. (various references)

Chinese		词典编篆人. (various references)

Czech		lexikograf. (various references)

Farsi		لغت نویس . (various references)

Finnish		sanakirjan tekijä (compiler of a dictionary). (various references)

French		lexicographe. (various references)

German		lexikographin, lexikograph. (various references)

Greek		λεξικογράφοσ. (various references)

Hebrew		או�'ר (collector, hoarder). (various references)

Hungarian		szótárszerkesztõ, szótáríró. (various references)

Indonesian		pekamus. (various references)

Italian		lessicografo. (various references)

Korean		사� �편집자. (various references)

Manx		fockleyreyder (glossarist). (various references)

Pig Latin		exicographerlay

Portuguese		lexical. (various references)

Romanian		lexicograf. (various references)

Russian		лексикограф. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		leksikograf, pisac rečnika. (various references)

Spanish		lexicógrafo. (various references)

Swedish		ordboksförfattare. (various references)

Thai		ผู้เขียนพจนานุกรม. (various references)

Turkish		leksikograf, sözlükbilimci, sözlük yazarı (meseboan). (various references)

Ukranian		лексикограф. (various references)

Vietnamese		nh� từ điển học, người soạn từ điển. (various references)

Welsh		geiriadurwr. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Top

Ancestral Language Translations: Lexicographer

Language	Period	Translations
French	1500-Modern	lexicographe. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Top

Derivations & Misspellings: Lexicographer

Derivations
	Words beginning with "lexicographer": lexicographers. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Lexicographer" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: lexicograph, lexicographe. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Top

Rhyming with "Lexicographer"

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "lexicographer" (pronounced le'ksikÄ"grufer)
6	-Ä" g r u f er	autobiographer, biographer, choreographer, cinematographer, crystallographer, demographer, geographer, oceanographer, photographer, pornographer.
5	-g r u f er	stenographer, videographer.
3	-u f er	aquifer, conifer, Lucifer, philosopher.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Top

Anagrams: Lexicographer

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-c-e-e-g-h-i-l-o-p-r-r-x"
	-2 letters: xerographic.
	-4 letters: coliphage, paregoric, preachier, xerophile.
	-5 letters: capriole, carriole, exoergic, explorer, heroical, leachier, oligarch, orphical, parhelic, peachier, pearlier, perigeal, poachier, preacher, preclear, progeria, recharge, recoiler, replacer, reproach.
	Words containing the letters "a-c-e-e-g-h-i-l-o-p-r-r-x"
	+1 letter: lexicographers.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.