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Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements)

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English language -- Dictionaries

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Chambers’s Twentieth‑Century Dictionary is a comprehensive reference work that presents the English language in a systematic, alphabetic format. The opening pages explain that each entry is listed in strict alphabetical order, with derivatives placed beneath their root words to conserve space, and that irregular verb participles and exceptional plurals follow the main entry. Pronunciation is rendered in a unique respelling system that assigns a single, unvarying sound to each consonant, while vowel quality is indicated by a set of marked symbols printed at the top of each page. The dictionary also supplies meanings, etymologies, and a list of abbreviations, and it treats foreign phrases separately at the end of the volume. This meticulous layout, beginning with the letter “S,” demonstrates the editor’s intent to provide a clear, scholarly guide to spelling, pronunciation, and word history.

The work reflects the scholarly tone of late‑Victorian reference books, employing a formal, didactic voice that assumes a reader comfortable with dense explanatory prose. Its focus on spelling reform, phonetic consistency, and extensive etymological notes will appeal to students of historical linguistics, lexicographers, and anyone interested in the evolution of English orthography. Readers who enjoy detailed, academically oriented dictionaries and who appreciate the meticulous conventions of 19th‑century scholarship will find this volume a valuable resource.

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EDITED BY REV. THOMAS DAVIDSON ASSISTANT-EDITOR OF 'CHAMBERS'S ENCYCLOPÆDIA' EDITOR OF 'CHAMBERS'S ENGLISH DICTIONARY'

LONDON: 47 Paternoster Row W. & R. CHAMBERS, LIMITED EDINBURGH: 339 High Street 1908

EXPLANATIONS TO THE STUDENT.

THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE WORDS.--Every word is given in its alphabetical order, except in cases where, to save space, derivatives are given after and under the words from which they are derived. Each uncompounded verb has its participles, when irregular, placed after it. Exceptional plurals are also given. When a word stands after another, with no meaning given, its meanings can be at once formed from those of the latter, by adding the signification of the affix: thus the meanings of Darkness are obtained by prefixing the meaning of ness, state of being, to those of Dark.

Many words from French and other tongues, current in English usage, but not yet fairly Anglicised, are inserted in the list of Foreign Phrases, &c., at the end, rather than in the body of the Dictionary.

THE PRONUNCIATION.--The Pronunciation is given immediately after each word, by the word being spelled anew. In this new spelling, every consonant used has its ordinary unvarying sound, no consonant being employed that has more than one sound. The same sounds are always represented by the same letters, no matter how varied their actual spelling in the language. No consonant used has any mark attached to it, with the one exception of th, which is printed in common letters when sounded as in thick, but in italics when sounded as in _th_en. Unmarked vowels have always their short sounds, as in lad, led, lid, lot, but, book. The marked vowels are shown in the following line, which is printed at the top of each page:--

f[=a]te, fär; m[=e], h[.e]r; m[=i]ne; m[=o]te; m[=u]te; m[=oo]n; _th_en.

The vowel u when marked thus, ü, has the sound heard in Scotch bluid, gude, the French du, almost that of the German ü in Müller. Where more than one pronunciation of a word is given, that which is placed first is more accepted.

THE SPELLING.--When more than one form of a word is given, that which is placed first is the spelling in current English use. Unfortunately our modern spelling does not represent the English we actually speak, but rather the language of the 16th century, up to which period, generally speaking, English spelling was mainly phonetic, like the present German. The fundamental principle of all rational spelling is no doubt the representation of every sound by an invariable symbol, but in modern English the usage of pronunciation has drifted far from the conventional forms established by a traditional orthography, with the result that the present spelling of our written speech is to a large extent a mere exercise of memory, full of confusing anomalies and imperfections, and involving an enormous and unnecessary strain on the faculties of learners. Spelling reform is indeed an imperative necessity, but it must proceed with a wise moderation, for, in the words of Mr Sweet, 'nothing can be done without unanimity, and until the majority of the community are convinced of the superiority of some one system unanimity is impossible.' The true path of progress should follow such wisely moderate counsels as those of Dr J. A. H. Murray:--the dropping of the final or inflexional silent e; the restoration of the historical -t after breath consonants; uniformity in the employment of double consonants, as in traveler, &c.; the discarding of ue in words like demagogue and catalogue; the uniform levelling of the agent -our into -or; the making of ea = [)e] short into e and the long ie into ee; the restoration of some, come, tongue, to their old English forms, sum, cum, tung; a more extended use of z in the body of words, as chozen, praize, raize; and the correction of the worst individual monstrosities, as foreign, scent, scythe, ache, debt, people, parliament, court, would, sceptic, phthisis, queue, schedule, twopence-halfpenny, yeoman, sieve, gauge, barque, buoy, yacht, &c.

Already in America a moderate degree of spelling reform may be said to be established in good usage, by the adoption of -or for -our, as color, labor, &c.; of -er for -re, as center, meter, &c.; -ize for -ise, as civilize, &c.; the use of a uniform single consonant after an unaccented vowel, as traveler for traveller; the adoption of e for oe or æ in hemorrhage, diarrhea, &c.

THE MEANINGS.--The current and most important meaning of a word is usually given first. But in cases like Clerk, Livery, Marshal, where the force of the word can be made much clearer by tracing its history, the original meaning is also given, and the successive variations of its usage defined.

THE ETYMOLOGY.--The Etymology of each word is given after the meanings, within brackets. Where further information regarding a word is given elsewhere, it is so indicated by a reference. It must be noted under the etymology that whenever a word is printed thus, BAN, BASE, the student is referred to it; also that here the sign--is always to be read as meaning 'derived from.' Examples are generally given of words that are cognate or correspond to the English words; but it must be remembered that they are inserted merely for illustration. Such words are usually separated from the rest by a semicolon. For instance, when an English word is traced to its Anglo-Saxon form, and then a German word is given, no one should suppose that our English word is derived from the German. German and Anglo-Saxon are alike branches from a common Teutonic stem, and have seldom borrowed from each other. Under each word the force of the prefix is usually given, though not the affix. For fuller explanation in such cases the student is referred to the list of Prefixes and Suffixes in the Appendix.

aor. aorist. abbrev. abbreviation. abl. ablative. acc. according. accus. accusative. adj. adjective. adv. adverb. agri. agriculture. alg. algebra. anat. anatomy. app. apparently. arch. archaic. archit. architecture. arith. arithmetic. astrol. astrology. astron. astronomy. attrib. attributive. augm. augmentative. B. Bible. biol. biology. book-k. book-keeping. bot. botany. c. (circa) about. c., cent. century. carp. carpentry. cf. compare. chem. chemistry. cog. cognate. coll., colloq. colloquially. comp. comparative. conch. conchology. conj. conjunction. conn. connected. contr. contracted. cook. cookery. corr. corruption. crystal. crystallography. dat. dative. demons. demonstrative. der. derivation. dial. dialect, dialectal. Dict. Dictionary. dim. diminutive. dub. doubtful. eccles. ecclesiastical history. e.g. for example. elect. electricity. entom. entomology. esp. especially. ety. etymology. fem. feminine. fig. figuratively. fol. followed; following. fort. fortification. freq. frequentative. fut. future. gen. genitive. gener. generally. geog. geography. geol. geology. geom. geometry. ger. gerundive. gram. grammar. gun. gunnery. her. heraldry. hist. history. hort. horticulture. hum. humorous. i.e. that is. imit. imitative. imper. imperative. impers. impersonal. indic. indicative. infin. infinitive. inten. intensive. interj. interjection. interrog. interrogative. jew. jewellery. lit. literally. mach. machinery. masc. masculine. math. mathematics. mech. mechanics. med. medicine. metaph. metaphysics. mil. military. Milt. Milton. min. mineralogy. mod. modern. Mt. Mount. mus. music. myth. mythology. n., ns. noun, nouns. nat. hist. natural history. naut. nautical. neg. negative. neut. neuter. n.pl. noun plural. n.sing. noun singular. N.T. New Testament. obs. obsolete. opp. opposed. opt. optics. orig. originally. ornith. ornithology. O.S. old style. O.T. Old Testament. p., part. participle. p.adj. participial adjective. paint. painting. paleog. paleography. paleon. paleontology. palm. palmistry. pa.p. past participle. pass. passive. pa.t. past tense. path. pathology. perf. perfect. perh. perhaps. pers. person. pfx. prefix. phil., philos. philosophy. philol. philology. phon. phonetics. phot. photography. phrenol. phrenology. phys. physics. physiol. physiology. pl. plural. poet. poetical. pol. econ. political economy. poss. possessive. Pr.Bk. Book of Common Prayer. pr.p. present participle. prep. preposition. pres. present. print. printing. priv. privative. prob. probably. Prof. Professor. pron. pronoun; pronounced; pronunciation. prop. properly. pros. prosody. prov. provincial. q.v. which see. R.C. Roman Catholic. recip. reciprocal. redup. reduplication. refl. reflexive. rel. related; relative. rhet. rhetoric. sculp. sculpture. Shak. Shakespeare. sig. signifying. sing. singular. spec. specifically. Spens. Spenser. subj. subjunctive. suff. suffix. superl. superlative. surg. surgery. term. termination. teleg. telegraphy. Tenn. Tennyson. Test. Testament. theat. theatre; theatricals. theol. theology. trig. trigonometry. ult. ultimately. v.i. verb intransitive. voc. vocative. v.t. verb transitive. vul. vulgar. zool. zoology.

Amer. American. Ar. Arabic. A.S. Anglo-Saxon. Austr. Australian. Bav. Bavarian. Beng. Bengali. Bohem. Bohemian. Braz. Brazilian. Bret. Breton. Carib. Caribbean. Celt. Celtic. Chal. Chaldean. Chin. Chinese. Corn. Cornish. Dan. Danish. Dut. Dutch. Egypt. Egyptian. Eng. English. Finn. Finnish. Flem. Flemish. Fr. French. Fris. Frisian. Gael. Gaelic. Ger. German. Goth. Gothic. Gr. Greek. Heb. Hebrew. Hind. Hindustani. Hung. Hungarian. Ice. Icelandic. Ind. Indian. Ion. Ionic. Ir. Irish. It. Italian. Jap. Japanese. Jav. Javanese. L. Latin. Lith. Lithuanian. L. L. Low or Late Latin. M. E. Middle English. Mex. Mexican. Norm. Norman. Norw. Norwegian. O. Fr. Old French. Pers. Persian. Peruv. Peruvian. Pol. Polish. Port. Portuguese. Prov. Provençal. Rom. Romance. Russ. Russian Sans. Sanskrit. Scand. Scandinavian. Scot. Scottish. Singh. Singhalese. Slav. Slavonic. Sp. Spanish. Sw. Swedish. Teut. Teutonic. Turk. Turkish. U.S. United States. W. Welsh.

S the nineteenth letter in our alphabet, its sound that of the hard open sibilant: as a medieval Roman numeral--7--also 70; [=S]--70,000.--COLLAR OF SS, a collar composed of a series of the letter s in gold, either linked together or set in close order.

SAB, sab, n. (Scot.) a form of sob.

SABADILLA, sab-a-dil'a, n. a Mexican plant, whose seeds yield an officinal alkaloid, veratrine, employed chiefly in acute febrile diseases in strong healthy persons.--Also CEBADILL'A, CEVADILL'A.

SABAISM, s[=a]'b[=a]-izm. Same as SABIANISM.--Also S[=A]'BÆISM, S[=A]'BEISM, S[=A]'BÆANISM.

SA'BAL, s[=a]'bal, n. a genus of fan-palms.

SABALO, sab'a-l[=o], n. the tarpon. [Sp.]

SABAOTH, sa-b[=a]'oth, n.pl. armies, used only in the B. phrase, 'the Lord of Sabaoth': erroneously for Sabbath. [Heb. tseb[=a][=o]th, pl. of ts[=a]b[=a], an army--_ts[=a]b[=a]_, to go forth.]

SABBATH, sab'ath, n. among the Jews, the seventh day of the week, set apart for the rest from work: among Christians, the first day of the week, in memory of the resurrection of Christ, called also Sunday and the Lord's Day: among the ancient Jews, the seventh year, when the land was left fallow: a time of rest.--_adj_. pertaining to the Sabbath.--_n._ SABBAT[=A]'RIAN, a very strict observer of the Sabbath: one who observes the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath.--_adj_. pertaining to the Sabbath or to Sabbatarians.--_ns._ SABBAT[=A]'RIANISM; SABB'ATH-BREAK'ER, one who profanes the Sabbath; SABB'ATH-BREAK'ING, profanation of the Sabbath.--_adjs._ SABB'ATHLESS (Bacon), without Sabbath or interval of rest: without intermission of labour; SABBAT'IC, -AL, pertaining to, or resembling, the Sabbath: enjoying or bringing rest.--_n._ SABBAT'ICAL-YEAR, every seventh year, in which the Israelites allowed their fields and vineyards to lie fallow.--_adj._ SABB'ATINE, pertaining to the Sabbath.--_v.i._ and v.t. SABB'ATISE, to keep the Sabbath: to convert into a Sabbath.--_n._ SABB'ATISM, rest, as on the Sabbath: intermission of labour.--SABBATH-DAY'S JOURNEY, the distance of 2000 cubits, or about five furlongs, which a Jew was permitted to walk on the Sabbath, fixed by the space between the extreme end of the camp and the ark (Josh. iii. 4); SABBATH SCHOOL (see SUNDAY SCHOOL).--WITCHES' SABBATH, a midnight meeting of Satan with witches, devils, and sorcerers for unhallowed orgies and the travestying of divine rites. [L. Sabbatum, gener. in pl. _Sabbata_--Gr. _Sabbaton_--Heb. Shabb[=a]th, rest.]

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