What Is The Structure Of A Standard Dictionary

Explains the symbols, abbreviations, and pronunciation keys used throughout. Pronunciation Key:

Placed in brackets or angle brackets, this is the word’s "birth certificate." For example, [Middle English *diciounarie*, from Medieval Latin *dictionarium*] . This tells you the word’s journey through time. What Is The Structure Of A Standard Dictionary

The meat of the entry. Definitions are usually ordered in one of two ways: The oldest known meaning is listed first. The meat of the entry

One evening, I found a pilgrim in that chamber: an old woman with a satchel of slips, each containing a handful of neighborhood argot. She offered them to the curators like seeds. “We say it like this now,” she told them, and they listened, measuring sounds against their chimes. Sometimes they absorbed the slips into new rooms; sometimes they filed them in the attic until usage wore them smooth. She offered them to the curators like seeds

Outside, someone shouted a new coinage into the street; it rattled off the pavement like a promising stone. I looked back and saw a light on in the farthest gallery, as if the house had already heard it and was thinking where to put it.

Etymologies are enclosed in square brackets [ ] and tell the story of the word’s journey through history.