Benjamin Martin | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | c. 1704 (date of baptism) |
| Died | 9 February 1782 London |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | lexicographer |
Benjamin Martin (baptized 1705; died 1782) [1] was a lexicographer who compiled one of the early English dictionaries, the Lingua Britannica Reformata (1749). [2] He also was a lecturer on science and maker of scientific instruments. [3]
Martin was born in Worplesdon, Surrey and began life as a ploughboy, but graduated to become a teacher. A legacy of £500 enabled him to buy books and instruments, and he became a lecturer and instrument maker. He was an early champion for the Newtonian system. In 1737, he published the Bibliotheca Technologica - a survey of natural philosophy in 25 sub-headings. [4]
In 1740, he moved to Fleet Street, near the Royal Society where his admired Newton would often lecture. He began manufacturing Hadley's quadrant (a predecessor to the sextant) and optical instruments, and also published a book A New and Compendious System of Optics, where he introduced to English the concept of fundamental science [5] (from Neo-Latin scientia fundamentalis). His business prospered, and he also became known as a spectacle maker. He continued to lecture on natural philosophy, and from 1755 to 1764, he also published Martin's Magazine. The periodical, formally known as the General Magazine of Arts and Sciences, set out to provide subscribers with an encyclopedia's worth of knowledge "one Half-sheet upon a Science" at a time. [6] He intended readers eventually to reorganize and rebind the separate parts of individual numbers into one large reference work. [7] He was also the author of The Natural History of England, or, A description of each particular county, in regard to the curious productions of nature and art; 2 vols. London: Printed and sold by W. Owen, Temple-Bar, and by the author, at his house in Fleet-Street, 1759-63. [8]
In 1781, the seventy-seven-year-old Martin went bankrupt; a few years earlier he had handed over his business to several managers who proved inept. He attempted suicide, and while it was not immediately successful, the wound (nature unknown [4] ) was grievous enough and he failed to recover, and died on 9 February 1782. [9]
In 1749, he published the Lingua Britannica Reformata, Or, A New English Dictionary. His dictionary incorporated a largely intact copy of Nathan Bailey's Universal Dictionary of 1721, which Benjamin Martin described as "the best English dictionary hitherto published". [10] Bailey's dictionary in turn had copied heavily from the 1706 Phillips-Kersey English dictionary. A second edition of Martin's dictionary was published in 1754, a year before Samuel Johnson's dictionary. [4]
In compiling his 24,500 word dictionary, he gave up on trying to "fix" the language:
This dynamic view of language was also adopted by Johnson and has become the accepted view in modern lexicography. His dictionary also pre-saged Johnson in that he laid out a detailed set of objectives (that it should be universal, explain the etymologies, etc.).
While his etymologies are often inconsistent and tended to err in favour of Latin origins, [4] his work was an improvement on earlier dictionaries in that it had a simpler system of spelling and a clearer guide to pronunciation.
A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically, which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, pronunciations, translation, etc. It is a lexicographical reference that shows inter-relationships among the data.
Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries.
A Dictionary of the English Language, sometimes published as Johnson's Dictionary, was published on 15 April 1755 and written by Samuel Johnson. It is among the most influential dictionaries in the history of the English language.
Nathan Bailey, was an English philologist and lexicographer. He was the author of several dictionaries, including his Universal Etymological Dictionary, which appeared in some 30 editions between 1721 and 1802. Bailey's Dictionarium Britannicum was the primary resource mined by Samuel Johnson for his Dictionary of the English Language (1755).
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Merriam-Webster, Incorporated is an American company that publishes reference books and is mostly known for its dictionaries. It is the oldest dictionary publisher in the United States.
Charles Talbut Onions was an English grammarian and lexicographer and the fourth editor of the Oxford English Dictionary.
Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken form of language, particularly when perceived as being of lower social status in contrast to standard language, which is more codified, institutional, literary, or formal. More narrowly, a particular variety of a language that does not hold a widespread high-status perception, and sometimes even carries social stigma, is also called a vernacular, vernacular dialect, nonstandard dialect, etc. and is typically its speakers' native variety. Despite any such stigma, modern linguistics regards all nonstandard dialects as full-fledged varieties of a language with their own consistent grammatical structure, sound system, body of vocabulary, etc.
Robert Ainsworth was an English Latin lexicographer, and author of a well-known compendious Dictionary of the Latin Tongue.
A compendium is a comprehensive collection of information and analysis pertaining to a body of knowledge. A compendium may concisely summarize a larger work. In most cases, the body of knowledge will concern a specific field of human interest or endeavour, while a general encyclopedia can be referred to as a compendium of all human knowledge.
Sir James Augustus Henry Murray, FBA was a British lexicographer and philologist. He was the primary editor of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) from 1879 until his death.
Cyclopædia: or, An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences is a British encyclopedia prepared by Ephraim Chambers and first published in 1728; six more editions appeared between 1728 and 1751 with a Supplement in 1753. The Cyclopædia was one of the first general encyclopedias to be produced in English.
Etymology is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of a word's semantic meaning across time, including its constituent morphemes and phonemes. It is a subfield of historical linguistics, philology, and semiotics, and draws upon comparative semantics, morphology, pragmatics, and phonetics in order to construct a comprehensive and chronological catalogue of all meanings that a morpheme, phoneme, word, or sign has carried across time.
For centuries, there have been movements to reform the spelling of the English language. Such spelling reform seeks to change English orthography so that it is more consistent, matches pronunciation better, and follows the alphabetic principle. Common motives for spelling reform include making learning quicker, making learning cheaper, and making English more useful as an international auxiliary language.
John Barrow was an English mathematician, naval historian and lexicographer. His geographical dictionary first appeared in 1756.
Stephen Skinner (1623–1667) was an English Lincoln physician, lexicographer and etymologist.
"Mad as a hatter" is a colloquial English phrase used in conversation to suggest (lightheartedly) that a person is suffering from insanity. The etymology of the phrase is uncertain, with explanations both connected and unconnected to the trade of hat-making. The earliest known appearance of the phrase in print is in an 1829 issue of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, predating the Hatter from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by several decades.
Benjamin Stillingfleet (1702–1771) was an English botanist, polymath, and author.
Benjamin Martin may refer to:
A historical dictionary or dictionary on historical principles is a dictionary which deals not only with the latterday meanings of words but also the historical development of their forms and meanings. It may also describe the vocabulary of an earlier stage of a language's development without covering present-day usage at all. A historical dictionary is primarily of interest to scholars of language, but may also be used as a general dictionary.
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