What is a lexicographer?

Samuel Johnson, in his Dictionary of the English Language in 1755, famously defined a lexicographer as ‘A writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge’. He also said, in the entry for dull, that ‘To make dictionaries is dull work’. Of course, his tongue was firmly in his cheek, noted wit that he was (he might also have said ‘A person against whom people are reluctant to play Scrabble’, had Scrabble been invented at the time).

All joking aside, his words do hint at the meticulous work that a lexicographer undertakes every day: checking facts, ensuring that the bibliography is accurate, weighing up the merits of this word versus that word in writing the perfect definition. The moniker ‘lexicographer’ does have a certain ring to it that ‘dictionary editor’ simply doesn’t. So if I feel like impressing someone when they have enquired what I do for a living, I answer “I’m a lexicographer”. It tends to invite questions, the first often being “What’s that then?” This question provides me with the chance to wax lyrical about the various words I have worked on, how you come up with the perfect definition (the aim of every lexicographer), how you manage to encapsulate various nuances of meaning into one meaningful sentence, how finding that wonderfully early quotation can put a smile on your face that lasts the whole day…

I could go on about the joys and trials of being a lexicographer until your eyes glaze over (glaze, sense 3: ‘lose brightness and animation’). But instead, I give you this poem, written by Dr Robert Ilson, which aims to encapsulate the lexicographer’s concerns in 14 lines.

Day Job: Lexicographer

 Can you skip backwards? Can a photograph

Of flowers in a vase be a still life?

Was Ms R. Bailey Ms U. Fanthorpe’s wife?

Are wasting time and killing time the same?

If “Ann” is Carol Duffy’s middle name

Was “Luther” Martin King’s? Tough work? Not half!

And yet it must be done – and done so fast

There’s hardly left a moment to remember

To make sure June’s been treated like December.

The product’s never perfect but it may

Help language-learners’ progress on their way

To being language-lovers till at last

They ask me this and make me brood upon it:

Is what my explanation is a sonnet?

Robert Ilson

Write a poem to win Oxford’s rhyming dictionaries

If the poem above has inspired you, why not try your hand at writing a short poem about your own job? You’ll be in with a chance of winning a copy of the Oxford Dictionary of Rhyming Slang and the Oxford Rhyming Dictionary.

Rules of the game:

Poems should be no more than 4 lines long, and should preferably rhyme.

You have to post your poem as a comment on this blog post by Monday 26 March 2pm (GMT). We reserve the right not to publish your entry. Please check our terms and conditions before you enter.

Posted on: March 21 2012 | Categories: Dictionaries and lexicography | Tags: definitions, etymology, lexicography, new words, OED, Oxford English Corpus, phrases, poetry