The new quarterly part of The New English Dictionary (Clarendon
Press, 5s. net) is a section of Vol. IX., "Supple—Sweep," edited by Mr. C. T. Onions. It records 2,073 words, nearly ten times as many as that gallant pioneer, Dr. Johnson, gave in his dictionary, and twice as many as are to be found in The Century Dictionary, the second best in the language. The history of some of the short and thoroughly English words is curious and instructive. The familiar "swank," for example, is an old dialect word, noted in Bedfordshire in 1809 and in Northamptonshire in 1854, which has recently become popular. "Perhaps the original notion is that of swinging the body," so that the word is aptly applied to the arrogant goose-stepping Prussian. " Swap " in the sense of "to strike" was commonly used in the mediaeval romances, though it is now obsolete as a literary word. A" surrey" is defined as "an American four-wheeled two-seated pleasure carriage" or motor-car ; the Surrey cart was introduced into America in 1872, and is now so common that the name is used without the capital letter.
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