SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as have not been reserved for review in other forms.]
The usual quarterly instalment of The Oxford English Dictionary (Clarendon Press, 5s.) is a double section, part of Vol. VI., and including " Lief " to "Lock." The number of words is 3,367, contrasting with 1,971 in the most copious of other dictionaries. It is in illustrative quotations, however, that the superiority of The Oxford English Dictionary is most marked. The words illustrated are 2,461, as against 684 ; and the number of quotations 16,145, as against 1,527. Here the co-operation of a great company of readers shows its results. The section contains a more than usual proportion of words of Germanic origin, among which "life," "light," "like," "loaf," are in very common use. Two Greek words only are of the same class, " litany " and "liturgy." One Celtic word only is common, "loch." Of other "outlanders," "lilac" is the most familiar. (" Lilac" has, curiously enough, parted with its proper name of Syringe to another shrub.) Of Latin words, limbo is one of the most notable. Under the item " Linen" we happened to come upon a quotation which indicates not a little change. In the first half of the eighteenth century "linen or European paper is chiefly made of linen rags beaten to a pulp." What is now the proportion of linen rags to other materials for paper?
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