Fundamentals of Reference

17

three

dictionaries

I’ve been in Who’s Who, and I know what’s what, but

it’ll be the first time I ever made the dictionary.

—Mae West

d

iCtionaries may well be the only basic reference tools used more
frequently than encyclopedias. A dictionary, especially one of the
unabridged kind, is simply one of the most useful reference sources to have
on hand. Like encyclopedias and reference librarians, there are both general
and specialized varieties of dictionaries. William A. Katz wrote about “eight
generally accepted categories [of dictionaries]”:

1. General English language dictionaries, which include unabridged
   titles (i.e., those with over 265,000 entries) and desk or collegiate
   dictionaries (from 139,000 to 180,000 entries). These are for
   adults and children.


2. Paperback dictionaries which may have no more than 30,000 to
   55,000 entries and are often used because they are inexpensive
   and convenient to carry.


3. Historical dictionaries that show the history of a word from date
   of introduction to the present.