胡适留学日记卷十一二七、《新英字典》

卷十一二七、《新英字典》

　　（九月六日）

　　今日英文最大之字典为《新英字典》（New English Dictionary）。此书之经营始于一八八二年，迄今三十余年矣，仅出十余册，而主任者麦尔雷（Sir James A. H. Murray）已死。全书成时，约有二十二巨册。此下所记一则，可见其编纂之精而勤矣。

　　Something of the elaborate method and painstaking scholarship that have been employed in the compilation of the "New English Dictionary" is indicated in the prefatory note by the late Sir James A. H. Murray to the tenth volume of the great work. In this note we are told that the longest article is that on the word TURN, of which the simple verb has 47 main senses and 65 subsenses. There are also 25 senses in special phrases, e. g.turn the scale, turn colour… and 16 combinations with adverbs, e. g.turn about, turn in… many of which exceed the average length of main words (thus,turn uphas itself no fewer than 27 senses), so that the total number of sense-division, explained and illustrated under this verb is 286. No one will be surprised, therefore, that the analysis of the signification of this word, with the arrangement and illustration of its various meanings, has occupied nearly three months, and that the results, although compressed to a minimum, fill 36 columns.

　　〔中译〕

　　在《新英字典》第十册之序言中，詹姆斯·A·H·麦尔雷先生指出，编辑此本巨著所采用之方法是经过精心设计的，所运用之学识是相当广博与艰辛的。他告诉我们，本字典中最长之词条乃单词TURN，这个简明之动词有四十七条主要词义，六十五条次要词义，还有二十五种惯用法，如trun the scale，turn colour，还有十六种与副词之搭配用法，如trun about，trun in，其中有许多用法之释义已经超过某些主要单词释义之平均数（例如，turn up本身的释义已不下于二十七种），以至于属此动词词条下用来解释，举例之释义总数已达二百八十六条。对于此动词之词义解析，以及其各种不同意义之安排与说明，此项工作花去差不多三个月的时间；最后，再将其尽量压缩成三十六栏。明白这件事情之后，读者就不会感到那么的惊讶。

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