Abstract
Our discrimination of dictionaries typically falls far short of the critical perspective that we routinely apply even to such activities as choosing a “beach book” or a movie. At the same time, working lexicographers are usually forced to take a practical rather than a theoretical view of their “work in hand” and go about their business with a “theirs not to reason why” attitude toward the dictates of the style-book. It behooves us as readers, that is, those who contemplate a dictionary as it is in itself, to approach these works, which often exert an influence on our understanding of subjects well beyond the confines of philology, in a critical spirit. The present work aims to demonstrate, theoretically and by example, such a critical approach to dictionary texts. My plan is to “go at” dictionaries with the disinterested brashness and hopefully some of the charm of good literary criticism and to raise awareness of dictionaries as literary texts in the process. This is not meant to be a discussion of the history of lexicography or a textbook on how to do lexicography. It is the work of a reader and an observer.