Of Matters Lexicographical: Scientific and Technical Entries in American Dictionaries

Few people are aware of how many scientific and technical terms are entered in commercial monolingual American dictionaries. A conservative estimate is that over 40% of the entries in an unabridged dictionary are such terms; in college and desk-sized dictionaries the percentage is perhaps 25%-35%. To test the estimate for an unabridged work, five pages were chosen on a random basis from Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary, and the number of scientific and technical entries on each page were counted. The overall percentage of such main entries for the five pages was 73%. Although such a small sample cannot be regarded as definitive, it does suggest a balance of scientific vs general terms quite at variance with that conceived by most dictionary users. It also suggests that the extent to which definitions are based on citation files is probably smaller than commonly believed. The attention given scientific entries reflects the importance our society currently gives to science and technology. Precision of meaning of scientific terms is thought to be not only important but achievable, in contrast to general terms for which scientific precision is not possible. General words are defined on the basis of citations illustrating actual usage: the meanings are 'extracted' from a body of evidence, while the meanings of scientific entries are 'imposed' on the basis of expert advice. The inclusion of scientific imposed senses is not objected to, but omission of corresponding extracted, nonscientific senses of terms (such as glass and feather) that have imposed meanings is objected to. The rule implicitly observed by every American dictionary seems to be that whatever can be rendered exactly shall be rendered exactly and not otherwise. AA