An Ode to the Dictionary

We look through a collection of alphabetically arranged definitions of words and phrases in a dictionary and accept the whole content as dogma,right down to the spellings and word pronunciations.A dictionary is meant to be consulted by everyman.Thoughts are sown,moulded and externalised in the form of actions courtesy the lexicon.It is the single most important book in any society.
To be without a dictionary is to be without a life sustaining system.One would be reduced to being an amputee. Some people claim their own experience will guide them through anything,including the understanding of words. These people’s experiences are frequently reduced to observing the number of times a word is spoken by other people who have taken the trouble of browsing or sifting a dictionary.They are thus limited by their immediate surroundings and complex guesswork.This kind of parochial overview must be outrightly rejected.
The English language dictionary first came into prominent use after the publication of Samuel Johnson’s “A Dictionary of the English Language” in 1755.The Oxford English Dictionary would later become the mainstream English language dictionary.There have been two print editions of the Oxford dictionary.However technology is making its impact felt even with the use of the dictionary.The click of the mouse to get the meaning of a word from the digital version of the Oxford English Dictionary is now an easier option than lifting the 20 volume set of the printed version of the dictionary or for that matter lifting the abridged Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary.The third print edition of the dictionary may no longer be released as there are plans of making the dictionary fully computerised.
Whether the print or online version reigns supreme,what matters in the end is the looking up of the word.What is important is that would be poets as well as ambitious corporate climbers read through.It boils down to the word,not the medium.Our thirst for knowledge and consequent satiation should remain constant.It is hoped that instead of odes we are not reduced to writing elegies with regard to the dictionary.