Sydney I. Landau
British lexicographer
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
Dictionary is a powerful word. Authors and publishers have found that if they call a reference book a dictionary it tends to sell better than it would if called by another name because the word suggests authority, scholarship, and precision. ... Had Ambrose Bierce called his book Bierce's Aphorisms instead of The Devil's Dictionary, the book would have suffered the neglect it deserved, but I suppose one must give the devil his due.
—Sydney I. Landau, British lexicographer, Dictionaries, 2001
Posted on August 6, 1998 at 7:20 AM
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