New dictionary, old dictionary

Hello. Today I bought a dictionary. It’s the 12^th edition Chambers Dictionary. It cost £40, probably the most expensive book I’ve ever bought. I bought it from an independent bookshop called ‘City Books’ in Brighton. Now I can look up all the obscure words in the Azed crossword in the Observer, and I don’t have to endure the sordid, ad-riddled experience of looking them up on the internet.

Here are some excerpts from the ‘word lover’s miscellany’ section in the middle of my new dictionary.

Wonk – a serious or studious person, especially one with an interest in a trivial or unfashionable subject.

Blatherskite – a garrulous talker of nonsense.

Izzard – the letter Z.

Othergates (this word is now extinct) – in another way.

Forswink (this word is almost extinct) – to exhaust by labour.

Anyway, now I have an obsolete Chambers Concise Dictionary, a few years old, and if anyone wants it, just ask. I’d like someone to have it. (shown below in its natural habitat)