Entick’s New Spelling Dictionary, teaching to Write and Pronounce the English Tongue with Ease and Propriety: In which each Word is accented according to its just and natural Pronunciation; the part of Speech is properly distinguished, and the various Significations are ranged in one line; With a list of Proper Names of Men and Women. The whole Compiled and digested in a Manner entirely new, to make it a Complete Pocket Companion for those who read Milton, Pope, Addison, Shakespeare, Tillotson, and Locke, or other English authors of Repute in Prose or Verse: and in Particular to assist young People, Artificers, Tradesmen and Foreigners, desirous of understanding what they speak, read and write. To which is prefixed, A Grammatical Introduction to the English Tongue. A new edition. Revised, Corrected, and Enlarged throughout. To which is now added, A Catalogue of words of similar Sounds, but of different Spellings and Significations. By William Crakelt, M.A. Rector of Nursted and Ifield in Kent. London, Charles Dilly, 1787.
New Edition. 12mo (120 x 120 mm), pp [xxxvi], 492, much used, with consequent creasing and dog-eared edges, S4 cut close with loss of page number, sewn in the original boards, heavily worn and binding sprung, with some gatherings loose, wanting the leather cover, spine no longer present but for a few scraps of leather, three of four cords holding.
A scarce edition of this popular pocket dictionary in unusual square format. The preliminary leaves contain an advertisement, dated May 27th 1787, a short preface, ‘A Grammatical Introduction to the English Tongue’ and finally ‘A Table of Words that are alike, or nearly alike, in Sound, but different in Spelling and Signification’. The interesting appendices include ‘the most usual Christian Names of Men and Women’, which makes an amusing comparison with the primary school roll call of today, ‘A Succinct Account of the Heathen Gods and Goddesses, Heroes and Heroines, &c. deduced from the best Authorities’ and a list of all the cities, boroughs, market towns and villages in England and Wales, which confirms that Salisbury’s market days have remained unchanged.
Happily unrestored, this is a sublimely tatty copy, that leaves little of its manufacture to the imagination.
ESTC t147159 lists copies at BL, Manchester, Indiana State University, Séminaire de Nicolet and Yale.