John Kersey the younger ( fl. 1720) was an English

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

and

lexicographer Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries. * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoreti ...

of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. He is notable for editing three dictionaries in his lifetime: ''

A New English Dictionary ''A New English Dictionary: or, a complete collection of the most proper and significant words, commonly used in the language'' was an English dictionary compiled by philologist John Kersey and first published in London in 1702. Unlike previous d ...

'' (1702), a revised version of

Edward Phillips Edward Phillips (August 1630 – c. 1696) was an English author. Life He was the son of Edward Phillips of the crown office in chancery, and his wife Anne, only sister of John Milton, the poet. Edward Phillips the younger was born in Strand, L ...

' ''

The New World of English Words ''The New World of English Words, or, a General Dictionary'' is a dictionary compiled by Edward Phillips and first published in London in 1658. It was the first folio English dictionary. Contents As well as containing common words, the dictiona ...

'' (1706) and the ''

Dictionarium Anglo-Britannicum The ''Dictionarium Anglo-Britannicum'' is a dictionary compiled by philologist John Kersey, which was first published in London in 1708. It was the third dictionary he had edited, after his 1702 ''A New English Dictionary'' and his 1706 revision o ...

'' (1708). As well as being amongst the earliest monolingual English dictionaries, they were also amongst the first to focus on words in common use, rather than on difficult words.

Life

He was son of

John Kersey the elder John Kersey the elder (1616–1677) was an English mathematician, as well as a textbook writer. Life He was son of Anthony Carsaye or Kersey and Alice Fenimore, and was baptised at Bodicote, near Banbury, Oxfordshire, on 23 November 1616. He ...

, with whom he has often been confused, and revised the work of his father in the fourteenth edition of the ''Arithmetic'' of

Edmund Wingate Edmund Wingate (1596–1656) was an English mathematical and legal writer, one of the first to publish in the 1620s on the principle of the slide rule, and later the author of some popular expository works. He was also a Member of Parliament durin ...

(1720). He, more probably than his father, contributed the ''Discourse to an unlearned Prince' to the Translation of Plutarch's Morals'', which appeared 1684-5 (republished 1870). He was mainly occupied with lexicography. The sixth edition of Phillips' ''New World of Words'', which was published in 1706, was edited by him (Pref to Dict. Anglo-Britannicum, 1708). He greatly added to the number of words, and published a seventh edition in 1720. Another dictionary, the ''New English Dictionary'', of which the first edition is said to have appeared in 1702 (2nd 1713, 3rd 1731, &c.), was also assigned on the title-page to J. K., but Kersey's responsibility for the work has been questioned. In 1708 was printed his ''Dictionarium Anglo-Britannicum, comprehending a brief explication of all sorts of difficult words''; a new edition in 1715 contained 'words and phrases made use of in our ancient statutes, old records, charters;' the third edition appeared in 1721. About this work, Starnes & Noyes said "Kersey's vocabulary, estimated at 35,000 words, far surpasses that of any preceding dictionary, with the single exception of the folio Kersey-Phillips, which, amazingly enough considering its difference in physical size, it almost equals." The scholars go on to state that, "Kersey was, obviously, the first outstanding lexicographer. The first decade of the eighteenth century had produced five new dictionaries, and its lexicography had been dominated by the activities of John Kersey. Kersey was...a notable pioneer, rejected outmoded material and methods, working toward modern concepts, and in general playing his role of lexicographer with responsibility and intelligence. He must be credited with the first universal dictionary; with the first abridged dictionary; with the largest, most useful, and most competently executed dictionaries produced up to his time."The English Dictionary from Cawdrey to Johnson 1604-1755
by De Witt T. Starnes & Gertrude E. Noyes. original edition 1946, new edition edited by Gabriele Stein, 1991. p. 96, 193. From Kersey's ''Dictionarium''

Thomas Chatterton Thomas Chatterton (20 November 1752 – 24 August 1770) was an English poet whose precocious talents ended in suicide at age 17. He was an influence on Romantic artists of the period such as Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth and Coleridge. Althoug ...

borrowed part of his archaic vocabulary. The date of his death is uncertain.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kersey, John English lexicographers 17th-century births 18th-century deaths 18th-century English people