In 1598 John Florio called his dictionary A World of Words, and the joy of a new dictionary is the traveller's joy, the joy of entering a new world, or at least a new state in some loose federal union, recognisably part of the same nation, but with its own eccentricities and prejudices, more rigid or more lax in licensing laws or taboos, more or less committed to conservation.

LRB 18 June 1981 | PDF Download