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dixnary. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
dixnary, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
dixnary in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
dixnary you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
A syncopic form of a pentasyllabic pronunciation of dictionary (approximately /ˈdɪksɪ.ʊˌnæːɹɪ/); compare the development of merlin from Middle English merlioun.
Pronunciation
Noun
dixnary (plural dixnaries)
- (obsolete) Pronunciation spelling of dictionary.
, 12th edition,
London: Thomas Guy, page
78:
de-ſi-er deſire / dix-na-ry dictionary / di-viſ-yun diviſion]
1891 February 11, James Russell Lowell, “To Mrs. L. Stephen”, in Charles Eliot Norton, editor, Letters of James Russell Lowell, volume II, New York: Harper & Brothers, published 1894, page 433:But it is well for him to get away from the Dixery. I hate to think of his giving his life for the lives of fellows of whom we were blessedly ignorant ; they were most of them dead or damned , and we hoped we were rid of 'em.
1905 May 5, A Constan' Rayder, “More Postcards: The Southmolton Division”, in Devon And Exeter Gazette, volume CXXXIII, number 18238, Exeter: G.F. Gratwick, page 11:An' her tull'th me these yer Debben talk is a prapper langwige, an that all tha gentlevoks ust ta spaik like us do now, that "thicky" an "nort" wiz quite prapper wurds, and her zed her zeed "orts" in a ole dicksnary she wiz raydin.
1932 July 13, Virginia Woolf, edited by Anne Olivier Bell, The diary of Virginia Woolf, volume 4, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, published 1980, page 116:Yes, but then the triumph of learning is that it leaves something done solidly for ever. Everybody knows now about dialect, owing to his dixery .
- (India) Misspelling of dictionary.
Usage notes
- The trisyllabic pronunciation that this term represents was current before this spelling is attested (see Richard Snary), but by the 19th century, it had fallen out of use in standard speech; a further nonstandard development is represented by the form dixery, only attested in jocular use by speakers of standard English.[1][2]
References
- ^ “Dictionary” in John Walker, A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary , London: Sold by G. G. J. and J. Robinſon, Paternoſter Row; and T. Cadell, in the Strand, 1791, →OCLC, page 46: “A few years ago this word was univerſally pronounced as if written Dixnary, and a person would have been thought a pedant if he had pronounced it according to its orthography ”.
- ^ Dobson, E. J. (1957) English pronunciation 1500-1700, second edition, volume II: Phonology, Oxford: Clarendon Press, published 1968, →OCLC, § 307, page 876.