Henry Hitchings
Henry Hitchings (born in 1974) is a British author, reviewer and critic. He is specialized in narrative non-fiction, with a particular emphasis on language and cultural history. His first two books were Dr Johnson's Dictionary (2005) and The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English (2008).
Quotes
[edit]- Early experience conditions adult life; childhood is the precinct in which we learn the rituals of maturity.
- Henry Hitchings, Dr Johnson's Dictionary: The Book that Defined the World, first edition 2005, 2006 paperback edition, page 11 (ISBN 0719566320).
- The eighteenth century was seized by a rage for order, manifest in a range of new phenomena: the price tag, standardised weights and measures, the proliferation of signposts on public highways, the increased use of account books and calendars.
- Henry Hitchings, Dr Johnson's Dictionary: The Book that Defined the World, first edition 2005, 2006 paperback edition, page 46 (ISBN 0719566320).
- Etymology is perennially fascinating because it revives the forgotten poetry of the everyday.
- Henry Hitchings, Dr Johnson's Dictionary: The Book that Defined the World, first edition 2005, 2006 paperback edition, page 88 (ISBN 0719566320).
- Languages, we know, do not stand still. New words are borrowed or invented. Others become obsolete. Morphology alters. So does pronunciation. Words are tools we use to communicate; they bend to our needs. Many change their meanings. Some acquire prestige, and others are degraded.
- Henry Hitchings, Dr Johnson's Dictionary: The Book that Defined the World, first edition 2005, 2006 paperback edition, page 232 (ISBN 0719566320).
- It is doughty, authoritative, wide-ranging; lavish in its citations and self consciously literary; patriotic, pious, and politically charged; sometimes quirky, often elegant, and occasionally obscure; keenly attentive to many of the age's new developments, yet negligent of others; an extension and refinement of existing lexicographic tradition, but also a starting point for new ones; and the culmination of an extraordinary, strenuous labour which both degraded and ennobled its author.
- Quote about Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language.
- Henry Hitchings, Dr Johnson's Dictionary: The Book that Defined the World, first edition 2005, 2006 paperback edition, page 238-239 (ISBN 0719566320).
- Quote about Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language.