1700s Standardisation of English language. Dictionary's and Grammar books
Shakespeare spelt his name in a variety of ways: Shakspere or Shaksper or even apparently Shake-speare. This was because spelling was not standardised while he was alive.
Rise in prescriptive attitude- there is a wrong and right way of using English. More dictionary and grammar books to know the rules
Sir Thomas Elyot (1538)
Robert Cawdrey (1604)
Who sought to gather up 'hard English wordes'
- Magnitude: greatness
- Parentate: to celebrate one's parents funeral.
'Samuel Johnson's dictionary (1755) is often regarded as the first 'authoritative' treatment of the English lexicon and it came at a time when there was much unease about the 'degeneration' of the language.'
'It took Johnson nine years to research the 40,000 words for his dictionary and he illustrated their meanings with about 114,000 quotations.'
'OATS. n.s. (a_en, Saxon) A grain, which in England is given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.'
He is implying that Scotland are poor by suggesting that Scotland eat animal food due to eating the same food that English people give to horses.
The story of the first Oxford English Dictionary: first suggested by the Philological Society (1857)
Published 1928
Thought it was going to take them 10 years, it took them 71 years
Timeline of dictionary's: http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126715.html
https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/e-magazine/articles/14693
