AN EXTENSIVE COLLECTION OF WORDS, TERMS, AND PHRASES,

IN THE VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS OF LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART;

TOGETHER WITH

NUMEROUS OBSOLETE, OBSOLESCENT, AND SCOTTISH WORDS,
FOUND IN CHAUCER, SPENSER, SHAKSPEARE, AND SCOTT,

NOT INCLUDED IN PREVIOUS ENGLISH DICTIONARIES.

EDITED BY JOHN OGILVIE, LL.D.

ILLUSTRATED BY NEARLY FOUR HUNDRED FIGURES ENGRAVED ON WOOD.

BLACKIE AND SON:

QUEEN STREET, GLASGOW, SOUTH COLLEGE STREET, EDINBURGH,
AND WARWICK SQUARE, LONDON.

MDCCCLV.

PREFACE.

WHEN the SUPPLEMENT to THE IMPERIAL DICTIONARY was at first commenced, it was anticipated it could be issued within a very limited period. However, as the Editor proceeded with his labours, the Work increased greatly in his hands beyond what he originally contemplated, partly from the more extended researches into which he was drawn, partly from numerous contributions sent from all parts of the country, and partly from the very rapid introduction of new words in recent times. The following may

be stated as comprising the chief points aimed at by the Editor in compiling the SUPPLEMENT:

1. To supply such words, terms, and new significations, as had either come into use since the publication of THE IMPERIAL DICTIONARY was commenced, or had escaped his observation.

2. To furnish such additional words and terms in the different departments of Literature, Arts, and Sciences, as he deemed to be suitable, and which he was enabled to collect by travelling over a wide field of research. Of these the number collected by his own research is very great; and not a few, besides, have been supplied by literary and scientific Correspondents in various parts of the kingdom. The different gentlemen, also, to whom the MS. has been submitted for revisal, have added considerably to the list.

3. To introduce a much greater number of obsolete and obsolescent words than it was deemed necessary to insert in the DICTIONARY; specially all words of this description in Shakspeare, Spenser, and Chaucer, not inserted in the original Work; and thus to furnish a complete key to the works of those great English poets.

4. In addition to the Scottish terms admitted into the DICTIONARY (for the most part used by Burns), to introduce such as are found in the works of Sir Walter Scott. This has been done mainly for the benefit of the English readers of the great Novelist.

5. To make such emendations and corrections on the DICTIONARY as the Editor had discovered to be necessary, or which had been pointed out to him by others.

The SUPPLEMENT has gone through a course of careful revision by gentlemen specially versed in different departments of scientific knowledge, similar to that given to the original Work.

On the whole, the Editor indulges a hope that this SUPPLEMENT, although long delayed, will not disappoint expectations. The number of additional words which it