As well for the entertainment of the curious, as the information of the ignorant

Abstract

Eighteenth-century general English dictionaries have awakened scholarly interest in recent decades, but there are not many studies exploring the relevance and contents of their paratextual constituents. This paper focuses on encyclopaedic supplements particularly, a type of paratextual constituent usually prefixed or appended to eighteenth-century dictionaries that has been neglected in historical lexicographic studies so far. The paratext of a book comprises all constituents that surround the main text like title pages, prefaces, appendices or supplements, for instance, which may have different functions within the overall structure of the work. In the case of eighteenth-century general English dictionaries, those functions went from facilitating the reading and understanding of the text to complementing the information included or justifying why yet another dictionary was published in an (over-)saturated market. The appendices, in particular, were intended to enhance the value of the volume by incorporating supplementary information and thus make it more exhaustive and self-contained. By studying the nature and contents of encyclopaedic supplements, we will first establish a preliminary typology of the data in selected material (i.e. biographical, linguistic, historical, mythological, etc.). Then, we will discuss the reasons that moved eighteenth-century dictionary compilers to incorporate this extra material in the works, also taking into account the information provided in the title pages and prefaces. The results of this study will likely shed light on which contents were considered potentially appealing to the readership of such English dictionaries.