Students of my friend and colleague, John Gray, much enjoyed his lectures on English Dictionaries. Reprinted below, these lectures show how you can test your current Dictionary and how you can choose the right Dictionary. They talk about how Dictionaries are made, and describe the evolution of English Dictionaries over the centuries. John’s lectures end with sketches of some famous Dictionary makers: all of them were brilliant scholars; some were great teachers; some were eccentric; some (most?) were cranky; and one was a murderer. (more…)