Liddell, Scott, and the Limits of Lexicography

“If a prize were offered for the noun which has adapted itself to the greatest number of things, it could surely be claimed by the complaisant word σκινδαψός, as described in Liddell and Scott: I. a four-stringed musical instrument… 2. a word without a meaning… II. an ivy-like tree… III. an unknown bird… IV. a what d’ye call it…”

–Selby Henry, Good Stories from Oxford and Cambridge, p.87 (London, 1931)

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