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LEME searches and displays word-entries from monolingual English dictionaries, bilingual lexicons, technical vocabularies, and other encyclopedic-lexical works, 1480-1755. Read more

What's New

2021

LEME has settled into bright new quarters in two offices and a carrell on the 14th floor of Robarts Library. My thanks to Larry Alford (Chief Librarian), Sian Meikle (Associate Chief Librarian for Digital Strategies and Technology, and LEME's Library Liaison), and Arts and Science for giving us this high-demand space. The Library also generously furnished LEME offices with... Read more

Word of The Day

To MASH. v. a. [mascher, French.] 1. To beat into a confused mass. The pressure would be intolerable, and they would even mash themselves and all things else apieces. More.To break the claw of a lobster, clap it between the sides of the dining-room door: thus you can do it without mashing the meat. Swift's Directions to the Footman. 2. To mix malt and water together in brewing. What was put in the first mashing-tub draw off, as also that liquor in the second mashing-tub. Mortimer's Husbandry.
Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)
James Howell's Lexicon Tetraglotton (1660) frontispiece

James Howell's Lexicon Tetraglotton (1660) frontispiece,
Courtesy of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library
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