«One of the more interesting observations I realized from the Chasing the Sun excerpts was that Green heavily emphasized the idea that lexicographers see themselves as bringers of the true meaning of words, like Moses who brought down from Mount Sinai the Ten Commandments. ” Green cites Ephraim Chamber’s belief that lexicography has its origins in ancient Egypt, where the empire’s priests had presumably wanted to keep forever and securely remembered the complex meanings of their sacred hieroglyphics, and notes that his theory “‘turns the lexicographer’s guardianship of the cultural tradition into a sacred trust and thus sanctions the privileged position of those who control the flow of information to the unitiated.’”

So strong is this metaphor of the dictionary as the gate to the true meaning of words, and lexicographers as the “priests” bringing the masses to these true meanings, that I couldn’t help but think of the logos, the Original Word, the word of Truth itself [...]. Green’s comments on lexicography reminded me much of Derrida’s criticism of Western civilization as being “logocentric.”» (03/04/08)