The history of English in ten minutes. Chapter seven: the age of the dictionary or the definition of a hopeless task.
10分鐘英語(yǔ)歷史，第七章：字典時(shí)代，或，什么叫做絕望的任務(wù)

With English expanding in all directions, along came a new breed of men called "lexicographers" who wanted to put an end to this anarchy, a word they defined as "What happens when people spell words slightly differently from each other?"
隨著英語(yǔ)的不斷擴(kuò)展，出現(xiàn)了一群字典編撰者，他們致力于改變這種“每個(gè)人拼寫都略有不同的”混亂狀態(tài)。

One of the greatest was Dr Johnson whose "Dictionary of the English Language" took him nine years to write. It was 18 inches tall and contained 42,773 entries meaning that even if you couldn't read, it was still pretty useful if you wanted to reach a high shelf.
其中最突出的一位是Dr Johnson，他花了9年時(shí)間編寫了一本英語(yǔ)詞典，有18英寸高，收錄了42,773條詞匯。所以即便你不認(rèn)字，用它來(lái)墊墊腳從架子上拿拿東西還是蠻實(shí)用的。

For the first time when people were calling you a "pickle-herring", a "jobbernowl" or a "fopdoodle", you could understand exactly what they meant. And you'd have the consolation of knowing they were all using the standard spelling.
你有史以來(lái)第一次明白了別人叫你"pickle-herring""jobbernowl" "fopdoodle"（笨蛋）的意思，但知道他們都使用了標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的拼寫，你大概還會(huì)感到一絲欣慰。

Try as he might to stop them, words kept being invented and in 1857, a new book was started that would become the Oxford English Dictionary. It took another 70 years to be finished after the first editor resigned to be an archbishop. The second died of TB and the third was so boring that half his volunteers quit and one of them ended up in an asylum.
不管如何遏制，新詞還是不斷產(chǎn)生。一本后來(lái)成為牛津詞典的新書(shū)在1857年時(shí)開(kāi)始編撰了，第一任主編辭職當(dāng)大主教之后，又花了70年才完稿。第二任主編死于肺結(jié)核，而第三任主編實(shí)在太迂腐，導(dǎo)致半數(shù)志愿者辭職不干，其中一個(gè)還被關(guān)進(jìn)了精神病院。

It eventually appeared in 1928 and has continued to be revised ever since, proving the whole idea that you can stop people from making up words is complete "snuffbumble".
1928年此書(shū)終于問(wèn)世了，之后一再修訂，再次證明只有笨蛋才會(huì)阻止別人去造詞。