The revised semantic labeling system Already in the first published fascicle of AND 1 (back in the late 1970s), the English definitions sometimes were given a semantic category label. For example, sub abatre 1 , the sense ‘to abate, put an end to’ was labelled ‘(law)’ and the sense ‘fir tree’ sub abiet had the label ‘(bot.)’. These bracketed items served to clarify the semantic context, identifying the first example as a legal term and the second as belonging to the semantic domain of botany . However, even in the first phases of the AND 2 , no clear editorial policy, let alone statement, existed about what labels should be used, where or why. In practice these labels (eccl., orn., med., nav., culin., arithm. etc.) were inserted ad hoc , as and when an individual editor thought it would clarify a definition. As a result, such labels as were present were seriously inconsistent. (For further discussion of th...
A blog that highlights and discusses interesting words in the Anglo-Norman language, presented by the editorial team of the Anglo-Norman Dictionary (www.anglo-norman.net).