Ar an chéad lá is fiche de mí Méan Fómhair, scríobh Ross Clark:
Most often mentioned here (at least by me) as a lexical resurrectionist. He picked up words from old books and manuscripts to lend colour and verisimilitude to his historical novels. Sometimes these words had not been in common use for centuries, leading to telltale gaps in the record of attestations in OED.
But there's more: "He illustrated Scots dialogue with unprecedented realism, and gave many words their first recorded usage (over 400 in the Oxford English Dictionary -- bedazzled, cold shoulder, deferential, hilarious, password, uptake...)."
Interesting. I'm always skeptical about such numbers, and I notice Crystal carefully does not claim that Scott made up these words and expressions. Still, I'm happy to learn that he was something of a linguistic innovator as well as an antiquarian.
There’s an awful lot of interest today in his English contemporaries (Byron, Ada Lovelace, Jane Austen) and none in him. I should put him on my to-read list, I understand he’s fairly easy reading.
--
‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
(C. Moore)
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