Clarence Barnhart was so fed up with dictionaries that he decided to put together a new one of his own. He was quite clear about what he wanted to avoid: out-of-date talk and learned impenetrability in general. It infuriates him, for instance, to see agate defined as "a variegated chalcedony, having its colors arranged in stripes." That sort of definition, says he, is like "thrusting calculus at a fellow who has only a learning of algebra."
This week, after three years' work with a staff of 28, Barnhart published a dictionary with no calculus...
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