Nomo-lexikon

Book excerpt: Blount, Thomas [1618-1679]. Nomo Lexikon: A Law-Dictionary. Interpreting Such Difficult and Obscure Words and Terms, as are Found Either in Our Common or Statute, Ancient or Modern, Laws. With References to the Several Statutes, Records, Registers, Law-Books, Charters, Ancient Deeds, and Manuscripts, Wherein the Words are Used: And Etymologies, Where They Properly Occur. London: Printed by Tho. Newcomb for John Martin and Henry Herringman, 1670. Unpaginated. Text printed in double columns. Folio (8" x 12"). Reprinted 2004 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN 1-58477-415-0. Cloth. $140. * Reprint of first edition. Blount was a member of the Inner Temple. Prohibited to practice at the Bar because he was a Catholic, Blount turned to legal scholarship and lexicography. Blount aimed to correct the defects he found in Cowell's Interpreter (1607) and Rastell's Termes de la Ley (1523). In his preface, he observed that Cowell "is sometimes too prolix in the derivation of a Word, setting down several Authors Opinions, without categorically determining which is the true"; Rastell "wrote so long hence, that his very Language and manner of expression was almost antiquated." He hoped that by correcting these flaws he would create a dictionary useful to everyone in the profession from "the Coif to the puny-Clerk." The Nomo-Lexikon is clearer and more detailed than its predecessors. It is also the first English-language dictionary with entries that include word etymologies and citations. An immediate success that quickly supplanted its predecessors, it was reissued in larger and revised editions throughout the eighteenth century.