ABSTRACT
The task of the ‘harmless drudge’, as Dr Johnson called the lexicographer, is always challenging, and, it must be said, often thanklesṣ Such is the everchanging nature of language that no sooner has a dictionary appeared than it is already to some extent out of step with the living language. Consider, for instance, the developments in computing and the Internet and the concomitant surge in new terminology in the space of just one decade. In the case of Arabic, the lexicographer’s task is further complicated by the phenomenon of diglossia – i.e. the coexistence of several varieties along an acro-basilectal continuum – and the fact that many of the regional dialects are mutually unintelligible.
