Chapter 3 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 3 is entitled "Two Wordbooks (The Uncertainty in Our Writing, the Inconstancy in Our Letters)." The two wordbooks that Gleick refers to are "A Table Alphabeticall" by Robert Cawdrey, published first in 1604 and the Oxford English Dictionary, which was started in 1879 by James Murray.

Cawdrey's book, as he explained in a subtitle, was to provide the meanings of words that people were likely to encounter so they might better understand them and use them themselves. It was a milestone, Gleick explains. It was the first English dictionary at a time when the language was undergoing rapid change as travel and conquest introduced new words. One of the remarkable things about the book, Gleick points out, is the the 2,500 words in it are arranged alphabetically. This arrangement, taken for granted today, was something so new that Cawdrey felt the need to explain...