TABLE OF CONTENTS I use three dictionaries almost every day.
JAMES A. MICHENER, Writer's Handbook (1992)
The purpose of an ordinary dictionary is simply to explain the meaning of the words . The object aimed at in the present undertaking is exactly the converse of this: namely, The idea being given, to find the word, or words, by which that idea may be most fitly and aptly expressed.
PETER MARK ROGET, Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases (1852)
The dictionary and thesaurus interruptions are usually not about meaning in the gross sense (what's the correct use of "oppugn"), but about precision, and about finding the right word What did the examples that von Neumann and I constructed do to the conjugacy conjecture for shifts did they contradict, contravene, gainsay, dispute, disaffirm, disallow, abnegate, or repudiate it? Writing can stop for 10 or 15 minutes while I search and weigh.
PAUL R. HALMOS, I Want to be a Mathematician: An Automathography in Three Parts (1985)
Mathematicean. One that is skilled in Augurie, Geometrie, and Astronomie.
HENRY COCKERAM [1], English Dictionarie (1623)
Apart from pen, paper and keyboard, the most valuable tool for a writer in any subject is a dictionary. Writing or reading in the mathematical sciences you will come across questions such as the following:
What is the plural of modulus: moduli or moduluses?
Which of parameterize and parametrize is the correct spelling?
What...
