Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain

Full charactered with lasting memory.

Which shall above that idle rank remain

Beyond all date, even to eternity

—William Shakespeare, Sonnet 122

“When I use a word, “Humpty Dumpty

said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means

just what I choose it to mean—neither

more nor less.”

—Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There

Lexicographer A writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge

—Dr. Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language

To all keepers of the true relational flame