Blount, Thomas, 1618-1679.

Blount's Nomo-lexicon : (English Law, 1670)

NOMO-LEXICON: A LAW DICTIONARY

A LAW -DICTIONARY AND GLOSSARY

Blount was a barrister and a member of the Inner Temple, but, as a Roman Catholic, was prevented from practicing at the Bar. Finding some defects with the dictionaries of Cowell and Rastell, he determined to publish what would be a significant improvement. In his preface, Blount humbly and graciously pointed out why he felt his book was needed: for example, Cowell "is sometimes too prolix in the derivation of a Word, setting down several Authors Opinions, without categorically determining which is the true…" and Rastell "wrote so long hence, that his very Language and manner of expression was almost antiquated." He was encouraged in his endeavor by the belief that no science had more abstruse terms than that of the Law, and stated that the dictionary will be useful "even from the Coif to the puny-Clerk."

His Nomo-Lexicon was first published in 1670. More elaborate than the Termes de la Ley, this work quickly superseded its predecessors. In addition to providing the explanation of common law terms, Blount was "the first lexicographer of a purely English dictionary to attempt an etymology of words (Starnes & Noyes, p. 46)"; he devoted many pages to etymology and described the origins of ancient law customs. Blount was also the first English lexicographer who consistently cited references to authorities consulted, statutes, and treatises (Cowley, lxxxix). The work was reissued in larger and revised editions throughout the eighteenth century. By 1717, editor William Nelson of the Middle Temple added more than 3000 words to the original text, including the laws of the Saxon, Danish, and Norman kings, and borrowing freely from Somner's Lexicon (1659) and Benson's Thesaurus Saxonicus (1701).

See John D. Cowley, A Bibliography of Abridgments, Digests, Dictionaries and Indexes of English Law, to the year 1800. (Quaritch: London, 1932).

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