Contrasts in American and British Dictionary Cultures: The View from Marketing

How dictionaries are marketed gives a picture of the ways in which dictionary publishers help to create, support, and maintain the contrasting “dictionary cultures” of the UK and US. Such materials show American dictionaries promoted as a tool for people from all walks of life, able to help in social, educational, and economic advancement. British domestic dictionary promotion, on the contrary, has focused more on the accuracy of the record of the language, with some attention to enjoyment of language. This article draws on archival materials concerning Merriam-Webster and Oxford University Press one-volume dictionaries in the twentieth century and situates them within the context of the culture of the written word in the US and UK.