The word _dispatch_, from It. _dispaccio_, had
been in English use for some 250 years when Johnson's Dictionary
appeared, and had been correctly spelt by everybody (that is by
everybody but the illiterate) with dis-. This was Johnson's own
spelling both before and after he published the dictionary, as may be
seen in his _Letters_ edited by Dr. G. Birkbeck Hill[13]. It was also
the spelling of all the writers whom Johnson quoted. But by some
inexplicable error, the word got into the dictionary as _despatch_,
and this spelling was even substituted in most of the quotations. I
have not found that a single writer followed this erroneous spelling
in the eighteenth century: Nelson, Wellesley, Wellington, and all our
commanders and diplomatists wrote _Dispatches_; but since about 1820,
the filtering down of the influence of Johnson's Dictionary has caused
this erroneous spelling _despatch_ to become generally known and to be
looked upon as authoritative; so that at the present time about half
our newspapers give the erroneous form, to which, more larmentably,
the Post Office, after long retaining the correct official tradition,
recently capitulated.
But despite small blemishes[14], the dictionary was a marvellous piece
of work to accomplish in eight and a half years; and it is quite
certain that, if all the quotations had had to be verified and
furnished with exact references, a much longer time, or the employment
of much more collaboration, would have been required.
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