First quotations for major 18th-century sources

This graph shows the number of first quotations (marked in red) contained in total quotations for a selection of 18th-century sources.
As suspected earlier, documentation for dictionary-writer Bailey is anomalous. Nearly a quarter of his quotations are first quotations, often for highly unusual words infrequently or uniquely attested (e.g. abeche, aberuncate, abligurition). We have left him out of this graph and the next, therefore, while we look at the evidence in more detail.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 29 June 2006 )
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