An Historicodevelopmental Analysis of the Regressive Imagery Dictionary

Abstract

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is the standard reference work for determining the earliest known instance of the occurrence of a word (Date-of-Entry). Using the OED, we determined Date-of-Entry for the words which constitute the Regressive Imagery Dictionary (RID). Several of the categories have significantly different Dates-of-Entry. These differences can be interpreted by taking a developmental approach to the history of the language. From such an historicodevelopmental standpoint, the differences in Date-of-Entry between categories make perfectly good sense. These findings have implications for future studies of art history using the RID.