10. THE MEANING OF THE ENTRY WORD

Now that you have learned how to pronounce the word and where it comes from, you can look at the meaning and see that carpenter means “a worker who builds or repairs wooden structures or their structural parts”.

As you worked through these last pages, you may have noticed that just below the entry for “1carpenter”, the word appears a second time as “2carpenter”. When you examine this second entry, you will discover the abbreviation “vb” indicating that this word is to be used as a verb. The next piece of information is two groups of letters, “-tered, -tering”. These are the correct forms of the verb when used in sentences like these. (The dash represents the entry word itself.)

He had carpentered for most of his working life.

He had been carpentering that oak chest for over three years.

The first recorded use of this word as a verb was in 1815. Sometimes the dictionary supplies phrases or sentences to show how to use the word. (}ed when he was young). Simply insert the entry word where you see the swung dash (}). Next, you will see a bold type swung dash (}) followed by the abbreviation vt. This means the entry word can be used as a transitive verb in a sentence like this:

He has carpentered for six years.

The number 1 means that the definition which follows is the oldest meaning of the word. The number 2 means this is the second oldest meaning. The entry closes with an example (ed many television scripts), meaning he had written it in a very mechanical (not creative) way. This is an example of the second meaning of the verb “carpenter”.

All of this seems like a lot to remember, and every dictionary uses a slightly different method of presenting information. To clearly understand the system used in any dictionary, consult the introductory section which will give you detailed explanations of the symbols used.