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Adjectival compounds in ‐lookingStanley Gerson aa University of Queensland ,Published online: 21 Jul 2008.

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Adjectival Compounds in -looking

A Diachronic Survey

STANLEY GERSONUniversity of Queensland

An "unhappy-looking man" is a man who (perhaps through facial expression orthrough a despondent set of the shoulders) is judged by the observer to be (i.e.seems, appears, looks) unhappy on the basis of his external appearance, whereasan "unhappy man" is stated to be in a state of unhappiness, or at least ought to beso. In this case, as in so many others, the verbal (participial) suffix -looking servesa very useful function in distinguishing between what is and what is not stated asfactual: a function which the old subjunctive mood once partially served. A dissi-pated-looking man may not in fact be dissipated, an innocent-looking girl may not beinnocent, a foolish-looking politician may perhaps be crafty enough, a delicious-looking dish of food may perhaps upset the stomach, a haughty-looking politicianmay be humility itself, a wealthy-looking man may owe a large bill to his tailor, arepulsive-looking man may perhaps be charming in manner: he only gives the im-pression of being repellent, whereas "a repulsive man" is one who is clearly de-scribed as unpleasant in manners and mind. In all these cases, the element -lookingdenotes that the possession of the adjectival attribute is to be deduced only fromexternal appearances. {Good-looking [= .'handsome'] shows a separate develop-ment.) ',

If we try to reconstruct the compound mad-looking (scientist), we may propose'(a scientist) who looks (i.e. appears) mad, i.e. to an observer has an appearanceof being, or gives the impression of being, mad'. The apparent construction adjec-tive + present participle in mad-looking, intelligent-looking, can be compared tosuch formations as quick-thinking (politician), rapid-growing (plant), slow-moving(train), swift-flowing (stream). These may be reconstructed 'a stream that flowsswiftly', 'a politician who thinks quickly', and so on. The adjectival forms of thefirst element of these latter compounds may be taken as colloquial variants of theadverb, reinforced perhaps by the absence of -ly in the adverbs hard, fast and /// insuch compounds as hard-hitting, fast-moving, ill-liked. In cases where the adverbialform with -ly may be substituted for the form without it, we find that there is in factno significant change: we can equally well say a rapidly-growing plant or a swiftly-flowing stream. But we cannot say *an intelligently-looking professor or *a madly-looking scientist (in the same sense as 'intelligent-looking'). Thus we have two typesof present participial compounds: 1. those with an adjective as the first element, and2. those where adverb and adjective forms may be interchanged (where the adverbform differs from the adjective).

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52 Stanley Gerson

This division arises, of course, because verbs of perception, such as look, appear,seem, smell, are frequently used with an adjectival predicative complement: Shelooks pretty; he appeared calm; it smelt beautiful. However, the abundance of com-pounds of this type (i.e. adjective + present participle) in the case of verbs of per-ception and the comparative infrequency of type 2 warrants further investigation.We may note to begin with that the relationship of the two elements in these com-pounds differs widely: in mad-looking, the operative word is mad with -looking act-ing as type of qualifier, whereas m fast-flowing, the adverb fast- simply qualifiesthe operative word -flowing. Thus we can say "a flowing stream", "a moving train","a growing plant", but not "*a looking scientist", at least not in the sense of'appear-ing to be'. Thus a compound such as steadily-increasing (debt) (the compound hav-ing level stress) and a compound such as steady-looking (boy) (with only subsidiarystress, if that, on -looking) are not parallel constructions and cannot be consideredtogether.

We may then conclude that the transformation "an apple that looks (smells, tastes)bad" -» " bad-looking (etc.) apple" may take place in the case of verbs of perceptionalone. This transformation is to be distinguished from those adjectival compoundsthat consist of an adverb plus a present participle (the participle form—to some ex-tent at least—being capable of acting as an independent adjective). For phrasessuch as "a river that flows rapid (—»rapid-flowing)", "a population that increasessteady" (->steadily-increasing) are clearly sub-standard.

A synchronie approach to a compound such as sharp-looking restructures it as'that looks sharp or intelligent', i.e. that appears sharp to the beholder. In the case ofa knife, sharp-looking would convey that it looks the sort of knife that would cutthe toughest steak; in the case of a person, the figurative meaning of'seeming to bementally alert' would probably be uppermost. Yet because of the ambiguity of theverb look (= 'appear' and 'direct the eyes at') it might be possible to reconstructsharp-looking (theoretically at least) in two ways:

1 . . . that looks (i.e. appears) sharp2 . . . that looks sharply, i.e. witH keen observation (out on the world).

It may still be possible to use sharp-looking, in the second sense, in such a context as"a sharp-looking eagle", i.e. an eagle endowed with a piercing gaze, an eagle thatlooks (= 'directs his eyes') sharply or piercingly at objects in the outside world.Here sharp-looking probably bears level stress, and belongs to the same type 2 assuch compounds as fast-flowing, quick-thinking.

It is probably in the "subjective" sense of'beholding others with sharpness, i.e.hungrily and with that intense expression and restless movement of the eyes thattypifies a starving man' that Shakespeare uses the compound in Comedy of Errors,V.i.240: A needy-hollow-eyed-sharpe-looking-wretch (O.E.D. s Sharp, a. and sbl

C. Comb, sense 3; see also s. Looking, ppl.a. sense 2 "Forming combinations, a.with a preceding adjective, substantive (now rare), or phrase"). From the contextit is clear that sharpe-looking cannot be intended to covey the modern sense of

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'quick-witted, alert' {O.E.D. sense 3e); the sixteenth-century sense of the com-pound is in fact suggested by the conclusion of the sentence "A living dead man".1

Sharp being also an adverb (see O.E.D. s. Sharp adv., with examples from c.1000-1852 and cf. the phrase look sharp), the suggestion that sharp-looking inComedy of Errors should be restructured rather as 'that looks sharply' than as 'thatlooks (seems) sharp' is not implausible. The next citation in O.E.D. s. Looking, ppl.a. is dated 1756, which tends to show the infrequency of this construction in earlymodern English. The evidence for the restructured 'that looks sharp' is extremelyslight. Thus I agree with W. W. Skeat who in his Glossary to Milton (in The Eng-lish Poems of John Milton, London, 1960) glosses dire-looking in Arcades 1633(lines 51-52) as "shedding evil influence". The lines run

And heal the harms of thwarting thunder blew,Or what the cross dire-looking Planet smites . . .

Obviously dire-looking implies 'that looks at one with dire effect', and not 'that looksor appears dire or awesome to the beholder'. Similarly, an example from Spenser'sFaerie Queene 1596 (Book IV. canto x. stanza 24), namely low looking in

Low looking dales disloignd (='distant, remote, far') from common gaze

should probably be interpreted: 'dales whose prospect or view very modestly doesnot rise very high from a lowly surface' (i.e. vales that look [i.e. direct their glances]low [adverb] or modestly), and not 'dales that look or appear low (adjective) tothe beholder but may not be so' (i.e. dales that appear to be low-lying), which is atrite, inconsequential and indeed illogical interpretation.2 Indeed the interpretationsuggested here is supported by an amazing pastiche by Horace Walpole in a letterto George Montague dated 1 July 1763. He was writing about the approaching com-pletion of a great gallery at his famous mansion at Strawberry Hill near Twickenham,and refers jokingly to "Spenser's prophetic eye" when he quotes that poet as writing:

. . . the blushing strawberriesWhich lurk, close-shrouded from high-looking eyes,Showing that sweetness low and hidden lies.

But as the editors of Walpole's Correspondence with George Montague say, this is"Apparently not by Spenser; not found elsewhere" (New Haven, 1941, v. 2, p. 85;from the Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's Correspondence, éd. W. S. Lewis, v. 10).Walpole's use of high-looking in the indubitable sense of'(eyes) that look high [ad-verb] above the surface of the earth', is probably based on his interpretation of low-looking dales as 'dales that keep their looks close down to the surface of the earth'in the modest manner of a well-brought-up young lady of former times. This pasticheindicates that in the mid-eighteenth-century, the adverbial force of the first element

1 Neither R. A. Foakes (Arden Shakespeare edition) nor J. D. Wilson (The New Shakespeareedition) has glossed sharp-looking. Another editorial oversight?2 Regrettably, there is no discussion of the form (in the Annotated English Poets Series) inSpenser's The Faerie Queene edited by A. C. Hamilton (London, 1977, p. 500).

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54 Stanley Gerson

in compounds in -looking was not entirely absent. Thus Thomson Seasons (Summer,lines 1606-7) wrote of

The tender-looking Charity, intentOn gentle deeds, and shedding tears through smiles .. .

Tender-looking here clearly does not indicate that Charity appeared to be a tenderor kindly person (as though she could be anything else!), but that Charity wasemanating tenderness through her glances or looks. In other words not 'Charity thatlooked tender', but 'Charity that looked tenderly'.

In my view, then, O.E.D. (in its comments quoted above s. Looking) accuratelyassesses modern (i.e. present-day) usage when it describes the first element of com-binations in -looking as adjectives (or phrases), but this may not always have beenthe case.

It may be noted that whereas sharpe-looking is a unique combination in Shake-speare, we find three instances of compounds in -looked: leane-look'd ProphetsRichard II, H.iv.ll; O grim-look'd night A Midsummer Night's Dream, V.i.169;red-look'd anger A Winter's Tale, II.ii.34. These compounds may be restructured'Prophets with lean looks', 'night with grim looks', 'anger with red looks'. Thiscommon pattern is exemplified in such prevalent formations as blue-eyed (Tempest,I.ii), soft-conscienced (Coriolanus, I.i), tender-bodied (Coriolanus, I.iii), motley-minded (Ai You Like It, V.iv), silver-voiced (Pericles, V.i). Functionally it is im-possible to treat the first element as other than adverbial.

In the material consulted by me, the following pattern of compounds emerges:

Before 15501550-16501650-17001700-17501750-1800

Modifier + -looked?16

14112

Modifier + -looking05 (probable adverbial force)3

10323

3 These figures are based on occurrences in the texts mentioned in the Bibliography, togetherwith occurrences found in a fairly assiduous search in O.E.D. under various adjective entries,together with examples in the entries Looking ppl. a. sense 2, and Looked ppl. a2. Obs.A few cases are included from other texts, which are then more fully identified. Every oc-currence is counted, e.g. well-looking occurs 7 times (all after 1700), ill-looking 10 times (9times after 1750), ill-looked 8 times (all before 1750). However, a few cases where the firstelement of the compound is clearly adverbial (e.g. down-looking) have been excluded as notexemplifying the type under discussion.

The references to these figures are:Before 1550. Perhaps ryzt-lokede in Peres the Ploughmans Crede line 372 (in W. W. Skeat's

Specimens of English Literature 1394-1579, Oxford 1917, p. 6) (c. 1394), if Skeat's gloss (='righteous, just') is correct. Lines 372-4 run:

Leeue [='believe'] it well, lef man and men ryzt-lokede,per is more pryue pride in prechours hertesban per lefte [= 'remained'] in lucyfer er he were lowe fallen

However O.E.D. (s. Right, adv. sense 14) does not hyphenate ryzt-lokede and glosses ryzt as'accurately, correctly, exactly'. Apparently O.E.D. (which provides no reference to this line s.Look v.) would suggest a meaning something like 'and men who can assess the situation accura-tely'. The paucity of material suggesting the existence of adjectival compounds in -looked much

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The abrupt rejection of compounds in -looked in favour of those in -looking, which

is shown to have taken place in the mid-eighteenth-century, may be connected with

the effort that was then taking place to normalize the language. O.E.D. exemplifies

adjectival compounds in -smelling from 1388 to 19th century, in -sounding from

1552, and although compounds using the past participle such as sweet-sounded did

occur, they were never in a commanding position.4 On the analogy oí sweet-smelling

and sweet-sounding, the form sweet-looking would tend to become more acceptable

than sweet-looked.

O.E.D.'s observation that it is now rare to use a substantive as the first element

in compounds in -looking is entirely correct. Thus O.E.D. s. Dog sb. III. 16 c. quotes

L'Estrange 1699 "Dog-lookinggrey-Beard". Eighteenth century usage is exemplified

by death-looking (Sterne, 1760-67) and coward-looking (Sheridan, 1797). The nine-

teenth century developed this construction very strongly. Thus Dickens: bed-furni-

before the time of Shakespeare makes the O.E.D. interpretation more probable than Skeat's,but of course the meaning hardly varies whether ryzt-lokede is compounded or not. The linesin Gower Confessio Amantis Book VIII, lines 1327-8

Sche was wel kept, sche was wel lokedSche was wel tawht, sche was wel boked . . .

are difficult to analyse: 'she had a benignant expression in her face'? Hardly a compound.1550-1650. Shakespeare: leane-look'd, grim-look'd, red-look'd, O.E.D. ill-looked 1636, wry-

looked 1647: Shakespeare sharpe-looking, Spenser low looking, Milton dire-looking, O.E.D.gentler-looking 1612, ill-looking 1633. (H. M. Hulme Explorations in Shakespeare's Language,London, 1962, pp. 17, 20, 287, comments on the Stratford phrase found recorded from about1627: 'Itm the wife of Anthrim holds or sayth goodie bromlie is an ill looked wooman'. Illlooked is interpreted by Miss Hulme as meaning 'having the power to look on with the evileye'.)

1650-1700. Pepys comely looked (I, 448), well-looked (I, 511, III, 79), modest-looked (II, 104),simplest-looked (II, 233), ill-looked (I, 455, 611, II, 202), so odd a looked (maid) (II, 307),Evelyn worst-looked (324), Osborne ill-looked (169), O.E.D. modest-looked 1654, sowre lookt1673, meagre-looked 1694, Pepys jealous-looking (I, 661, II, 601), O.E.D. dog-looking 1699.

1700-1750. Defoe (Colonel Jack) ill-look'd (8), Fielding (Joseph Andrews) ill-looked (205),O.E.D. shabby-looked 1705, genteel-looked 1708, hungry-looked 1713, fresh-looked 1714, surly-looked 1716, as ugly a looked fellow 1725, well-looked 1722 and 1737, lean look'd 1748, Defoe(Colonel Jack) well looking (27), Smollett (Roderick Random) mean-looking (122), well-looking (352), Fielding (Tom Jones) genteel looking (602), well-looking (331), O.E.D. well-looking 1702 and 1737, lean-looking 1713, gloomy-looking 1727, Thomson's tender-lookingclearly exemplifies adverbial force in tender-.

1750-1800. Boswell well-look'd, O.E.D. well-look'd 1756, Fielding (Amelia) grave-looking(I, 8, 19), ill-looking (I, 229, II, 91, 92, 95, 104), Boswell pretty-looking (82), good-looking (176),curious-looking (244), Stern (Tristram Shandy) death-looking (355), Smollett (HumphryClinker) Jew-looking (24), Walpole high-looking (154), Goldsmith well-looking (22),ill-looking (76), R. B. Sheridan as stern a looking rogue (407), ill-looking (407 twice, 438),as honest a looking face (407), malicious-looking (119), O.E.D. venerable-looking 1766, ugly-looking 1771, odd-looking 1771, good-looking 1780, well-looking 1772, care not what lookinghorse 1781, healthy-looking 1800, noble-looking 1800, Sheridan Dictionary 1797 Dire-looking,mild looking (s. Smoothtongued), coward-looking (s. cream-faced).4 The compounds sweet-smelling, sweet-sounding, can be restructured as 'that smells (sounds)sweet'. Whereas in the cases of well-look'd, lean-look' d, grim-look'd, etc., reference was beingmade to a condition that was not particularly ephemeral but rather typical or habitual (ofsomebody or something that in past time had acquired healthy, lean or grim looks), in the caseof sweet-smelling or sweet-sounding the condition is immediate and fleeting, consequently thepresent participle is felt to be the most appropriate way of suggesting this. It may be notedthat in 1602 Sir John Harington (in The Pelican Book of English Prose, Harmondsworth 1959,vol. I p. 39) used the expression ill tastede (cake)(O.E.D.'s first citation of this term i. Ill adj.s. A. IV. 8 is from 1651-3). O.E.D. also has many examples of well-tasted from 1635-1850.(Today we should say nice-, pleasant-, delicious-tasting.)

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56 Stanley Gerson

ture-Iooking dressing-gown (Boz, p. 80); grape-vine-looking flourishes (p. 471);mantelpiece-looking tablet (p. 294); meat-safe-looking blinds (p. 275); mourning-coach-looking steed (p. 368); snuff-shop-looking figure (p. 123); tea-garden-lookingconcerns (p. 384); tinder-box-looking hats (p. 118). Cobbett has cockney-lookinggentlemen I, 68; church-looking windows I, 74; tradesman-looking man II, 103;thief-looking sheds II, 250. Marryat Peter Simple has dog looking little old fellow(p. 30); Kinglake Eothen has hyper-Turk looking fellows (p. 9); low-church-lookinghens (p. 75); Surtees Hillingdon Hall has rattle-trap, fire-engine-looking carriage(p. 188); live turtle looking things . . . caljed Aldermen (p. 19); scrubbing-brush-look-ing whiskers (p. 191); jockey-looking band (p. 301); dog-stealer-looking fellows (p.337); bull-dog-lookin' 'ounds (p. 404). Borrow Lavengro has lion-looking man (p.262); sailor-looking man (p. 328); landlord-looking person (p. 328); Mrs Gaskell Cran-ford has Don Quixote looking old man (p. 55) (most of these combinations seem un-suitable to modern usage, but it is impossible to be categorical about their "accepta-bility", since substantives, of course, are often used attributively, e.g. a sailor suit,a low-church attitude, which makes the distinction between substantive and adjec-tive not always clear-cut.) My twentieth century material has no examples of sub-stantive + -looking, apart from Brendan Behan's use of the expression "not as greenas he was cabbage-looking" (Borstal Boy, p. 179); the same phrase occurring inhis play Hostage (London, 1958, p. 121) (= 'not such a fool as he seems', see E.Partridge Dictionary of Slang, v. 1, p. 352). It may be noted that -looking appendedto a substantive cannot be interpreted as 'appearing to be . . . but not necessarilybeing so' but rather must be taken as 'resembling' or 'bringing to mind the pictureof..."

A second characteristic of the nineteenth century material is the "unattached"or separable -looking that occurs in interrogative constructions such as "What sort ofa looking fellow was Washington?" Noctes Ambrosianae Edinburgh 1863 [1822-35]I, 110; and Austen Emma "What sort of a looking man is Mr Martin?" (p. 58). Wealso find cases where inversion of indefinite article and adjective after an introduc-tory so results in the article severing the compound, as in "so peculiar and dashinga looking gentleman as . . . " , Lytton Paul Clifford, p. 160. O.E.D. s. Looking ppl. a,sense 2, cites an isolated example of a "floating" -looking from the eighteenth cen-tury: "I care not what looking horse I have" (1781). Similar forms occur in MarryatPeter Simple: the reader may wish to know what sort of looking personage she was(p. 24); I'll tell you what sort of a looking craft he is (p. 192); E. G. C. Howard Rattlinthe Reefer how so fine a looking gentleman (p. 187); Marryat Mr Midshipman Easy ahalf-legal sort of looking gentleman (p. 257); H. Kingsley Geoffry Hamlyn as fine alooking [gentleman] (p. 237); A. Hope Dolly Dialogues What sort of a looking personam I?" (xiii). In Surtees Hillingdon Hall: (of a horse) "a shuffling, ginger-colouredchestnut (of all colours the most detestable) looking thing" (p. 93), looking apparent-ly modifies chestnut.

A curious instance of qualifying the compound in -looking by an adverb attachedto its second element instead of the adverb qualifying the compound itself is foundin P. Egan Book of Sports: "A tolerably-looking decent house" instead of "a toler-

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Adjectival Compounds in -looking 57

ably decent-looking house". In this instance -looking can be formally considered toform a combination with an adverb, a usage not mentioned by O.E.D. The sameconfusion is evidenced in "a very respectably looking village" E. G. C. HowardOutward Bound (p. 320) and "a monstrously large and pleasantly looking face" Ratt-lin the Reefer (p. 149). It is hardly conceivable that we have here a reversion to theShakespearean type sharp-looking—namely, 'a face that looks—i.e. regards itsenvironment—in a pleasant fashion'. Somewhat similarly to these examples of "ad-verb" modification by -looking, the expression "dull he-looking mountain" (King-lake Eothen p. 116) (used of a tall shrouded figure that appears to be that of a man)may be considered to exemplify -looking qualifying a pronoun, although of coursehe- is used as a prefix as an equivalent to 'male'. Kinglake's "the same lookingfurniture as a Gentleman" appears unusual because we would use "similar" or "samesort o f (p. 264).

Thirdly, the nineteenth century first exemplifies the qualifying -looking as at-tached to compound adjectives. An early instance is ill-tempered looking MooreJournal for 1-10-1818; Lytton Pelham ill-natured looking man (p. 29); Lever CharlesO'Malley a weather-beaten looking officer (p. 132); Forster Life of Dickens twotravel-stained-looking men (I, 410).

Finally a tautological expression of the nineteenth century is found in R. G. WhiteEngland Without and Within unhome-like-looking structures (London, 1881, p. 68)and in Mayhew London Labour and London Poor the tea-like-looking packet(London, 1861, I, 384). But the prize for wayward style must go to the youthful'Ouida' (1839-1908) who is quoted by Nicolas Bentley The Victorian Scene (London,1968, p. 280) as writing in her diary in 1851 "the nave . . . is so fairy-paradisy-likea looking place . . . " Gentlemanly-looking occurs quite frequently, but gentlemanlyis not associated with gentleman + like.

Since the mid nineteenth-century, compounds in -looking have not shown anyexpansion. The participle may be attached to adjectives and participles with com-plete freedom, e.g. depressed-looking, shrunken-looking, miserable-looking, shabby-looking. In printed texts the use of the hyphen seems to be a matter of uncertaintyor free choice: E. M. Wright Rustic Speech (Oxford, 1913) has worn-out lookingwoman (p. 18); M. D. Anderson Drama and Imagery (Cambridge, 1963) has rigidlooking female (p. 107), venerable looking old man (p. 101); Gwyn Jones Eirik theRed (London, 1961) has courtly looking knights (p. 292). On the whole the hyphenat-ed form is the prevailing one. The qualification Aooking is not added to nouns, ex-cept in the cases mentioned above. Even the addition of -looking to compoundattributes is comparatively infrequent: M. Spark The Bachelors second-hand-lookingcheque (p. 66); Behan Borstal Boy shrivelled-up-looking bastard (p. 128); SayersUnpleasantness hard-worked-looking dress-suit (p. 158).

However, the transformational force of the compound is not exhausted. Thefrequency of expressions such as "good (ugly, passable, sour, pretty, repulsive)-looking (girl)" has brought about such instances as '"What sort of a looker, Perry?'Delia Street held out her hands shoulder high, palms facing each other, and thenproceeded to bring the hands down in a series of undulating curves. 'Like that, eh'

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BIBLIOGRAPHYThe following works have been excerpted for cases of -looking and -looked. They are arrangedin 7 sections: books composed or published A. before 1550. B. 1550-1650. C. 1650-1700. D.1700-1750. E. 1750-1800. F. 1800-1900. G. after 1900. The arrangement is roughly chronolo-gical (according to date of publication, or in section A and in cases such as Pepys and Boswellaccording to date of composition). However, within the same section, all the works excerptedfrom one author are grouped together. Date of first publication is given in square brackets,together with a numeral (in round brackets) representing cases of compounds in adjective etc.+ looking. Short titles of works are used.

Apart from literary works the following books have been of particular use:

V. Adams, An Introduction to Modern English Word-Formation, London, 1973.H. Koziol, Handbuch der englischen Wortbildungslehre, Heidelberg, 1937.R. B. Lees, The Grammar of English Nominalizations, Bloomington, 1963.H. Marchand, The Categories and Types of Present-Day English Word-Formation, Wies-

baden, 1960.Oxford English Dictionary (Thirteen volumes), Oxford, 1933. (O.E.D.)T. Sheridan, General Dictionary of the English Language [1797] 2 vols. Menston, 1967.

5 A note should be added on the treatment of compounds in -looking in O.E.D. The view ofthe editors, stated in the "General Explanations" (Vol. 1, p. xxxiii), is that where, in com-binations, "each word retains its full meaning, the relations between them falling under one orother of the ordinary grammatical categories . . . specimens merely are given". No consistentor logical treatment is therefore regarded as necessary in the case of compounds in -looking.Such an editorial policy may be defended on grounds of economy: there is no need to make anexhaustive survey of every instance of each compound. However, an opportunity has beenmissed to reveal a linguistic development of some interest, partly because the decision to giveonly "specimens" has absolved the editors from the responsibility of finding the earliest re-corded example. Thus no one would expect that O.E.D. should record (as it does not) suchforms as anxious-looking, bright-looking, brutal-looking, busy-looking, coarse-looking,curious-looking, dirty-looking, dreary-looking, elegant-looking, etc., but one wonders if it isappropriate that for example awkward-looking is recorded from 1872 (Dickens Martin Chuzzle-wit 1843-4), ferocious-looking from 1849 (in Dickens Boz 1836), fierce-looking from 1859(in Kinglake 1844), grand-looking from 1878 (in Thackeray Pendennis 1848), honest-lookingfrom 1897 (Sheridan 1777), masculine-looking from 1899 (Gaskell Cranford 1851-3), rude-looking from 1876 (Gaskell Mary Barton 1848), shabby-looking from 1853 (Dickens PickwickPapers 1836-7).

These are comparatively minor matters, but by providing only "specimens" of compoundsand by (I suspect) insufficient collation of data, O.E.D. suffers too greatly from a paucity ofrelevant material to be authoritative in providing definitions which are highly desirable. Thusas we have seen Shakespeare's sharpe-looking, Spenser's low looking, Milton's dire-looking,are all unsatisfactorily defined, if mentioned at all, and there is only a meagre hint in one ofthese cases that the author's usage differs from that of today. Thus O.E.D.'s analysis of -look-ing (s. Looking ppl. a. sense 2) in Shakespeare's sharpe-looking as being formed "with a pre-ceding adjective" is probably incorrect. O.E.D. discusses the compound again s. Sharp adj. C.(Comb.) 3., a little more information being provided here, namely "Quasi-advb, as complementwith ppl. adj.". By placing sharpe- within the adjectival section, O.E.D. appears to be ana-lysing the compound synchronically, but by its remarks it has clearly perceived, in this latervolume, that (unlike the case in twentieth-century usage) sharpe- has here an adverbial func-tion. Was it then to be consistent with the earlier entry (s. Looking ppl. a.) that Shakespeare'ssharpe-looking is entered under Sharp adj.? If so, the desire for "consistency" only added tofurther inconsistency, for the exactly parallel construction sharp-smelling is recorded inO.E.D. s. Sharp adv. 3.

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Drake asked". (E. S. Gardiner The Case of the Bigamous Spouse, London, 1967,pp. 24-25) and "In his way, he was a looker: tall, handsome, tough and vicious"(J. H. Chase You're Dead Without Money, London, 1972, p. 13). Looker here ap-pears to mean 'somebody with striking looks' or 'with looks worth commenting on'.O.E.D. Supplement has numerous examples of this usage from 1904. It is designatedU.S. Colloq.5

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In addition the following concordances have been consulted:J. Bartlett, Concordance to ... Shakespeare, London, 1913.The Cornell Concordances to the Poems of Sir Philip Sidney (ed. H. S. Donow), to the Com-

plete Writings of George Herbert (ed. M. Di Cesare), to the Plays of William Congreve(ed. D. Mann), to the Poems of Jonathan Swift (ed. M. Shinagel), to the Poems of SamuelJohnson (ed. H. Naugle), to the Plays of W. B. Yeats (2 vols. ed. E. Domville), Ithaca,1972-.

A. Texts studied for the earliest period (to 1550)William Langland, Piers Plowman (ed. W. W. Skeat), 5 vols. London, 1867-77.Geoffrey Chaucer, Works (ed. F. N. Robinson), London, 1957.John Gower, Confessio Amantis (Selections) (ed. R. A. Peck), New York, 1968.Sir John Mandeville's Travels (ed. H. C. Seymour), Oxford, 1967.Gesta Romanorum (ed. S. J. Herrtage), London, 1879.The Chester Plays (ed. H. Deimling), 2 vols., London, 1968.The York Plays (ed. L. Toulmin Smith), New York, 1963.The Wakefield Pageants in the Towneley Cycle (ed. A. C. Cawley), Manchester, 1958.Sir Thomas Malory, Works (ed. E. Vinaver), Oxford, 1977.William Caxton, Reynard the Fox (ed. N. F. Blake), London, 1970.Robert Henryson, Poems and Fables (ed. H. H. Wood), Edinburgh, 1958.William Dunbar, Poems (ed. W. M. Mackenzie), London, 1970.John Skelton, Complete Poems (ed. P. Henderson), London, 1970.

B. Texts studied 1550-1650Roger Ascham, English Works (ed. W. A. Wright), Cambridge, 1904 [1545-1570]Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, London, 1965. [1589, 1596] (1)Sir Philip Sidney, Apologie for Poetry, Cambridge, 1951. [1595]Thomas Deloney, Works (ed. F. O. Mann), Oxford, 1967. [1596-1600]Sir Francis Bacon, Essayes (ed. O. Smeaton), London, 1906. [1597]John Stow, Survey of London (ed. C. L. Kingsford), Oxford, 1908. [1597]William Shakespeare, Complete Works (ed. C. J. Sisson), London, 1953. [c. 1591-c. 1612] (1)Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Select Plays, London, n.d. [c. 1606-c. 1616]Sir Thomas Overbury, Characters (in Miscellaneous Works, ed. E. F. Rimbault), London,

1856. [1614]Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, vol. 3, London, 1932. [1621]Philip Massinger, Plays (Mermaid Series), 2 vols., London, 1904. [c. 1623-c. 1636]Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, London, 1969. [1643]— Pseudodoxia Epidemica (Vulgar Errors), in Works, vol. 2 (ed. G. Keynes), London, 1964.

[1646]

C. Texts studied 1650-1700Dorothy Osborne, Letters to Sir William Temple (ed. E. A. Barry), London, 1888. [1652-54]Izaac Walton, The Compleat Angler, London, 1906. [1653]Samuel Pepys, Diary (ed. J. Warrington), 3 vols., London, 1966. [1660-69] (2)Samuel Butler, Hudibras (ed. A. R. Waller), Cambridge, 1905. [1663-78]George Etherege, Dramatic Works (ed. H. F. B. Brett-Smith), Oxford, 1927. [1664-76]William Wycherley, Complete Plays (ed. G. Weales), New York, 1967. [1672-77]John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, London, 1975. [1678]John Dryden, Poems (ed. B. Dobrée), London, 1966. [1649-1700]William Congreve, Complete Plays (ed. H. Davis), Chicago, 1967. [1693-1700]

D. Texts studied 1700-1750George Farquhar, Works (ed. W. Archer), London, 1949. [1698-1707]Joseph Addison, Richard Steele et al., The Spectator (ed. D. F. Bond), 5 vols., Oxford, 1965.

[1711-12, 1714]Daniel Defoe, Journal of the Plague Year, London, 1920. [1720]— Robinson Crusoe, Harmondsworth, 1965. [1719]— Colonel Jack (ed. S. H. Monk), London, 1965. [1720] (1)— Roxana (ed. J. Jack), London, 1964. [1724]Jonathan Swift, Writings (ed. R. A. Greenberg), New York, 1973. [1697-1731]James Thomson, The Seasons and The Castle of Indolence (ed. J. Sambrook), Oxford, 1972.

[1730, 1748] (1)Samuel Richardson, Pamela, vol. 1, London, 1962. [1740]Colley Cibber, Apology (ed. B. R. S. Fone), Ann Arbor, 1968. [1740]

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Henry Fielding, Joseph Andrews, London, 1975. [1742] (1)— Jonathan Wild, London, 1932. [1743]— Tom Jones, Harmondsworth, 1966. [1749] (2)Lord Chesterfield, Letters to his Son, London, 1963. [1739-65]Tobias Smollett, Roderick Random, New York, 1964. [1748] (2)

E. Texts studied 1750-1800Henry Fielding, Amelia, 2 vols., London, 1905. [1751] (7)James Boswell, London Diary (ed. F. A. Pottle), London, 1958. [1762-63] (3)Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy, London, 1941. [1760-67] (1)— Sentimental Journey, London, 1937. [1768]Horace Walpole, Selected Letters (ed. W. Hadley), London, 1963. [1735-97] (1)Tobias Smollett, Humphry Clinker, London, 1961. [1771] (1)Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, Oxford, 1912. [1773] (2)William Cowper, Selected Letters (ed. W. Hadley), London, n.d. [1758-99]Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The Rivals and The School for Scandal in Dramatic Works (ed.

C. Price), vol. 1, Oxford, 1973. [1775, 1777] (6)

F. Texts studied 1800-1900Sir Walter Scott, Guy Mannering, [1815] (13)— Ivanhoe, [1819] (2)— Quentin Durward, [1823] (14)— St. Ronan's Well, [1823] (4)— ("Waverley Novels", London, 1895-97)Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, London, 1906. [1818] (9)— Emma, Harmondsworth, 1966. [1815] (8)— Persuasion, Harmondsworth, 1965. [1818] (13)Washington Irving, Sketch Book, London, 1906. [1820] (15)— Bracebridge Hall, Boston, 1977. [1822] (1)[William Clarke], Every Night Book, London, 1827. (11)Theodore Hook, Sayings and Doings, Part III, 3 vols., London, 1829. (12)— Maxwell, London, 1834. (11)Thomas Moore, Journals (inAnecdotes, ed. W. Harrison, London, 1899). [1818-45] (3)Lord Lytton, Pelham, Leipzig, 1842. [1828] (10)— Paul Clifford, Paris, 1838. [1830] (6)— Eugene Aram, Paris, 1836. [1832] (8)William Cobbett, Rural Rides, 2 vols., London, n.d. [1830] (18)Pierce Egan, Book of Sports, London, 1847. [1832] (5)Frederick Marryat, Jacob Faithful, 3 vols., London, 1834. (4)— Peter Simple, London, 1895. [1834] (4)— Mr. Midshipman Easy, London, 1954. [1836] (4)Edward Howard, Rattlin the Reefer, London, 1930. [1836] (21)— Outward Bound, Paris, 1838. [1838] (8)Charles Dickens, Boz, [1836] (85)— Pickwick Papers, [1836-37] (43)— Martin Chuzzlewit, [1843-44] (10)— Bleak House, [1852-53] (23)— Little Dorrit, [1855-57] (14)— Our Mutual Friend, [1864-65] (7)— ("New Oxford Illustrated Dickens", London, 1954-60)Robert Suttees, Jorrocks's Jaunts, London, 1961. [1838] (30)— Handley Cross, London, 1963. [1843] (73)— Hillingdon Hall, London, n.d. [1845] (41)— Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour, London, 1961. [1853] (54)— Plain or Ringlets, London, 1951. [1860] (50)Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus, London, 1902. [1838] (2)— On Heroes and Hero-Worship, London, 1908. [1841] (8)Charles Lever, Charles O'Malley, 3 vols., Dublin, n.d. [1840] (31)Alexander Kinglake, Eothen, Oxford, 1910. [1844] (39)Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Harmondsworth, 1966. [1847] (5)Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, Harmondsworth, 1971. [1847] (2)William Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Harmondsworth, 1968. [1847-48] (8)— Pendennis, London, n.d. [1848] (9)Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton, London, n.d. [1848] (13)— Cranford, London, 1908. [1851-53] (7)

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Francis Smedley, Frank Fairleigh, London, 1850. (18)Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables, London, 1907. [1851] (5)George Borrow, Lavengro, London, 1904. [1851] (41)George Eliot, Scenes of Clerical Life, London, 1912. [1857] (14)— Daniel Deronda, Harmondsworth, 1967. [1874-76] (14)George Meredith, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, New York, 1961. [1859] (4)Henry Kingsley, Geoffry Hamlyn, London, 1909. [1859] (61)Charles Kingsley, Hereward the Wake, London, 1908. [1866] (2)Henry Mayhew, London Characters, London, 1874. (9)William Morris, News from Nowhere, London, 1970. [1891] (12)Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four, London, 1959. [1890] (2)— Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, London, 1960 [1893] (7)George du Maurier, Trilby, London, 1931. [1894] (11)Anthony Hope, Dolly Dialogues, London, 1901. [1894] (1)

G. Texts studied from 1900 to dateHenry Lawson, Prose, 3 vols. (ed. C. Mann), Sydney, 1964. [1894-1922] (124)Herbert George Wells, Kipps, London, n.d. [1905] (8)Hugh Walpole, Mr Perrin and Mr Traill, London, 1949. [1911] (3)Sheila Kaye-Smith, Sussex Gorse, London, 1922. [1916] (3)Dorothy Sayers, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, London, 1977. [1921] (10)George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London, Harmondsworth, 1975. [1933] (9)— Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Harmondsworth, 1975. [1936] (15)— Nineteen Eighty Four, Harmondsworth, 1972. [1949] (10)— Inside the Whale, Harmondsworth, 1974. [1957] (1)Henry Cecil, Brothers in Law, London, 1955. (2)Nigel Balchin, The Fall of the Sparrow, London, 1955. (1)Alan Sillitoe, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, London, 1958. (1)Brendan Behan, Borstal Boy, London, 1958. (16)George Johnston, The Darkness Outside, London, 1959. (2)Muriel Spark, The Bachelors, London, 1960. (5)Anthony Burgess, Malayan Trilogy, London, 1964. (4)

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