Masonic Vocabulary. Policy Studies Organization. From the SelectedWorks of Paul J. Rich. Paul J. Rich, George Mason University

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1 Policy Studies Organization From the SelectedWorks of Paul J. Rich 2009 Masonic Vocabulary Paul J. Rich, George Mason University Available at:

2 RICH, P.1 Vocabulary of the Craft PAUL RICH Few organizations have a more special and a more curious vocabulary than does Freemasonry, 1 which because it encompasses many autonomous organizations in many lands has a literature in numerous languages. 2 Not unexpectedly then, its use of language is quite challenging to dictionry makers. William Allan Neilson recognized this when editing the Webster s New International of 1934 and sought out advice for Masonic definitions from C.T. Converse. To this day that second edition has great credibility when it comes to Masonic usage, with its definitions of words like demit, master mason, third degree, tiler, and blue lodge. 3 So, when it came to the Third New International, Philip Bacock Gove sought the special help of F. Elmer Raschig, who was the executive head of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in the Northern Jurisdiction of the United States. Added were words like entered apprentice and fellowcraft, as well as chivalric rite, but unfortunately there were losses such as speculative masonry and tessle, as well as so mote it be and the Masonic definition of cowan. 41 While general dictionaries do take on the difficult task of handling Masonic terminology with reasonable success, there is a strong need for special Masonic dictionaries. As far as general dictionaries are concerned, Funk & Wagnalls, in the 1952 edition, along with the American Heritage and the Random House 1

3 RICH, P.2 dictionaries, is only adequate. Of course, it is the Oxford English Dictionary or OED which is the ultimate non Masonic source of Masonic definitions. For example, demit appears there not only as a verb but appears in its Masonic sense as a noun. However, in the final analysis no general dictionary can do justice to the special vocabulary of Freemasonry. Hence for more than 200 years there have been efforts to provide Masonic dictionaries, often misnamed encyclopaedias. A much reprinted example, and still in print after a century, is Robert Macoy s ( ) A Dictionary of Freemasonry (Bell Publishing Company, New York, 1989), which as it is now most often seen in reprint is actually three of his works: General History of Freemasonry, Cyclopedia of Freemasonry, and A Dictionary of Symbolical Masonry. Macoy relied on earlier works such as two eighteenth-century French works, M. Fleury s Dictionnaire de l Ordre de la Felicité and Pernetti s Dictionnaire Mytho-Hermetique, as well as the 1805 dictionary by Chomel, Vocabulair des Francs-Maçons, and two early nineteenth-century dictionaries, M. Quantin s Dictionnaire Maçonnique and G. Lenning s Encyclopadie der Freemaurerei. He also acknowledges the use of Freimaurer Lexicon by Gadicke and the Lexicon of Freemasonry by Albert G. Mackey. 5 Mackey incidentally is also still in print. Also still in print is Arthur Edward Waite s A New Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry (Wings Books, New York, 1970.) None of these volumes, though long employed, really meet modern research needs, and most Masonic scholars would agree that a good project would be an international commission to produce a new dictionary.

4 RICH, P.3 NOTES 1. Correspondence about this paper is invited via 2. See Paul Rich, comments on C.N.Batham, The Origin of Freemasonry (A New Theory), Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, Transactions of Quatuor Coronati Lodge No.2076, Vol.106, 1993, Harry C. Bauer, Masonic Editorial Acuity Test, Masonic Papers, Vol.V No.4, June Bauer was Professor of Librarianship at the University of Washington in Seattle and a member of Century Lodge there. His essay on dictionaries and Masonry was published by the Walter F. Meier Lodge of Research, Seattle. 4. ibid.

5 RICH, P.4 5. Robert Macoy, A Dictionary of Freemasonry, Bell Publishing Company, New York, 1989,

The York Rite. There s More, Much More... Compiled & Edited by Sir Knight Swann, Alpha Commandery # 1

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