C S L in the OED

David Clarke

Although there have been attempts to gauge the 'value' of Lewis

as a writer, a technical assessment would consist of the quotations of
Lewis which appear in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Before
we begin to plumb the depths of the OED, let me first dispel the
expectation of deriving a substantial view of either Lewis or of his
corpus from the OED.
First, in the second edition of the OED there are over 2,000,000
quotations from various sources. As far as I can make out,
Shakespeare heads the list with over 32,000 quotations. Although I
shall be prepared to accept evidence to the contrary, there appears to
be 214 distinct quotations which relate to Lewis. Second, where an
author is quoted for the particular use of a word, there is no guarantee
that this quotation or any of the rest is representative of his or her
work. I believe this to be especially true of Lewis, who could be
described as a 'polymath' (look it up!). Finally, even if an author is
quoted on a given subject (e.g. Mediaeval and Renaissance
Literature), would 214 quotations be sufficient to represent the subject,
even the polemical parts, from the author's point of view? If the
quotations were large and varied, perhaps. But if you were to examine
the extent of the quotations, you would surely decide that even one of
Lewis's major areas of focus could not be adequately reflected in the
quotations used. The actual number of words of Lewis that is quoted
falls slightly fewer than 4,000. This means that on average his
quotations are only marginally more than 18 words each.
If some or all of the restrictions mentioned apply to the Lewis
quotations, what am I seeking to show? I believe that there are frve
indicators which will show the Impact of Lewis in 20th Century English.
Although the first section will be by far the longest, the others will
generally support my main purpose of highlighting Lewis's impact. The
five sections are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

The range of Lewis's works that are quoted

The time period(s) covered by the quotes
The evidence of Lewis's erudition within the quotes used
The definition of what might be termed 'key* thoughts of Lewis
Retention of references that are no longer contemporary.

1. The range of Lewis's works that are quoted

My purpose here is not to prove that every one of Lewis's works
have been cited in the OED but to suggest that the range of works
quoted is wide enough to infer that Lewis is held in high enough regard
by the compilers that no significant area of his oeuvre has been
overlooked in citation.
1A. What might be termed 'Academic' quotations
His vocation was as a tutor and then professor in Mediaeval and
Renaissance literature. It is no accident, then, to find that the longest
quotation (55 words) is from the Allegory of Love, Oxford, 1936 (vi. i.
233):
"In our Augustan period we find a form which has not yet been
named and which is only less dominant than satire. I mean the
long Treatise Poem (if I may risk the invention of a name where
one is badly needed) as practised by Thompson, Armstrong,
Young, Akenside, Cowper, and the like."
1

His originality and inventiveness can be seen here in a way

which shines through in many of the other quotations cited by the
OED. Chad Walsh describes the Allegory of Love as Lewis's "first and
most important work of literary criticism and history." It is not
surprising, then, to find that there are 31 separate quotes from this
work used in the OED.
2

(a) Some of these are used in the definitional sense:

"Courtly love. . . is. . . love of a highly specialized sort, whose
characteristics may be enumerated as Humility, Courtesy,
Adultery, and the Religion of Love."
3

(b) Others are used in an interpretative way:

"It was the tendency of the age to make every lengthy poem
something of an encyclopedia. It may be thought that this
extension-lecture function of the medieval poets has nothing to
do with their poethood."
4

(c) Some of the quotations almost using Lewis as a social

commentator.

"The second factor is the medieval theory of marriage - what

may be called, by a convenient modern barbarism, the
sexology' of the medieval church."
5

While one might expect such an extensive coverage of Lewis's

first academic best-seller, at the other end of his life (indeed the book
was not published until after his death) came The Discarded Image,
which was based on several series of Lectures on Mediaeval and
Renaissance Literature given both at Oxford and Cambridge. The OED
contains 22 quotations from this work. His inventiveness once more
can be seen:
"Despite this careful watch against planetolatry the planets
continued to be called by their divine names." and
6

"On this view the differentia of Christian historiography ought to

be what I call Historicism; the belief that by studying the past we
can learn not only historical but meta-historical or transcendental
truth."
8

The third major source of academic quotation (and the most

voluminous work Lewis was ever to produce) was the Oxford History of
English Literature in the 16th Century, Excluding Drama. Even though I
disagree with his use of the epithet 'Scotch', I must be jingoistic and
include the following example from OHEL as one of 10 separate
quotations used by the OED.
"Scotch poetry had already a considerable achievement behind it
and was by no means a local or provincial department of English
poetry."
If I can trust my calculator, that makes 63 quotations from his
'famous' academic works. The final 'major source of academic
quotation is from the 1960 production Studies in Words (revised 1967).
As a fan of Etymology (especially that of Lewis), the danger here is
that I over-emphasise the contribution that this book has made to
English in the 20th Century. To temper my enthusiasm, as an example
I include what might be termed a piece of autobiographical etymology,
"When I was a boy . . . bourgeois meant "not aristocratic,
therefore vulgar . When I was in my twenties this changed%
Bourgeois began to mean "not proletarian, therefore parasitic,
reactionary'."
The final total for 'academic' work comes (in my mind) to 83. The
remainder comprising two quotations from_An Experiment in Criticism
and two from Arthuhan Torso.
1

1B. What might be termed 'Apologetic' quotations

Although you will find a record of antipathy to Lewis's 'Christian'
writings in many biographical works, there is a surprising number of
quotations from this section of his output. Heading the list with 10
separate quotations is the 1947 production Miracles.
"He is the opaque centre of all existences, the thing that simply
and entirely is, the fountain of facthood."
10

There are only two quotations used by the OED to illustrate the use of
the word 'facthood'. Both of them are by Lewis. The other is a very
similar passage from the The Great Divorce (chapter 5, page 42). The
definition given by the OED is:
"The summation of all that has really occurred or is actually the
case."
Technically, the above definition fits the use to which Lewis put the
invented word; but you need to read the surrounding passage in
Miracles to obtain the real depth of meaning which the word carries
when applied to God. Quotations from The Screwtape Letters number
6.
"He still believes he has run up a very favourable credit-balance
in the Enemy's ledger by allowing himself to be converted."
This appeals to me because I am an accountant and because the
condition described by Lewis affects every person who has any sort of
belief in God. That is, that individuals can get brownie-points with God
which, in view of the death of Christ, is patently absurd.
There are 5 quotations from The Abolition of Man. The Tao,
being one of the central themes in this work, is illustrated by :
"In the older systems both the kind of man the teachers wished to
produce and their motives for producing him were prescribed by
the Tao - a norm to which the teachers themselves were subject
and from which they claimed no liberty to depart."
Other apologetic works cited are :
The Problem of Pain
Broadcast Talks
Four Loves
Pilgrim's Regress
The Great Divorce
Reflections on the Psalms
Christian Behaviour

4 quotations
3
3
3
2
2
1

giving a grand total of 39 'apologetic' quotations altogether.

1C.

What could be termed 'personal' quotations

There are 36 quotations from letters written by Lewis to members of

his family and others. An interesting example is from a letter to Charles
Moorman concerning Tolkien.
"No one ever influenced Tolkien - you might as well try to
influence a bandersnatch."
(Another reference to bandersnatch occurs in The Allegory of Love
(vii.301)) Quotations (including the one above) are included from
letters t o :
Recipient

No of Quotations

Mrs Edward A Allen

Owen Barfield
Christopher Derrick
To a Former Pupil
Miss Jane Gaskell
Mrs Vera Gebbert
Mrs Margaret Gray
Arthur Greeves
Dom Bede Griffiths
Mrs RE Halverson
Journal (CSL)
To a Lady
Albert Lewis
WH Lewis
Sister Madeleva CSC
Mrs Vera Matthews
Charles Moorman
Sister Penelope CSMV
Mary Willis Shelburne

1
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
5
2
2
2
3
6
1
1
2
2
1

Total

36

I do not have enough information to state whether or not this is a

representative sample of Lewis's correspondence. However, it appears
that there is a reasonable split between the sexes if you exclude the
quotes in "family" letters.
11

1D.

The poetic corpus

The quotations in this section tend to be smaller and less

representative, owing to the nature of the quotation source. Altogether
there are 19 from Lewis's poetic works. This area is an etymologist's

delight, and I ask my fellows to tie me to the mast lest I become

entrapped by Lewisian sirens. The solution must be to present the 19
quotes with references and allow you to perform your own
investigation.
word

OED date

Name
Poems

in OED Source

rime

1935

The Planets

smiling

1936

Sonnet

many

(A. 1963)
(A. 1963)

Lysistrata
1935 May-22

Quotation
"Rude rime-making wrongs her beauty,
Whose breasts and brow.. Bewitch the

screaming
hubris

(A. 1963)

"

Oxford
The
smiling-lipped Assyrian, cruelMagazine
bearded king."
Re-Adjustment Poems (1964) T h e many-dimensional timeless rays."
After
Vain Poems (1964) "My body awakes in bed ScreamingA Cliche came Poems (1964) "Walk carefully, do not wake the envy of
out of its cage 3
the happy gods, Shun Hubris."

sophrosyne (A. 1963)

A Cliche came Poems (1964) Thus with magistral hand the Puritan
out of its cage 3
Sophrosune Cooled and schooled and

hill

(A. 1963)

On
human

monopode

(A. 1963)

The
Adam Poems (1964) "Ran till the sunrise shone upon the
43
Unparadised
bouncing Monopods at their heels."

rock
fortissimo

(A. 1963)
(A. 1963)

The Adam at Poems (1964) "Down far under his rock-crust."

Odora Canum Poems (1964) Those who have seen no lions must
Vis
59
revere A bull for Pan's fortissimo."

subtopian

(A. 1963)

Lines During A Poems (1964) "One huge celestial charabanc, will stink
General
62
and
roll Through
patient heaven,

new

(A. 1963)

On A Picture by Poems (1964) "A seminal breeze from the far side Calls
Chinco
69
to their new-crowned race."

picture
narcissus

(A. 1963)
(A. 1963)

Aubade
Posturing

conscient
(A. 1963)
transmortal (A. 1963)
root

1947

river

1947

snake

1948

being Poems (1964) T h e hill-bom, earthy spring,.. The ripe

35
peach from the southern wall still hot."

Poems (1964) "Film, broadcast, propaganda, picturePoems (1964) "So should I quickly die Narcissus-like of
A
Pageant Poems (1964) T h e thought that moves Within my
When
the Poems (1964) Thou art Lord of the unbreathable
Curtain's Down 97
transmortal air Where mortal thinking
Le Roi s'amuse Punch 1947 1 "Fruit-loving, root-loving gods."
Oct. 324/1
Young
King Punch 1947 21 "He held at the finish but a small riverMay 434/1
Cole
isle."
Vitrea Circe

Punch 1948 23 "Sea-chances brought To her forest-silent

June 543/2
And crimson-fruited And snake-green
- L .

L-i

IE.

His Science-fiction

Perhaps the most fertile ground of Lewis's three novels in this:

genre is That Hideous Strength; not only due to its size but due to its
impinging more on 'earthlings' than either of the others. Two of the
more 'extensive' quotations once again reflect the social opinion of
Lewis
"The effect of modern war is to eliminate retrogressive types,
while sparing the technocracy and increasing its hold upon
public affairs."
12

"It was not the great technocrats of Koenigsberg or Moscow who

supplied the casualties in the siege of Stalingrad."
13

When we move to Perelandra, one or two interesting facts

emerge from the quotations used. The first is that one quotation is
used for three separate words. The passage occurs in chapter 6,
where Weston's character is being partially assassinated by Lewis:
"He was a man obsessed with the idea which is., circulating all
over our planet in obscure works of scientifiction', in little
Interplanetary Societies and Rocketry Clubs."
14

The second is what appears to be a misquotation from the above

passage under the word interplanetary where scientifiction becomes
scientification.
The seven quotes from That Hideous Strength, the four from
Perelandra are joined by a single quote from Out of the Silent Planet:
"All he ever remembered of his first meal in the space-ship was
the tyranny of heat and light."
Despite not being the first source of the word according to the OED, he
was the first in a line of more distinguished authors to use such a term:
(Neville Shute (1948), Arthur C. Clarke (1951) by which time it had
become 'spaceship')
IF.

Autobiographical sources

By this I mean quotations used from Surprised by Joy. The first

anchors in the OED what has come to be known by Lewisian acolytes
as a word that has become very special.
"The Castlereagh Hills. . . taught me longing - Sehnsucht; made
me., a votary of the Blue Flower."
Once again, forgiving Lewis his identification of the Scots with their
'favourite drink':
15

"I could put up with any amount of monotony far more patiently
than even the smallest disturbance, bother, bustle, or what the
Scotch call kurfuffle "
Finally, his concise and incisive descriptions are exemplified by the
following:
"The first and deadly error., turning religion into a self-caressing
luxury and love into auto-eroticism."
16

17

1G.

The r e s t . . .

Just in case you thought that Narnia was going to be missed,

there is one quotation drawn from each of the following four volumes :
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Magician's Nephew, The
Horse and His Boy, and Prince Caspian. A final table to gather up the
remainder:
Selected Literary Essays
Of This and Other Worlds
The Personal Heresy
Till We Have Faces
Christian Reflections
Essays Presented to Charles Williams

7
2
2
1
1
1

As far as I can make out that makes 214 quotations altogether.

Apart from one or two notable exceptions, I would suggest that the
quotations were fairly representative of the main corpus of Lewis's
work. My only regret is that there does not appear to be reliance upon
the works of Lewis (especially articles and essays) which were
published after his death.
2.

The time period(s) covered by the quotes.

All I seek to do in this section is to show that the OED editors

have managed to cover most of Lewis's 'published' life and haven't
restricted quotations to a specific time period (however defined). The
books are almost self-evident in that their date of publication can act
as an easy reference point. Looking at 'academic' and non-academic
titles, you can see that since the publication of the Allegory of Love
(1936), the sweep of the years until 1960 (Studies in Words) is wellcovered.
The letters that have been quoted have the following timepattern :
1916-1919
3 letters
1920-1929
6 letters
1930-1939
6 letters
18

1940-1949
6 letters
1950-1959
12 letters
1960-1962
3 letters
This shows an almost systematic regularity of quotation by the OED
editors.
Apart from five poems which were quoted from their original
sources, the other 14 have been quoted from Hooper's Poems (1964).
However most of the 14 had also been published elsewhere before
being collected. What I mean by this is that the OED editors have
perhaps unwittingly chosen quotations from poems from as Early as
1933 (Pilgrim's Regress) through the 30's, 40's right to 1950. A
fourteen year gap ensued before the last batch of quotations were
made (1964). Lewis still wrote shorter poems during this period, so I
am at a loss to explain this gap. Perhaps my 'theory' is weakest at this
point.
3.

The evidence of Lewis's erudition within the quotes used

My evidence (which will be brief) is mainly concerned with

Lewis's use of foreign words and phrases for which he is quoted in the
OED (as opposed to incidental use of these terms within quotations).
Here are the Latin phrases: ad idem, expolitio, facilis
descensus, patria, planctus, psychomachia (3 times), quantum sufficit,
quaternion, sententia, significacio, simpliciter, visibilia.
French : alba (cd also be Spanish), au grand serieux, homme
German : Kunst, marchen, Quellenforschung, Sehnsucht, unding
Greek : epyllion, Eros, hubris, philia, sophrosyne
Hindi: babu
Iroquois: orenda
Italian : fortissimo, morbidezza
Sanskrit: satya
This means that almost 15% of the quotations attributable to Lewis are
solely to explain the use of words or phrases that are non-English in
origin. Note that these citations do not take account of prefixes (e.g.
meta-, neo- , pseudo- , ur-).
4. The definition of 'key'thoughts of Lewis.
I have already cited Historicism, Sensucht and Tao under
another heading but there are one or two others that have become
associated with Lewis in particular.
"The attempt., to see the archtype in the copy, is what I mean by
symbolism or sacramentalism."
19

10

"The Beatrician experience may be defined as the recovery (in

respect to one human being) of that vision of reality which would
have been common to all men in respect to all things if Man had
never fallen."
20

"'Privatism.' This occurs when the poet writes what the reader,
however sensitive and generally cultivated he may be, could not
possibly understand unless the poet chose to tell him something
more than he has told."
21

"We now need a new word for 'the science of the nature of
myths'. Would ^mythonomy' do?"
Although these are by no means representative of every strand of
Lewisian thought, they do touch upon some of the more salient
subjects that he dealt with and discoursed upon.
22

5. Retention of references that are no longer contemporary.

Perhaps this is the most tenuous part of the argument but it is
my contention that part of a quoted author's stature can be measured
in terms of quotations which are no longer up-to-date but have been
retained because of their historical usage and significance. In
particular, these are mostly references to the Second World War.
about-turn originally used in a BBC broadcast during the WWII
conchy short for a person who refused to fight in battle on the
grounds of conscience.
Maginot a line of fortifications along the NE border of France built in
1936 on which the French appeared to put too much reliance in WWII
Quisling The name of a Norwegian major who collaborated with the
Germans when they occupied his homeland from 1940 to 1945.
2 3

24

25

26

Conclusion
Even if the argument is not air-tight, I trust that from the extent
of coverage both in terms of type and timing of material, you will agree
with me that the current editors of the OED still hold Lewis in high
regard as far as his use and invention of words is concerned.

Mr. Clarke is a chartered accountant who lectures in Financial Services at Bell

College in Hamilton, Scotland. His original interest in CSL was from a Christian
perspective but has grown to encompass his works on literature.

11

Notes
1

Citations are primarily those provided by the OED. This means that
the editions are probably British. Bold words are the OED source of
the quotation.
The Literary Legacy of CS Lewis, Sheldon Press, 1979, p. 179
Allegory of Love, Oxford, 1936 i.2
ibid. iii. V. 142
ibid, i.13
If you are unwilling to read the full text of The Discarded Image
Cambridge, 1964, at least attempt Walter Hooper's excellent summary
(pp. 524 to 548) in C. S. Lewis: A Companion and Guide, Harper
Collins, 1996
The Discarded Image, v. 104
ibid, vii.174
Studies in Words, Oxford, 1960 i.21
Miracles, Geoffrey Bles, 1947 xi.107
The references given in the OED all relate to Warnie's 1966
selection (Letters of CS Lewis, Geoffrey Bless, 1966) as opposed to
the updated version by Walter Hooper.
That Hideous Strength, Bodley Head 1945, xii, 318
ibid, (also quoted under 'technocracy')
Perelandra, Bodley Head, 1943 vi. 91 : scientifiction is found under
the word scientific.
Surprised by Joy, Geoffrey Bles, 1955 i.14
ibid, vii.114; the OED spells the word with a 'c' rather than a 'k'. As a
Scot, I prefer Lewis's rendering.
ibid. xi. 160
The Discarded Image has not been included because of its late
publication and because of the lack of certainty that the OED editors
had access to the same time-line information (with regard to the
lectures) that Walter Hooper has.
Allegory of Love, Oxford, 1936 ii.45
Arthurian Torso, Oxford, 1948 ii.lii. 116
ibid. ii.Vi. 188
Letters (1966), p. 163
Broadcast Talks, Geoffrey Bles, 1942 1. V. 29. Later amended to a
rather poor "we must go back" in Mere Christianity, Geoffrey Bles,
1952.
Letters, 4 Feb. (1966) 85 (spelled "conchie" by Lewis)
Miracles xiv. 146
Christian Behaviour, Geoffrey Bles, 1943 i. 9. Later amended to 'lies"
in Mere Christianity, Geoffrey Bles 1952.
2
3

10

11

12

13
14

15

16

17
18

19

20

21

2 2

23

24
25
26

12