Webster's Dictionary

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Webster's Dictionary is the name given to a common type of English language dictionary in the United States. The name is derived from lexicographer Noah Webster and has become a genericized trademark for this type of dictionary.

Although Merriam–Webster dictionaries are descended from the original work of Noah Webster, many other dictionaries bear his name, such as those published by Random House and by John Wiley & Sons.

It established an authoritative source for American English.

Contents 1 19th- and early 20th- century editions 1.1 Webster’s International Dictionary (1890 and 1900) 1.2 Webster's New International Dictionary 1.3 Webster’s New International Dictionary (second edition) 2 Webster's Third New International Dictionary 2.1 Changes 2.2 Criticisms 2.3 Revisions and updates 3 Merriam–Webster's Collegiate Dictionary 4 The name Webster used by others 5 Competition 6 Online editions 6.1 1828 Edition 6.2 1913 Edition 6.3 1961 Edition 6.4 Latest Editions 7 References

[edit] 19th- and early 20th- century editions

Noah Webster, the author of popular readers and spelling books for schools, published his first dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, in 1806. In it, he introduced features that would be a hallmark of future editions such as American spellings (center rather than centre, honor rather than honour, program rather than programme, etc.) and including technical terms from the arts and sciences rather than confining his dictionary to literary words. He spent the next two decades working to expand his dictionary.

In 1828, at the age of 70, Webster published his American Dictionary of the English Language in two quarto volumes containing 70,000 entries (with pages 19 cm [7.5 inches] wide and 25 cm [10 inches] tall).^[1] Webster's assistant, and later chief competitor, Joseph Emerson Worcester, published an abridgment in 1829. Webster edited a Revised Edition 1840–1841, with the help of his son, William G. Webster, the primary change being the addition of several thousand new words.

Upon Webster's death in 1843, the unsold books and all rights to the copyright and name "Webster" were purchased by brothers George and Charles Merriam, who then hired Webster's son-in-law Chauncey A. Goodrich, a professor at Yale College, to oversee revisions. Goodrich's New and Revised Edition appeared on September 24, 1847, and a Revised and Enlarged edition in 1859, which added a section of illustrations indexed to the text. His revisions remained close to Webster's work, although removing what later editors referred to as his "excrescences".

In response to Joseph Worcester's groundbreaking dictionary of 1860, the G. & C. Merriam Company created a significantly revised edition, retaining the title American Dictionary of the English Language. It was edited by Yale University editor Noah Porter and published in 1864, containing 114,000 entries. It was sometimes referred to as the Webster–Mahn edition, because it featured revisions by Dr. C. A. F. Mahn, who replaced unsupportable etymologies which were based on Webster's attempt to conform to Biblical interpretations of the history of language. It was the first edition to largely overhaul Noah Webster's work, and the first to be known as the Unabridged. Later printings included additional material: a "Supplement Of Additional Words And Definitions" containing over 4,600 new words and definitions in 1879, A Pronouncing Biographical Dictionary containing over 9,700 names of noteworthy persons in 1879, and a Pronouncing Gazetteer in 1884. The 1883 printing of the book contained 1,928 pages and was 8 1/2" (21.5 cm) wide by 11 1/2" (29 cm) tall by 4 1/4" (10.7 cm) thick.

[edit] Webster’s International Dictionary (1890 and 1900)

Porter also edited the succeeding edition, Webster’s International Dictionary of the English Language (1890), which was an expansion of the American Dictionary. It contained about 175,000 entries. The title change "marked the fact that the work of Webster and his successors had won wide recognition in Great Britain and its colonies, ..., and had become a standard authority throughout the English-speaking world."^[2] In 1900 Webster’s International was republished with a supplement that added 25,000 entries to it.

[edit] Webster's New International Dictionary

The Merriam Company issued a complete revision in 1909, Webster's New International Dictionary, edited by William Torey Harris and F. Sturges Allen. Vastly expanded, it covered over 400,000 entries, and double the number of illustrations. A new format feature, the divided page, was designed to save space by including a section of words below the line at the bottom of each page: six columns of very fine print, devoted to such items as rarely used, obsolete, and foreign words, abbreviations, and variant spellings. Notable improvement was made in the treatment and number of discriminated synonyms, comparisons of subtle shades of meaning. Also added was a twenty-page chart comparing the Webster's pronunciations with those offered by six other major dictionaries.

[edit] Webster’s New International Dictionary (second edition)

In 1934, the New International Dictionary was revised and expanded for a second edition, which is popularly known as “Webster’s Second” or W2, although it was not published under that title. It was edited by William Allen Neilson and Thamas A. Knott. It contained 3350 pages and sold for $39.50. Some versions added a 400-page supplement called “A Reference History of the World,” which provided chronologies “from earliest times to the present.” The editors claimed over 600,000 entries, more than any other dictionary at that time, but that number included many proper names and newly added lists of undefined “combination words”.

Early printings of this dictionary contained the famous dord.

Because of its style and word coverage, “Webster’s Second” is still a popular dictionary. For example, in the case of Miller Brewing Co. v. G. Heileman Brewing Co., Inc., 561 F.2d 75 (7th Cir. 1977) — a trademark dispute in which the terms “lite” and “light” were held to be generic for light beer and therefore available for use by anyone — the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, after considering a definition from Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, wrote that “[T]he comparable definition in the previous, and for many the classic, edition of the same dictionary is as follows:...”

[edit] Webster's Third New International Dictionary

After about a decade of preparation, G. & C. Merriam issued the entirely new Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (commonly known as Webster's Third, or W3) in September 1961. It was edited by Philip Babcock Gove and contained more than 450,000 entries. It included more than 100,000 new entries and as many new senses for entries carried over from previous editions.

The final definition, zyzzogeton, was written on October 17, 1960; the final etymology was recorded on October 26; and the final pronunciation was transcribed on November 9. The final copy went to the typesetters, R. R. Donnelley, on December 2. The book was printed by the Riverside Press in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The first edition had 2,726 pages (measuring 9" (23 cm) wide by 13" (33 cm) tall by 3" (7.7 cm) thick), weighed 13 1/2 pounds (6 kg), and originally sold for $47.50. The changes were the most radical in the history of the Unabridged. Although it was an unprecedented masterwork of scholarship, it was met by many with disappointment and criticism.^{[citation needed]}

This dictionary is preferred as a backup source by two influential style guides in the United States, although each one directs writers to go first to other, shorter dictionaries. The Chicago Manual of Style, followed by many book publishers and magazines in the United States, recommends Webster's Third, along with Merriam–Webster's Collegiate Dictionary for "general matters of spelling", and the style book "normally opts for" the first spelling listed (with the Collegiate taking precedence over Webster's Third because it "represents the latest research").^[3] The Associated Press Stylebook, used by most newspapers in the United States, refers readers to W3 "if there is no listing in either this book or Webster's New World".^[4]

[edit] Changes

While prior to Webster's Third the Unabridged had been expanded with each new edition, with very minimal deletion, Gove now made sweeping deletions. He eliminated the "nonlexical matter", including the Pronouncing Biographical Dictionary, Arbitrary Signs and Symbols, and some other appendix sections, plus most other proper nouns from the main text (including mythological, biblical, and fictional names, and the names of buildings, historical events, art works, etc.,) and over thirty picture plates. The rationale was that, while useful, these are not strictly about language. Gove justified the change by the company's publication of Webster's Biographical Dictionary in 1943 and Webster's Geographical Dictionary in 1949, and the fact that most of the subjects removed could be found in encyclopedias. However, the change bothered many users of the dictionary who were accustomed to the dictionary being a one-volume reference source.^{[citation needed]}

Also removed were words which had been virtually out of use for over two hundred years (except those found in major literature such as Shakespeare), rare variants, reformed spellings, self-explanatory combination words, and other items considered of little value to the general reader. The number of small text illustrations was reduced, page size increased, and print size reduced by one-twelfth, from six point to agate (5.5 point) type. All this was considered necessary because of the large amount of new material, and Webster's Second had almost reached the limits of mechanical bookbinding. The fact that the new book had about 700 fewer pages was justified by the need to allow room for future additions.

In style and method, the dictionary bore little resemblance to earlier editions. Headwords (except for "God", initialisms, and, in the reprints, trademarks) were not capitalized. Instead of capitalizing "American", for example, the dictionary had labels next to the entries reading cap (for the noun) and usu cap (for the adjective). This allowed informative distinctions to be drawn: "gallic" is usu cap while "gallicism" is often cap and "gallicize" is sometimes cap.

[edit] Criticisms

Webster's Third was heavily criticized for its "permissiveness" and its refusal to take a position on what was "proper" English, critics comparing it unfavorably with the Second Edition. As Herbert Morton put it, "Webster's Second was more than respected. It was accepted as the ultimate authority on meaning and usage and its preeminence was virtually unchallenged in the United States. It did not provoke controversies, it settled them." Critics charged that the dictionary was reluctant to defend standard English, for example entirely eliminating the labels "colloquial", "correct", "incorrect", "proper", "improper", "erroneous", "humorous", "jocular", "poetic", and "contemptuous", among others.

Gove's stance was an exemplar of descriptivist linguistics: describing language as it is or has been used. As David M. Glixon put it in the Saturday Review: "Having descended from God's throne of supreme authority, the Merriam folks are now seated around the city desk, recording like mad." Jacques Barzun said this stance made Webster's Third "the longest political pamphlet ever put together by a party", done with "a dogma that far transcends the limits of lexicography". The dictionary's treatment of "ain't" was subject to particular scorn, the word receiving no more severe comment from Webster's Third than: "though disapproved by many and more common in less educated speech, used orally in most parts of the U.S. by many cultivated speakers esp. in the phrase ain't I".

The Globe and Mail of Toronto editorialized: "a dictionary's embrace of the word 'ain't' will comfort the ignorant, confer approval upon the mediocre, and subtly imply that proper English is the tool of only the snob".^{[citation needed]} The New York Times editorialized that "Webster's has, it is apparent, surrendered to the permissive school that has been busily extending its beachhead in English instruction in the schools . . . reinforced the notion that good English is whatever is popular" and "can only accelerate the deterioration" of the English language^{[citation needed]}. The Times'  widely respected Theodore M. Bernstein, its in-house style maven and a professor of journalism at Columbia University, ordered that The Times'  dictionary-of-record would continue to be the Webster's Second^{[citation needed]}. (It today uses the Webster's New World Dictionary published by John Wiley & Sons.) Garry Wills in the National Review opined that the new dictionary "has all the modern virtues. It is big, expensive, and ugly. It should be a great success".

In his Nero Wolfe novel Gambit, Rex Stout famously depicted his erudite armchair detective burning pages from this edition in his fireplace because it sanctioned usages he disliked.

Criticism of the dictionary spurred the creation of the American Heritage Dictionary, where usage notes were determined by a panel of expert writers, commentators, and speakers.

[edit] Revisions and updates

Since the 1961 publication of the Third, Merriam–Webster has reprinted the main text of the dictionary with only minor corrections. To add new words, they created an Addenda Section in 1966, included in the front matter, which was expanded in 1971, 1976, 1981, 1986, 1993, and 2002. However, the rate of additions has been much slower than it had been throughout the previous hundred years.

Following the purchase of Merriam–Webster by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. in 1964, a three-volume version was issued for many years as a supplement to the encyclopedia. At the end of volume three, this edition included the Britannica World Language Dictionary, 474 pages of translations between English and French, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, and Yiddish.

Although the time between new editions previously ranged between nineteen and twenty-seven years, after forty-seven years (as of 2008^[update]), Merriam–Webster has not revealed any plans to publish a Fourth New International edition of the Unabridged.

[edit] Merriam–Webster's Collegiate Dictionary

Merriam–Webster introduced its Collegiate Dictionary in 1898 and the series is now in its 11th edition. Following the publication of Webster's International in 1890, two Collegiate editions were issued as abridgments of each of their Unabridged editions.

With the 9th edition (published in 1985), the Collegiate adopted changes which distinguish it as a separate entity rather than merely an abridgment of the Third New International (the main text of which has remained virtually unrevised since 1961). Some proper names were returned to the word list, including names of Knights of the Round Table. The most notable change was the inclusion of the date of the first known citation of each word, to document its entry into the English language. The 11th edition includes over 225,000 definitions, and over 165,000 entries.

This dictionary is preferred as a source "for general matters of spelling" by the influential The Chicago Manual of Style, which is followed by many book publishers and magazines in the United States. The Chicago Manual states that it "normally opts for" the first spelling listed.^[3]

[edit] The name Webster used by others

Since the late 19th century, dictionaries bearing the name Webster's have been published by companies other than Merriam–Webster. Some of these were unauthorized reprints of Noah Webster's work; some were revisions of his work. One such revision was Webster's Imperial Dictionary, based on John Ogilvie's Imperial Dictionary, itself an expansion of Noah Webster's American Dictionary.

Following legal action by Merriam, successive US courts ruled that Webster's entered the public domain when the Unabridged did, in 1889 (G. & C. Merriam Co. v. Ogilvie, 159 Fed. 638 (1908)). In 1917, a US court ruled that Webster's entered the public domain in 1834 when Noah Webster's 1806 dictionary's copyright lapsed. Thus, Webster's became a genericized trademark and others were free to use the name on their own works.

Since then, use of the name Webster has been rampant. Merriam–Webster goes to great pains to remind dictionary buyers that it alone is the heir to Noah Webster^[5]. The issue is more complicated than that, however. Throughout the 20th century, some non-Merriam editions, such as Webster's New Universal, were closer to Webster's work than modern Merriam–Webster editions. Indeed, further revisions by Merriam–Webster came to have little in common with their original source, while the Universal, for example, was minimally revised and remained largely out of date. However, Merriam–Webster revisionists find solid ground in Noah Webster's concept of the English language as an ever-changing tapestry.

So many dictionaries of varied size and quality have been called Webster's that the name no longer has any specific brand meaning. Despite this, many people still recognize and trust the name. Thus, Webster's continues as a powerful and lucrative marketing tool. In recent years, even established dictionaries with no direct link to Noah Webster whatsoever have adopted his name, adding to the confusion. Random House dictionaries are now called Random House Webster's, and Microsoft's Encarta World English Dictionary is now Encarta Webster's Dictionary. The dictionary now called Webster's New Universal no longer even uses the text of the original Webster's New Universal dictionary, but rather is a newly commissioned version of the Random House Dictionary.

[edit] Competition

Noah Webster's main competitor was Joseph Worcester, whose 1830 Comprehensive Pronouncing and Explanatory Dictionary of the English Language brought accusations of plagiarism from Webster. The rivalry was carried on by Merriam after Webster's death, in what is often referred to as the Dictionary Wars. After Worcester's death in 1865, revision of his Dictionary of the English Language was soon discontinued and it eventually went out of print.

The American edition of Charles Annandale's four volume revision of the Imperial Dictionary, published in 1883 by the Century Company, was more comprehensive than the Unabridged. The Century Dictionary, an expansion of the Imperial first published from 1889 to 1891, covered a larger vocabulary until the publication of Webster's Second in 1934, after the Century had ceased publication.

In 1894 came Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary, an attractive one volume counterpart to Webster's International. The expanded New Standard of 1913 was a worthy challenge to the New International, and remained a major competitor for many years. However, Funk & Wagnalls never revised the work, reprinting it virtually unchanged for over 50 years, while Merriam published two major revisions.

The Oxford English Dictionary, which published its complete first edition in 1933, challenged Merriam in scholarship, though not in the marketplace due to its size. The New International editions continued to offer words and features not covered by Oxford, and vice versa. In the 1970s, Oxford began publishing Supplements to its dictionary and in 1989 integrated the new words in the supplements with the older definitions and etymologies in its Second Edition.

Between the 1930s and the 1950s, several college dictionaries, notably the American College Dictionary and (non-Merriam) Webster's New World Dictionary, entered the market alongside the Collegiate. Among larger dictionaries during this period was (non-Merriam) Webster's Universal Dictionary (also published as Webster's Twentieth Century Dictionary,) which traced its roots to Noah Webster and called itself "unabridged", but had less than half the vocabulary and paled in scholarship against the Merriam editions.

After the disappointing reception of Webster's Third New International in the 1960s, the market was open for new challengers. Random House adapted its college dictionary by adding more illustrations and large numbers of proper names, increasing its print size and page thickness, and giving it a heavy cover. In 1966, it was published as a new "unabridged" dictionary. It was expanded in 1987, but still covered no more than half the actual vocabulary of Webster's Third.

The American Heritage Publishing Co., highly critical of Webster's Third, failed in an attempt to buy out Merriam–Webster and determined to create its own dictionary. In 1969, it issued a college-sized dictionary, which has since been expanded and become one of the most popular English dictionaries^{[citation needed]}. Now in its fourth edition, it is only slightly greater in vocabulary than the Collegiate, but appears much larger and has the appeal of many pictures and other features. Other medium-sized dictionaries have since entered the market, including the New Oxford American and the Encarta Webster's, while Merriam–Webster has not attempted to compete by issuing a similar edition. All of these offer college editions, but Merriam–Webster's Collegiate is the largest and most popular^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Online editions

[edit] 1828 Edition

The 1828 edition can be searched online at:

• Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913 + 1828) are accessible via an online search
• 1828.mshaffer.com

[edit] 1913 Edition

The dictionary's 1913 edition of the 1900 International, renamed Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, has in modern times been used in various free online resources, as its copyright lapsed and it became public domain. Some of these resources include:

• Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913 + 1828) are accessible via an online search
• 1913.mshaffer.com
• The Gutenberg Webster's Unabridged Dictionary is available as an E-text from Project Gutenberg
• The Online Plain Text English Dictionary is based on the Project Gutenberg E-text version of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
• Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) for the DICT server.
• Collaborative International Dictionary of English and GCIDE
• dict.org DICT Development Group A WWW interface to several freely available on-line dictionaries.

This is an online resource based on the 1913 Webster’s that is not entirely free:

• Webster's Online Dictionary, Rosetta Edition

[edit] 1961 Edition

Both the Collegiate 1961 and the Unabridged 1913 editions are searched by the free dictionary search engine OneLook.

[edit] Latest Editions

The latest edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary can be searched online at the company's website. The updated Third New International is available online by subscription.

[edit] References

• Herbert C. Morton. The Story of Webster's Third: Philip Gove's Controversial Dictionary and Its Critics. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
• James Sledd and Wilma R. Ebbit, editors. Dictionaries and That Dictionary. Chicago: Scott Foresman, 1962.
• Lepore, J. (2006, November 6). Noah's Mark: Webster and the original dictionary wars.The New Yorker, 78-87.
• Philip B. Gove. Preface to Webster's Third New International Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, 1961.
• William A. Neilson and others. Preface and Introduction to Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition. G. & C. Merriam Company, 1934.
• Leavitt, Robert Keith. Noah's Ark: New England Yankees and The Endless Quest. Springfield: G. & C. Merriam Company, 1947.
• Rollins, Richard M. The Long Journey of Noah Webster. The University of Pennsylvania Press, 1980.