Websters Dictionary

In 1806, Noah began his work and studied about

twenty different languagesto translate and define
words from their original languages into English. As
a result of his efforts, Noah Websters
Dictionary was published in 1828. The dictionary
contained 70,000 words, with their spellings and
definitions. Noahs strong faith and belief in God is
evident not only in this original dictionary, but also
in his 1833 The Holy Bible Containing the Old and
New Testaments, in the Common Version, in which he updates outdated and
unused words.
(Notice in the pictures below his use of Scripture to define words "Light" and
"Help" and explain their meanings.)

A testimony of his faith is also recorded in the 1849 edition of his Dictionary,
which was printed only six years after his death in 1843. The introduction contains
a biography of Noah Websters life, including his views on religion. This
introduction was written by the editor, Chauncey A. Goodrich, Noah Websters
son-in-law, who was a Professor at Yale. In the transcript below, Professor
Goodrich details Noah Websters conversion experience and his faith in God. In
respect to religion, Dr. Webster was a firm believer, during a large part of his life,
in the great distinctive doctrines of our Puritan ancestors, whose character he
always regarded with the highest veneration. There was a period, however, from
the time of his leaving college to the age of forty, when he had doubts as to some
of those doctrines, and rested in a different system. Soon after he graduated, being
uncertain what business to attempt or by what means he could obtain subsistence,
he felt his mind greatly perplexed, and almost overwhelmed with gloomy
apprehensions. In this state, as he afterward informed a friend, he read Johnsons
Rambler with unusual interest; and, in closing the last volume, he made a firm
resolution to pursue a course of virtue though life, and to perform every moral and
social duty with scrupulous exactness. To this he added a settled belief in the
inspiration of the Scriptures and the governing providence of God, connected with
highly reverential views of the divine character and perfections. Here he rested,
placing his chief reliance for salvation on a faithful discharge of all the relative

duties of life, though not to the entire exclusion of dependence on the merits of the
Redeemer. In this state of mind he remained, though with some misgiving and
frequent fluctuations of feeling, to the winter of 1807-8. At that time, there was a
season of general religious interest at New Haven, under the ministry of the Rev.
Moses Stuart, now a professor in the Andover Theological Seminary. To this Dr.
Websters attention was first directed, but observing an unusual degree of
tenderness and solemnity of feeling in all the adult members of his family. He was
thus led to reconsider his former views, and inspire, with an earnestness which he
had never felt before, into the nature of personal religion, and the true ground of
mans acceptance with God. He had now to decide not for himself only, but, to a
certain extent, for others, whose spiritual interests were committed to his charge.
Under a sense of this responsibility, he took up the study of the Bible with painful
solicitude. As he advanced, the objections which he had formerly entertained
against the humbling doctrines of the Gospel, were wholly removed. He felt their
truth in his own experience. He felt that salvation must be wholly of grace. He felt
constrained, as he afterward told a friend, to cast himself down before God,
confess his sins, implore pardon through the merits of the Redeemer, and there to
make his vows of entire obedience to the commands and devotion to the service of
his Maker. With his characteristic promptitude, he instantly made known to his
family the feelings which he entertained. He called them together the next
morning, and told them, with deep emotion that, while he had aimed at the faithful
discharge of all his duties as their parent and head, he had neglected one of the
most important, that of family prayer. After reading the Scriptures, he led them,
with deep solemnity, to the throne of grace, and from that time continued the
practice with the liveliest interest, to the period of his death. He made a public
profession of religion in April, 1808. His two oldest daughters united with him in
the set, and another, only twelve years of age, was soon added to the number.
In his feelings, Dr. Webster was remarkably equable and cheerful. He has a very
strong sense of the providence of God, as extending to the minutest concerns of
life. In this he found a source of continual support and consolation, under the
severe labors and numerous trials which he had to endure. The same divine hand
he habitually referred all his employments; and it was known to his family, that he
rarely, if ever, took the slightest refreshment, of any kind, even between meals,
without a momentary pause, and a silent tribute of thanks to God as the giver. He
made the Scriptures his daily study. After the completion of his Dictionary,
especially, they were always lying on his table, and he probably read them more
than all other books. He felt, from that time, that the labors of his life were ended,
and that little else remained by to prepare for death. With a grateful sense of past
mercies, a cheering consciousness of present support, and an animating hope of
future blessedness, he waited with patience until his appointed change should
come.
During the spring of 1843, Dr. Webster revised the Appendix of his Dictionary, and
added some hundreds of words. He completed the printing of it about the middle of

May. It was the closing act of his life. His hand rested, in its last labors, on the
volume which he had commenced thirty-six years before. Within a few days, in
calling on a number of friends in different parts of the town, he walked, during one
afternoon between two and three miles. The day was chilly, and immediately after
his return, he was seized with faintness and a severe oppression on his lungs. An
attack of peripneumony followed, which, though not alarming at first, took a
sudden turn after four or five days, with fearful indications of a fatal result. It soon
became necessary to inform him that he was in imminent danger. He received the
communication with surprise, but with entire composure. His health had been so
good, and every bodily function so perfect in its exercise, that he undoubtedly
expected to live some years longer. But though suddenly called, he was completely
ready. He gave some characteristic direction as to the disposal of his body after
death. He spoke of his long life as one of uniform enjoyment, because filled up at
every stage with active labors for some valuable end. He expressed his entire
resignation to the will of God, and his unshaken trust in the atoning blood of the
Redeemer. It was an interesting coincidence, that his former pastor, the Rev. Mr.
Stuart, who received him to the church thirty-five years before, had just arrived at
New Haven on a visit to his friends. He called immediately, and the interview
brought into affecting comparison the beginning and the end of that long period of
consecration to the service of Christ. The same hopes which had cheered the vigor
of manhood, were now shedding a softened light over decay and sufferings of age.
I know in whom I have believed, such was the solemn and affecting testimony
which he gave to his friend, while the hand of death was upon him, - I know in
whom I have believed, and that He is able to keep that which I have committed to
him against that day. Thus, without one down, one fear, he resigned his soul into
the hands of his Maker, and died on the 28th day of May, 1843, in the eighty-fifth
year of his age....

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF BRITISH AND AMERICAN

LEXICOGRAPHY

The essence of lexicography

The development of British lexicography

The development of American Lexicography

Jonsons Dictionary

Websters Dictionary

Although, as we have seen from the preceding paragraph, there is as yet no

coherent doctrine in English lexicography, its richness and variety are everywhere
admitted and appreciated. Its history is in its way one of the most remarkable
developments in linguistics, and is therefore worthy of special attention. In the
following pages a short outline of its various phases is given. A need for a
dictionary or glossary has been felt in the cultural growth of many civilised
peoples at a fairly early period. The history of dictionary-making for the English
language goes as far back as the Old English period where its first traces are found
in the form of glosses of religious books with interlinear translation from Latin.
Regular bilingual English-Latin dictionaries were already in existence in the 15th
century. The unilingual dictionary is a comparatively recent type. The first
unilingual English dictionary, explaining words by English equivalents, appeared
in 1604. It was meant to explain difficult words occurring in books. Its title was "A
Table Alphabeticall, containing and teaching the true writing and understanding of
hard usuall English words borrowed from the Hebrew, Greeke, Latine or French.
The little volume of 120 pages explaining about 3000 words was compiled by one
Robert Cawdrey, a schoolmaster. Other books followed, each longer than the
preceding one. The first attempt at a dictionary including all the words of the
language, not only the difficult ones, was made by Nathaniel Bailey who in 1721
published the first edition of his "Universal Etymological English Dictionary. He
was the first to include pronunciation and etymology. Big explanatory dictionaries
were created in France and Italy before they appeared for the English language.
Learned academies on the continent had been established to preserve the purity of
their respective languages. This was also the purpose of Dr Samuel Johnsons
famous Dictionary published in 1755.1 The idea of purity involved a tendency to
oppose change, and S. Johnsons Dictionary was meant to establish the English
language in its classical form, to preserve it in all its glory as used by J. Dryden, A.
Pope, J. Addison and their contemporaries. In conformity with the social order of
his time, S. Johnson attempted to "fix and regulate English. This was the period of
much discussion about the necessity of "purifying and "fixing English, and S.
Johnson wrote that every change was undesirable, even a change for the best.
When his work was accomplished, however, he had to admit he had been wrong
and confessed in his preface that "no dictionary of a living tongue can ever be
perfect, since while it is hastening to publication, some words are budding and
some falling away. The most important innovation of S. Johnsons Dictionary was
the introduction of illustrations of the meanings of the words "by examples from
the best writers", as had been done before him in the dictionary of the French
Academy. Since then such illustrations have become a "sine qua non in
lexicography; S. Johnson, however, only mentioned the authors and never gave
any specific references for his quotations. Most probably he reproduced some of
his quotations from memory, not always very exactly, which would have been
unthinkable in modern lexicology. The definitions he gave were often very
ingenious. He was called "a skilful definer, but sometimes he preferred to give
way to sarcasm or humour and did not hesitate to be partial in his definitions. The
epithet he gave to lexicographer, for instance, is famous even in our time: a
lexicographer was a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge .... The dictionary
dealt with separate words only, almost no set expressions were entered.
Pronunciation was not marked, because S. Johnson was keenly aware of the wide
variety of the English pronunciation and thought it impossible to set up a standard
there; he paid attention only to those aspects of vocabulary where he believed he
could improve linguistic usage. S. Johnsons influence was tremendous. He

remained the unquestionable authority on style and diction for more than 75 years.
The result was a lofty bookish style which received the name of "Johnsonian or
"Johnsonese. As to pronunciation, attention was turned to it somewhat later. A
pronouncing dictionary that must be mentioned first was published in 1780 by
Thomas Sheridan, grandfather of the great dramatist. In 1791 appeared "The
Critical Pronouncing Dictionary and Expositor of the English Language by John
Walker, an actor. The vogue of this second dictionary was very great, and in later
publications Walkers pronunciations were inserted into S. Johnsons text a
further step to a unilingual dictionary in its present-day form. The Golden Age of
English lexicography began in the last quarter of the 19th century when the
English Philological Society started work on compiling what is now known as
"The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), but was originally named "New English
Dictionary on Historical Principles. It is still occasionally referred to as NED. The
purpose of this monumental work is to trace the development of English words
from their form in Old English, and if they were not found in Old English, to show
when they were introduced into the language, and also to show the development of
each meaning and its historical relation to other meanings of the same word. For
words and meanings which have become obsolete the date of the latest occurrence
is given. All this is done by means of dated quotations ranging from the oldest to
recent appearances of the words in question. The English of G. Chaucer, of the
"Bible and of W. Shakespeare is given as much attention as that of the most
modern authors. The dictionary includes spellings, pronunciations and detailed
etymologies. The completion of the work required more than 75 years. The result
is a kind of encyclopaedia of language used not only for reference purposes but
also as a basis for lexicological research. The lexicographic concept here is very
different from the prescriptive tradition of Dr S. Johnson: the lexicographer is the
objective recorder of the language. The purpose of OED, as stated by its editors,
has nothing to do with prescription or proscription of any kind. The conception of
this new type of dictionary was born in a discussion at the English Philological
Society. It was suggested by Frederick Furnivall, later its second titular editor, to
Richard Trench, the author of the first book on lexicology of the English language.
Richard Trench read before the society his paper "On Some Deficiencies in our
English Dictionaries", and that was how the big enterprise was started. At once the
Philological Society set to work to gather the material, volunteers offered to help
by collecting quotations. Dictionary-making became a sort of national enterprise. A
special committee prepared a list of books to be read and assigned them to the
volunteers, sending them also special standard slips for quotations. By 1881 the
number of readers was 800, and they sent in many thousands of slips. The
tremendous amount of work done by these volunteers testifies to the keen interest
the English take in their language. The first part of the Dictionary appeared in 1884
and the last in 1928. Later it was issued in twelve volumes and in order to
accommodate new words a three volume Supplement was issued in 1933. These
volumes were revised in the seventies. Nearly all the material of the original
Supplement was retained and a large body of the most recent accessions to the
English language added. The principles, structure and scope of "The Oxford
English Dictionary", its merits and demerits are discussed in the most
comprehensive treaty by L.V. Malakhovsky. Its prestige is enormous. It is
considered superior to corresponding major dictionaries for other languages. The
Oxford University Press published different abridged versions. "The Shorter
Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles formerly appeared in two
volumes, now printed on thinner paper it is bound in one volume of 2,538 pages. It

differs from the complete edition in that it contains a smaller number of quotations.
It keeps to all the main principles of historical presentation and covers not only the
current literary and colloquial English but also its previous stages. Words are
defined and illustrated with key quotations. "The Concise Oxford Dictionary of
Current English was first published in 1911, i.e. before the work on the main
version was completed. It is not a historical dictionary but one of current usage. A
still shorter form is "The Pocket Oxford Dictionary. Another big dictionary, also
created by joined effort of enthusiasts, is Joseph Wrights "English Dialect
Dictionary. Before this dictionary could be started upon, a thorough study of
English dialects had to be completed. With this aim in view W.W. Skeat, famous
for his "Etymological English Dictionary founded the English Dialect Society as
far back as 1873. Dialects are of great importance for the historical study of the
language. In the 19th century they were very pronounced though now they are
almost disappearing. The Society existed till 1896 and issued 80 publications,
mostly monographs. Curiously enough, the first American dictionary of the
English language was compiled by a man whose name was also Samuel Johnson.
Samuel Johnson Jr., a Connecticut schoolmaster, published in 1798 a small book
entitled "A School Dictionary. This book was followed in 1800 by another
dictionary by the same author, which showed already some signs of
Americanisation. It included, for instance, words like tomahawk and wampum,
borrowed into English from the Indian languages. It was Noah Webster, universally
considered to be the father of American lexicography, who emphatically broke
away from English idiom, and embodied in his book the specifically American
usage of his time. His great work, "The American Dictionary of the English
Language", appeared in two volumes in 1828 and later sustained numerous revised
and enlarged editions. In many respects N. Webster follows the lead of Dr S.
Johnson (the British lexicographer). But he has also improved and corrected many
of S. Johnsons etymologies and his definitions are often more exact. N. Webster
attempted to simplify the spelling and pronunciation that were current in the USA
of the period. He devoted many years to the collection of words and the
preparation of more accurate definitions. N. Webster realised the importance of
language for the development of a nation, and devoted his energy to giving the
American English the status of an independent language, distinct from British
English. At that time the idea was progressive as it helped the unification of
separate states into one federation. The tendency became reactionary later on,
when some modern linguists like H. Mencken shaped it into the theory of a
separate American language, not only different from British English, but
surpassing it in efficiency and therefore deserving to dominate and supersede all
the languages of the world. Even if we keep within purely linguistic or purely
lexical concepts, we shall readily see that the difference is not so great as to
warrant American English the rank of a separate language, not a variant of English
(see p. 265). The set of morphemes is the same. Some words have acquired a new
meaning on American soil and this meaning has or has not penetrated into British
English. Other words kept their earlier meanings that are obsolete and not used in
Great Britain. As civilisation progressed different names were given to new
inventions on either side of the Atlantic. Words were borrowed from different
Indian languages and from Spanish. All these had to be recorded in a dictionary
and so accounted for the existence of specific American lexicography. The world
of today with its ever-growing efficiency and intensity of communication and
personal contacts, with its press, radio and television creates conditions which tend
to foster not an isolation of dialects and variants but, on the contrary, their mutual

penetration and integration. Later on, the title "International Dictionary of the
English Language was adopted, and in the latest edition not Americanisms but
words not used in America (Britishisms) are marked off. N. Websters dictionary
enjoyed great popularity from its first editions. This popularity was due not only to
the accuracy and clarity of definitions but also to the richness of additional
information of encyclopaedic character, which had become a tradition in American
lexicography. As a dictionary N. Websters book aims to treat the entire vocabulary
of the language providing definitions, pronunciation and etymology. As an
encyclopaedia it gives explanations about things named, including scientific and
technical subjects. It does so more concisely than a full-scale encyclopaedia, but it
is worthy of note that the definitions are as a rule up-to-date and rigorous
scientifically. Soon after N. Websters death two printers and booksellers of
Massachusetts, George and Charles Merriam, secured the rights of his dictionary
from his family and started the publication of revised single volume editions under
the name "Merriam-Webster. The staff working for the modern editions is a big
institution numbering hundreds of specialists in different branches of human
activity. It is important to note that the name "Webster may be attached for
publicitys sake by anyone to any dictionary. Many publishers concerned with their
profits have taken this opportunity to issue dictionaries called "Websters. Some
of the books so named are cheaply-made reprints of old editions, others are said to
be entirely new works. The practice of advertising by coupling N. Websters name
to a dictionary which has no connection with him, continues up to the present day.
A complete revision of N. Websters dictionary is achieved with a certain degree of
regularity. The recent "Websters Third New International Dictionary of the
English Language has called forth much comment, both favourable and
unfavourable. It has been greatly changed as compared with the previous edition,
in word selection as well as in other matters. The emphasis is on the present-day
state of the language. The number of illustrative quotations is increased. To
accommodate the great number of new words and meanings without increasing the
bulk of the volume, the editors excluded much encyclopaedic material. The other
great American dictionaries are the "Century Dictionary", first completed in 1891;
"Funk and Wagnalls New Standard Dictionary", first completed in 1895; the
"Random House Dictionary of the English Language", completed in 1967; "The
Heritage Illustrated Dictionary of the English Language", first published in 1969,
and C.L. Barnharts et al. "The World Book Dictionary presenting a synchronic
review of the language in the 20th century. The first three continue to appear in
variously named subsequent editions including abridged versions. Many small
handy popular dictionaries for office, school and home use are prepared to meet
the demand in reference books on spelling, pronunciation, meaning and usage. An
adequate idea of the dictionaries cannot be formed from a mere description and it
is no substitute for actually using them. To conclude we would like to mention that
for a specialist in linguistics and a teacher of foreign languages systematic work
with a good dictionary in conjunction with his reading is an absolute necessity.
A Dictionary of the English Language
Published on 15 April 1755 and written by Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the
English Language, sometimes published as Johnson's Dictionary, is among the
most influential dictionaries in the history of the English language.
There was dissatisfaction with the dictionaries of the period, so in June 1746 a

group of London booksellers contracted Johnson to write a dictionary for the sum
of 1,500 guineas (1,575), equivalent to about 230,000 as of 2011.[1]Johnson
took nearly nine years to complete the work, although he had claimed he could
finish it in three. Remarkably, he did so single-handedly, with only clerical
assistance to copy out the illustrative quotations that he had marked in books.
Johnson produced several revised editions during his life.
Until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary, 173 years later, Johnson's
was viewed as the pre-eminent English dictionary. According to Walter Jackson
Bate, the Dictionary "easily ranks as one of the greatest single achievements of
scholarship, and probably the greatest ever performed by one individual who
labored under anything like the disadvantages in a comparable length of time".
Background
A hundred years earlier, books had been regarded with something approaching
veneration, but by the mid-eighteenth century this was no longer the case. The rise
of literacy among the general public, combined with the technical advances in the
mechanics of printing and bookbinding, meant that for the first time, books, texts,
maps, pamphlets and newspapers were widely available to the general public at a
reasonable cost. Such an explosion of the printed word demanded a set pattern of
grammar, definition, and spelling for those words. This could be achieved by
means of an authoritative dictionary of the English language. In 1746, a
consortium of London's most successful printers, includingRobert Dodsley and
Thomas Longman none could afford to undertake it alone set out to satisfy and
capitalise on this need by the ever increasing reading and writing public.
Johnson's dictionary was not the first English dictionary, nor even among the first
dozen. Over the previous 150 years more than twenty dictionaries had been
published in England, the oldest of these being a Latin-English "wordbook" by
Sir Thomas Elyot published in 1538.
The next to appear was by Richard Mulcaster, a headmaster, in 1583. Mulcaster
compiled what he termed "a generall table [of eight thousand words] we
commonlie use...[yet] It were a thing verie praise worthy...if som well
learned...would gather all words which we use in the English tung...into one
dictionary..."[2]
In 1598 an ItalianEnglish dictionary by John Florio was published. It was the first
English dictionary to use quotations ("illustrations") to give meaning to the word;
surprisingly, in none of these dictionaries so far were there any actual definitions of
words. This was to change, to a small extent, in schoolmaster Robert Cawdrey's
"Table Alphabeticall", published in 1604. Though it contained only 2,449 words,
and no word beginning with the letters W, X, or Y, this was the first monolingual
English dictionary.
Several more dictionaries followed:
in Latin, English, French and Italian. Benjamin Martin's Lingua Britannica
Reformata (1749) and Ainsworth's Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (1737) are both
significant, in that they define entries in separate senses, or aspects, of the word. In
English (among others), John Cowell's Interpreter, a law dictionary, was published

in 1607, Edward Phillips' The new world of English words came out in 1658 and a
dictionary of 40,000 words had been prepared in 1721 by Nathan Bailey, though
none was as comprehensive in breadth or style as Johnson's.
The problem with these dictionaries was that they tended to be little more than
poorly organized and poorly researched glossaries of "hard words": words that
were technical, foreign, obscure or antiquated. But perhaps the greatest single fault
of these early lexicographers was, as one historian put it, that they "failed to give
sufficient sense of [the English] language as it appeared in use."[3] In that sense
Dr. Johnson's dictionary was the first to comprehensively document the English
lexicon.
Johnson's preparation
Main article: Letter to Chesterfield
Johnson's dictionary was prepared at 17 Gough Square, London, an eclectic
household, between the years of 1746 and 1755. By 1747 Johnson had written
his Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language, which spelled out his intentions
and proposed methodology for preparing his document. He clearly saw benefit in
drawing from previous efforts, and saw the process as a parallel to legal
precedent (possibly influenced by Cowell):
I shall therefore, since the rules of stile, like those of law, arise from precedents
often repeated, collect the testimonies of both sides, and endeavour to discover and
promulgate the decrees of custom, who has so long possessed whether by right or
by usurpation, the sovereignty of words.
Johnson's Plan received the patronage of Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of
Chesterfield but not to Johnson's pleasure.Chesterfield did not care about praise,
but was instead interested by Johnson's abilities. Seven years after first meeting
Johnson to discuss the work, Chesterfield wrote two anonymous essays in The
World that recommended theDictionary.He complained that the English language
was lacking structure and argued:
We must have recourse to the old Roman expedient in times of confusion, and
chose a dictator. Upon this principle, I give my vote for Mr Johnson to fill that
great and arduous post.
However, Johnson did not appreciate the tone of the essay, and he felt that
Chesterfield had not made good on his promise to be the work's patron. In a letter,
Johnson explained his feelings about the matter:
Seven years, my lord, have now past since I waited in your outward rooms or was
repulsed from your door, during which time I have been pushing on my work
through difficulties of which it is useless to complain, and have brought it at last to
the verge of publication without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement,
or one smile of favour. Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a patron
before ... Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man
struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached ground, encumbers him
with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours, had it

been early, had been kind: but it has been delayed till I am indifferent and cannot
enjoy it; till I am solitary and cannot impart it; till I am known and do not want it.
The Text
A Dictionary of the English Language was somewhat large and very expensive. Its
pages were 18 inches (46 cm) tall and nearly 20 inches (50 cm) wide. The paper
was of the finest quality available, the cost of which ran to nearly 1,600; more
than Johnson had been paid to write the book. Johnson himself pronounced the
book "Vasta mole superbus"("Proud in its great bulk").[8] No bookseller could
possibly hope to print this book without help; outside a few special editions of
the Bible no book of this heft and size had even been set to type.
The title page reads:
A
DICTIONARY
of the
English Language:
in which
The WORDS are deduced from their ORIGINALS,
and
ILLUSTRATED in their DIFFERENT SIGNIFICATIONS
by
EXAMPLES from the best WRITERS.
To which are prefixed,
A HISTORY of the LANGUAGE,
and AN ENGLISH GRAMMAR.
By SAMUEL JOHNSON, A.M.
In TWO Volumes
VOL. I
The words "Samuel Johnson" and "English Language" were printed in red; the rest
was printed in black. The preface and headings were set in 4.6 mm "English" type,
the textdouble columnedwas set in 3.5 mm pica. This first edition of the
dictionary contained a 42,773 word list, to which only a few more were added in
subsequent editions. An important innovation of Johnson's was to illustrate
the meanings of his words by literary quotation, of which there are around
114,000. The authors most frequently cited by Johnson
include Shakespeare, Milton and Dryden.