The Webster dictionary is well known. Nobody is above looking up a word or definition on occasion. It’s necessary.
There was a time when purchasing encyclopedias or a dictionary like the Webster dictionary was a big deal for any family. It would help their children in their school work. Now people can access it online. Anybody can look it up and find the same information that was contained in the book format. The Internet comes through again for making our lives better.
Now Webster dictionary is a common name. It refers to any type of English language dictionary. The Merriam-Webster dictionaries descend from the original work of Noah Webster, a Lexicographer. But many companies make dictionaries that have the name Webster.
Noah Webster began as a teacher publishing classroom aids. He published his first dictionary in 1806. He pioneered what would later become standard elements of dictionaries. For example he used American spellings. Color, for instance, instead of colour. Also the dictionary was not confined to literary words, it also included words from the arts and sciences. It was a task of 20 years to expand on this first dictionary.
When he was 70 years old Noah Webster published another dictionary. It was considered large – two volumes with 70,000 entries. It was really the first true version of the Webster dictionary. With many revisions made by Noah’s son, a new revision was released in 1840.
When Noah Webster died the next step to today’s Webster dictionary was taken. The family sold off the rights to Webster’s works and name to George and Charles Merriam. Working with Webster’s son they revised the book even more. They released a new revision on September 24, 1847. A new addition followed this in 1859. It even featured illustrations.
The Webster dictionary continued to develop. They engaged a Yale professor to assist with another revision. That one came out in 1864. This book contained 114,000 listings. It was really the first big overhaul of Noah Webster’s original work. It had the word unabridged in the title.
It was 1909 when the book really hit its stride. The company published an international version. It had over 400,000 entries and doubled the number of illustrations. For the first time the page was divided. The bottom portion of the page was reserved for somewhat dead words that still needed to be covered.
It’s interesting to know that like the term Kleenex, Webster dictionary is a generic term. But Noah Webster’s work still exists.
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