Webster Dictionary
The Webster dictionary is well known. Nobody is above looking up a word or definition on occasion. It’s necessary.
At one time every family wanted a copy of the Webster dictionary. They wanted their children to have what they needed for school. But in the modern world this dictionary is now online. The online version is like the book but even better. It’s one way the Internet has made our lives easier.
Today the term Webster dictionary is a generic term. It refers to any type of English language dictionary. Noah Webster began what today is the Merriam-Webster dictionary. But most dictionaries now bear the name.
Noah Webster was popular originally not for the Webster dictionary but for readers and spelling books used in schools. It wasn’t until 1806 that Webster first published a dictionary. He pioneered what would later become standard elements of dictionaries. One of these was American spellings of words. Color, for instance, instead of colour. The dictionary included words from fields other than literature. Even after publishing it Webster took 20 more years to expand it.
When he was 70 years old Noah Webster published another dictionary. It had two volumes and contained 70,000 entries. This became the precursor of the Webster dictionary. With many revisions made by Noah’s son, a new revision was released in 1840.
The Webster dictionary we know today came into being upon Webster’s death. 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. A new revised edition appeared on September 24, 1847. A new addition followed this in 1859. This version had illustrations.
The Webster dictionary continued to develop. They engaged a Yale professor to assist with another revision. That one came out in 1864. It featured 114,000 entries. This was the first time Noah’s original work was significantly changed. It was called unabridged.
It was 1909 when the book really hit its stride. This was the international version. It had over 400,000 entries and doubled the number of illustrations. For the first time the page was divided. Words below the line and their definitions were printed in very small print to save space. These were seldom used words, some obsolete and out of use, that were added for the sake of completion.
Just like Kleenex is used to describe all tissue, people use Webster dictionary to describe any dictionary. But Noah Webster’s work still exists.