Show ft win ti MEW P affail affil 1 ra r I 1 t k r 1 SCOTT WATSON P V WHILE youre re reading you come across a word the meaning of which you do not know what do you do the chances are that you ask somebody to tell you what it means and the chances tire are also that that somebody will tell you to look it up in the alic big book or to consult mr webster for that Is what americans have been doing now for exactly a hundred bundred years looking it up in the big book or consulting mr webster for it was waa just one hundred years ago this summer that a scene of unusual activity was taking place in the print shop of 0 howe in new haven conn and just one hundred years ago this thlu autumn there came forth the first drat edition of noah websters american dictionary of the english language now the issuing of a dictionary Is not in itself a unique event but the issuing of noah websters Webster 3 dictionary away back there in 1828 was a note worthy event and in some respects the book itself was unique heretofore the english speaking world had find depended upon dr samuel johnsons for authoritative spelling and definition of words but when the edition of 2500 copies of the new dictionary tio nary each consisting of two bulky quarto volumes of more than 1000 pages each appeared doctor johnsons work was already obsolete for websters book listed defined and 11 lust rated with appropriate quotations somewhere between and words and included words and nearly d which had never dover before appeared in any dictionary of the english tongue most of the definitions webster had coined gnew doing virtually nil all of both the mental and manual labor involved unassisted lie he also did some revising in end and simplifying and it Is to film hilra that we wa owe the fact that we write it honor instead of honour und una traveler instead of traveller e ra but more than that his dictionary was almost an encyclopedia in which he set a standard for accuracy and completeness of definition which governs the lexicographers art of this date in tact fact nearly nil all of the later dictionaries have bare been based upon websters work and have preserved hip ble identical words in a large number of their deft rillions from that little editon edition of 2500 copies issued in 1828 have grown tile tho millions of dictionaries which are to be found in the homes schools and offices of the english speaking world of today and every one of web these dictionaries tion aries whether it bears his name on its cover or not Is a monument to noah webster the yankee schoolteacher and lav lawyer yer who devoted for ty eight years of ills his life to a task which has enriched our language immeasurably although the words webster and 11 are synonymous in the minds of roost most of us but few of us know much about the roan man noah webster nine out of ten perhaps would confuse him with hla his distant rein relative tive daniel webster the orator and statesman yet li it Is not too much to say perhaps that the contribution trib ution of noah webster to american life will be an important one long after that milt of dantel webster will have been forgotten entirely noah webster was the son of a poor new england farmer of west uart hart ford conn who in 1774 when noah jr was sixteen years old mortgaged his farm to pay his fits sons expenses in yale college from which the boy wits was graduated four years later upon the day of his his fattier gave jilin him nn eight dollar continental bill worth about four dollare dollar at the time and told him that he could do no more for him film although young webster lia hail 1 intended to become a lawyer lie he had no means to continue his fits studies lutts alint field so he fie had find to resort to teaching in to make a living while he fie studied law hy by film himself self so go successfully it proved that he was admitted to the b bar nr in hartford in 1781 ile he was un able to wait for a practice however so lie again engaged in school teaching tills this time line tit at goshen N Y where he be e established abolished t ablIs hed a classical school there inhere in 1782 foreseeing that america after separation from the mother country would need to have its own school texts ile he planned a gramman teal leal institute to include a speller a reader and a gm grammar nimar the speller was issued first in 1783 followed in 1784 by the grammar gramin pr and in 1785 b by the reader the success successor of tile the now famous blueback blue back Ppe speller ller still fi a minor millar to P t tarr 1 r generation tit 1 americans was ous and n je ie been to the young schoolmaster in Is c par ing it he had shown the 1 prie pr ie skill and sound sense which el cl eteri zed his dictionary later it wa n ij arranged in a more logical and serviceable manner than wortha Dil speller the work of an englishman previously used and instead of dry pae passages presages sages from the scriptures he used interesting it if homely anecdotes which appealed immediately med mediately lately to the children who forthe for the next nest hundred years were to be impressed by the moral of these Pt dories orles by 1815 the sales of the speller were averaging co copies ples a year by 1828 they had risen to copies annually and by 1848 they were up to 1000 WO a year As late as laso it was still going strong and it has been estimated that more than copies have been sold since elace 1783 websters fame may rest mainly upon his dictionary but in a sense the dictionary owes its exis existence to the lie speller for during the remainder of websters life and especially the twenty years he spent in compiling the dictionary most of the support of his family came from the profits of this little blue backed 15 penny book in 1800 he gave up all his other work to devote himself to his dictionary ills original plan was to correct the errors and supply the omissions in older dictionaries especially John johnsons song so lie spent a number of years collecting words then realizing tits his own trick lack of knowledge as to the origin of words he changed his big plan for the next nest ten years lie devoted himself to a comparative study of words and when lie fie was sixty six years old having exhausted all the resources resource of Ilbra libraries rles in tills this country he be went to france and england to complete his work finally bit great task was done and in the autumn of ir 1828 8 it came from the lie press not content to rest after a quarter century of incessant labor on one cam ieng task the old yankee set about revising some of tits his earlier works in 1810 1840 18 10 he published a revised edition of ills his dictionary and lie he wits in the midst of a second re ats lon to la 1843 when death came to elnis him so go the next time you cuma come across a word whose meaning you do not un before you ask somebody what it menns means theiu of tile the admonition of one chronicler of Web steer carver if there Is one too inzy to do take the half dozen necessary to reach the dictionary lot let him yc turc lure the connecticut scholar ing twenty five years pricing pacing about h b fore his huge table indes with dirt dictionaries binaries of all languages trw trot arabic to icelandic so that he fie give tits his great work to io the world |