Webster Dictionary
Perhaps the best known dictionary in the world is the Webster dictionary. Millions of people turn to this book to find the words, correct spellings, and all sorts of other information. It's a great resource.
There was a time when purchasing encyclopedias or a dictionary like the Webster dictionary was a big deal for any family. It was important to have such books so that the children could learn and do well in school. But in the modern world this dictionary is now online. Anybody can look it up and find the same information that was contained in the book format. 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. The Merriam-Webster dictionaries descend from the original work of Noah Webster, a Lexicographer. But many other dictionaries now bear the name. These include dictionaries published by Random House.
Noah Webster was popular originally not for the Webster dictionary but for readers and spelling books used in schools. He published his first dictionary in 1806. This new dictionary featured elements that would become common in dictionaries. One of these was American spellings of words. One of these is center rather than centre. Also the dictionary was not confined to literary words, it also included words from the arts and sciences. Once this first dictionary was published, Noah spent the next 20 years expanding 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. A revised edition was released in 1840. Noah's son William helped add several thousand new words.
The Webster dictionary we know today came into being upon Webster's death. George and Charles Merriam purchased all the rights to the books and the name Webster. They hired Noah Webster's son-in-law to oversee revisions. A new revised edition appeared on September 24, 1847. It was later extended into a new addition in 1859. This version had illustrations.
In 1860 the Miriam company took another step forward in the development of the Webster dictionary. They began creation of a new revised version that was evident by a Yale university professor. It was released in 1864. It had 114,000 entries. It was really the first big overhaul of Noah Webster's original work. It was the first one to bear the name unabridged.
The Webster dictionary really began to cook in 1909. A new international version was released. It had over 400,000 entries and doubled the number of illustrations. It had a new format that divided the page. 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.
It's interesting to know that like the term Kleenex, Webster dictionary is a generic term. But Noah Webster's work still exists.