Noah Webster and
the American Dictionary of
the English Language
“The author, it is well known, met with much opposition at the commencement of his
labors; and it is equally notorious, that as he proceeded in the accomplishment of
his design, he was seldom cheered with the voice of encouragement.”
James Luce Kingsley, North American Review
Heather McIlvaine
Biography
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Born in 1758 on a farm in Connecticut
He attended Yale and was exposed to the
ideas of the Enlightenment
In the winter of 1779-80 he became
interested in education reform
• 1783 the “blue-backed speller”
• 1785 Dissertations on the English Language –
suggested spelling and grammar reforms
• 1800 first advertised for the American
Dictionary – it was printed in 1828
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Fought for copyright laws
Died in 1843
Spelling Reform
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Webster believed that spelling reforms would
contribute to the development of a national
language
He was aware that America was a nation of
immigrants, and simplified spelling would aid
them in learning the new language and lessen
the differences in sectional dialects
Benjamin Franklin supported Webster’s ideas
• “You need not be concern’d in writing to me, about your
bad Spelling, for in my Opinion, as our Alphabet now
stands, the bad Spelling, or what is call’d so, is generally
the best, as conforming to the Sound of the Letters and
of the Words.” – letter to his sister, Jane Mecom, 1786
Proposed Alterations
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The omission of all superfluous or silent letters
• (bread=bred, head=hed, give=giv, built=bilt,
friend=frend, publick=public, neighbor=nabor)
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A substitution of a character that has a definite
sound for one that is more vague and
indeterminate
• (mean=meen, grieve= greev, laugh=laf,
daughter=dawter, character=karacter,
machine=masheen, pique=peek, tour=toor)
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An alteration in character, or the addition of a
point would distinguish different sounds, without
the substitution of a new character
• (ά, ė, ī)
Example of “American Language”
“In these essays, ritten within the last yeer, a
considerable change in spelling iz introduced by
way of experiment…The man who admits that the
change of housbande…into husband, iz an
improovement, must acknowledge also the riting
of helth, breth, rong, tung, munth, to be an
improovement. There iz no alternativ. Every
possible reezon that could ever be offered for
altering the spelling of wurds, still exists in full
force; and if a gradual reform should not be
made in our language, it will proov that we are
less under the influence of reezon than our
ancestors.” – Noah Webster, Collection of Essays
and Fugitiv Writings, 1790
Inconsistencies in Webster’s
Proposal
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He substitutes the voiced alveolar /z/ sound in
“reason” and “is” with a “z” but does not make
the same changes in the plurals “essays” and
“words”
The voiceless alveolar /s/ sound of the “c” in
“ancestors” should be replaced with an “s”
Webster’s proposal was met with widespread
criticism
His own inconsistencies demonstrate how
ingrained the conventional methods of spelling
were, and how difficult change would be.
Eventually he stopped trying to introduce the
extreme phonetic respelling of words, but he
continued trying to remove silent letters.
The Initial Reaction
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When Webster first proposed the dictionary it was received with
condemnation
• “If, as Mr. Webster asserts, it is true that many new words have
already crept into the language of the United States, he would be
much better employed in rooting out those anxious weeds, than in
mingling them with the flowers.” – Joseph Dennie, Gazette of the
United States, 1800.
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The political atmosphere of the time period was responsible for
the failure
• This was the era when the modern political parties formed
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Federalist Party: favored centralized government and opposed the extension
of suffrage – Webster was a Federalist
Republican Party: favored decentralized government and supported the
extension of suffrage
Webster was criticized both by federalists (for his decision to
include common words) and by the republicans (for being a
federalist)
• “The lexicographer’s business is solely to collect, arrange and define
the words that usage presents to his hands. He has no right to
proscribe words; he is to present them as they are.” – Webster
Writing the Dictionary
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Webster thought the process would take 5 years – by 1818, he
was only on “B”
To support his family while writing, he published the ill-received
Compendious Dictionary
• Radical orthography: groop, wimmen, tung
• Common words like crock
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By the time Webster completed the American Dictionary in 1825
the Federalist Party was dead and populism was on the rise
He had abandoned the spelling reforms
• Dropped the “k” in words like “mimic” and the “u” in words like “favor”
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Its publication in 1828 came at the height of the Second Great
Awakening
• Webster used biblical references rather than literary quotes to define
the words
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Instrument, n. 2…The distribution of the Scriptures may be the instrument
of a vastly extensive reformation in morals and religion.
All these factors helped make the dictionary a success despite the
rocky beginning
Etymology
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Like many lexicographers at the time, Webster was
intrigued by the etymology of words
His etymological research began around 1809, distracting
him from working on the dictionary for almost 10 years
His method of discerning etymology was based on the
appearance of words
• If the number of letters and basic structure of a word in one
language was similar to that of another, he assumed that they
carried the same meaning
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His etymological conclusions were founded on his strong
religious beliefs
• He believed the Bible was a factually reliable source to trace
the origins of language
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Most current lexicographers dismiss his etymological
conclusions
Webster’s Effect on Today
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He believed that the misunderstanding of words led to
social and political upheaval – they should not be used
vaguely
The politicization of words is evident in Webster’s struggle
to find initial support for his dictionary, and in the
definitions that were published
• Politician n. – “of artifice or deep contrivance”
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It remains a politically heated issue
• In 1961 the Merriam-Webster Dictionary released a notoriously
permissive edition; the editorial staff settled decisions on
words and usage by a show of hands
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“If nine-tenths of the citizens of the United states, including a
recent President, were to use inviduous, the one-tenth who clung
to invidious would still be right, and they would be doing a favor to
the majority if they continued to maintain the point.” Dwight
Macdonald
• Nuclear v. Nucular
Works Cited
Lepore, Jill. “Noah’s Mark.” The New Yorker
6 Nov 2006: 78.
Micklethwait, David. Noah Webster and the
American Dictionary. London: McFarland,
2000.
Rollins, Richard. The Long Journey of Noah
Webster. University of Pennsylvania Press,
1980.