Noah Webster

Noah Webster (1758-1843), American lexicographer, best known for his pioneering American Dictionary of the English Language and for his espousal of American usage of the language.

Webster was born on October 16, 1758, in West Hartford, Connecticut, and educated at Yale University. He served in the American War of Independence, studied law, and taught. In 1783 he published a spelling book, known later as Webster's Elementary Spelling Book or The Blue-Backed Speller, the first part of his A Grammatical Institute of the English Language. The second part of the Institute, a grammar, was published in 1784, and the third part, a reader, in 1785. One purpose served by the Institute was to differentiate American English from British in terms of spelling, grammar, and pronunciation. A century later it was estimated that more than 60 million copies of the speller had been sold; in revised form it is still in print.

A dedicated member of the Federalist party, Webster issued a pamphlet, Sketches of American Policy (1785), in which he recommended adoption of the proposed United States Constitution. Settling briefly in New York in 1793, he founded a daily newspaper, The Minerva (later The Commercial Advertiser), and a semi-weekly, The Herald (later The Spectator), both in support of the Federalist party. By 1803 he had settled in New Haven, Connecticut, and left journalism. During this period he wrote A Brief History of Epidemic and Pestilential Diseases (2 vols., 1799); several works on politics, economics, and physical science; and his first small lexicographical work, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language (1806).

From 1812 to 1822 Webster lived in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he helped to found Amherst College. In 1825, having devoted more than 20 years to the study of the English language and having travelled in both England and France, Webster returned to New Haven to complete his monumental An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). It contained 12,000 more words and about 40,000 more definitions than any earlier dictionary of the English language. Particular attention was paid to the inclusion of scientific terms and to etymological information. Webster died on May 28, 1843, in New Haven.

Webster's importance does not rest only on the size of his work. He was the first authority to emphasize American rather than British usage and the first to list senses in the chronological order in which they made their appearance in the language. His etymologies were not entirely accurate by modern standards, but his precise definitions are models of lexical style. Also, by the inclusion of thousands of technical and scientific terms, Webster laid the groundwork for the modern comprehensive, rather than purely literary, dictionary.

An enlarged edition of Webster's dictionary was issued in 1840; it has appeared in several later revisions. Webster's Third New International Dictionary (1961; revised 1981) and an abridgement, Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, are the latest of these revisions.