Webster’s dictionary

Johnson’s dictionary was followed in 1828 by Noah Webster’s dictionary – billed as the first American dictionary. Webster’s agenda in writing his dictionary was at least partly political; through the dictionary he sought to establish American English as a national language. His dictionary included not only new words but also new meanings that had developed for old words in the context of American life, for example, words relevant to the newly minted form of democracy, such as congress and senate. Webster is also credited with promoting the spelling differences which even today distinguish American from British English – color instead of colour, center instead of centre, tire instead of tyre, and so on.

Webster was not particularly skilled at etymology (the study of where words come from); Baugh and Cable (1993: 361) suggest that his sense of nationalism caused him to ignore advances in historical and comparative linguistics that were taking place in Europe at that time. However, his definitions are excellent. Not surprisingly, though, some definitions in Webster’s dictionary are pirated directly from Johnson. Note, however, that not all of Webster’s contemporaries shared his desire to distinguish American English from British English. Joseph Worcester, for example, published his own Comprehensive Pronouncing and Explanatory Dictionary in 1830, in which he took a far more conservative approach to Americanisms and spelling.