1849 An American Dictionary Of The English Language - sold Large Antique Leather Book

1849 An American Dictionary Of The English Language - Unabridged - Large Antique Leather Book

Early unabridged edition of Noah Websters's important dictionary. This version was published by George and Charles Merriam (Springfield, Mass) in 1849 and "Revised And Enlarged" by Chauncey A. Goodrich.

"Upon Webster's death in 1843, the unsold books and all rights to the copyright and name "Webster" were purchased by brothers George and Charles Merriam, who then hired Webster's son-in-law Chauncey Goodrich, a professor at Yale College, to oversee revisions. Goodrich's New and Revised Edition appeared in 1847, and a Revised and Enlarged edition in 1848, which added a section of illustrations indexed to the text. His revisions remained close to Webster's work, but removed what later editors referred to as his *"excrescences" (definition at the end of the listing!).

Very large antique leather book with rag cotton paper pages. Very old dictionary, over 170 years old, in antique used but solid shape. Original marbled endpapers and rag cotton paper pages. Cover hinges working fine.

Certainly, this dictionary has lots of signs of age and use: dings, rubbing, and scrapes to the leather, places where the leather is worn to the boards, old repairs, etc. Despite wear to the leather and missing some of the spine leather, the sewn binding is holding strong. The leather spine is still in place. Some stains but no mold, no mildew, no smell.

Large antique hardcover leather book 8 3/4" x 10 1/2" x nearly 4". pages. Large book!

By Noah Webster, Jr. (1758 – 1843) "an American lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English-language spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and author. He has been called the "Father of American Scholarship and Education". His "Blue-backed Speller" books taught five generations of American children how to spell and read. Webster's name has become synonymous with "dictionary" in the United States, especially the modern Merriam-Webster dictionary that was first published in 1828 as "An American Dictionary of the English Language".

In 1806, Webster published his first dictionary. The next year Webster began compiling an expanded and fully comprehensive dictionary, An American Dictionary of the English Language; it took twenty-six years to complete. To evaluate the etymology of words, Webster learned twenty-eight languages, including Old English, Gothic, German, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch, Welsh, Russian, Hebrew, Aramaic, Persian, Arabic, and Sanskrit. Webster hoped to standardize American speech since Americans in different parts of the country used different languages. They also spelled, pronounced, and used English words differently.
In 1828, when Noah Webster was 70, his American Dictionary of the English Language was published. His book contained seventy thousand words, of which twelve thousand had never appeared in a published dictionary before. As a spelling reformer, Webster preferred spellings that matched pronunciation better. In A Companion to the American Revolution (2008), John Algeo notes: "It is often assumed that characteristically American spellings were invented by Noah Webster. He was very influential in popularizing certain spellings in America, but he did not originate them. Rather ... he chose already existing options on such grounds as simplicity, analogy or etymology." He also added American words, like "skunk", that did not appear in British dictionaries.
Though it now has an honored place in the history of American English, Webster's first dictionary only sold 2,500 copies. He was forced to mortgage his home to develop a second edition, and for the rest of his life he sold had debt problems. After his death, the rights to his dictionary were acquired by George and Charles Merriam in 1843 from Webster's estate and all contemporary Merriam-Webster dictionaries trace their lineage to that of Webster, although many others have adopted his name, attempting to share in the popularity."

* Ex·cres·cence [ikˈskresəns] NOUN excrescences (plural noun)
"a distinct outgrowth on a human or animal body or on a plant, especially one that is the result of disease or abnormality:
"the males often have a strange excrescence on the tip of the snout"
synonyms:
growth · lump · swelling · protuberance · protrusion · knob · nodule · outgrowth · wart · boil · pustule · carbuncle · tumor
an unattractive or superfluous addition or feature: "removing the excrescences of later interpretation"

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