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📜Dictionary Day – October 16, 2021📚

Dictionary Day on October 16 celebrates the birth of Noah Webster, an American writer who was born in 1758. Webster is best-known for publishing the first dictionary in 1806, which he continued to compile and expand for the next 27 years. When his dictionary was published in 1828, it was a formidable resource packed with useful words and spelling updates. Webster was a true pioneer for creating the reference book we use so ubiquitously, so we’re celebrating him today!

HISTORY OF DICTIONARY DAY

The man who would someday become the father of the dictionary as we know it today, Noah Webster, was born on October 16, 1758, in Hartford, Connecticut. His father, a farmer and craftsman, and his mother, who stayed at home, headed a very middle-class and typical colonial family. When scholarly young Noah was 16, he set off for Yale — the first college in Connecticut. Since law was too expensive of a career path, Noah chose to go into teaching.

It was in teaching that he first felt compelled to reform the burgeoning American academic system and language. His first textbook was issued in 1783 and covered the grammar of the English language. Due to its blue cover, it came to be known as the “Blue-Backed Speller.” This little blue book became the most popular book in America in the day and age.

Refining teaching English and the education system wasn’t enough for Noah. After marrying Rebecca Greenleaf in 1789, he set about in 1801 to define many of the terms that set apart American English from the way the language was spoken in England. He also moved to Amherst, Massachusetts for the purpose of founding Amherst College, then later moved back to New Haven.

Many of us are familiar with the spelling differences between English and American English words like ‘color.’ Much of that can be credited to Webster, who, in his first edition of the American English dictionary in 1806, took time to correct English spellings to American English ones. Another example: Webster re-spelled ‘musick’ as ‘music.’ Though this bestselling dictionary defined no less than 37,000 words, he was unsatisfied. The next 22 years of his life would be dedicated to editing and adding new words. Eventually, at the old age of 70, Webster published his new dictionary in 1828. The book defined over 65,000 words.

After Webster died in 1843 as an American hero who pioneered the dictionary and supported both the abolition of slavery and universal education, G & C Merriam, Co. purchased the rights to his “An American Dictionary of the English Language”. The Merriam brothers behind the company, George and Charles, continued to refine Webster’s dictionary, eventually giving us the Merriam-Webster dictionary we know today.