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WEBSTER, NOAH (1758-1843)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 463 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WEBSTER, See also:NOAH (1758-1843) , See also:American lexicographer and journalist, was See also:born at See also:West See also:Hartford, See also:Connecticut, on the 16th of See also:October 1758. He was descended from See also:John Webster of Hartford, See also:governor of Connecticut in 1656-1657, and on his See also:mother's See also:side from Governor See also:William See also:Bradford of See also:Plymouth. He entered Yale in 1774, graduating in 1778. He studied See also:law, and was admitted to the See also:bar at Hartford in 1781. In 1782-1783 he taught in a classical school at See also:Goshen, New See also:York, and became convinced of the need of better textbooks of See also:English. In 1783-1785 he published at Hartford A Grammatical See also:Institute of the English See also:Language, in three parts, a spelling-See also:book, a See also:grammar and a reader. This was the See also:pioneer American See also:work in its See also:field, and it soon found a See also:place in most of the See also:schools of the See also:United States. During the twenty years in which Webster was preparing his See also:dictionary, his income from the spelling-book, though the See also:royalty was less than a cent a copy, was enough to support his See also:family; and before 1861 the See also:sale reached more than a million copies ayear. The wide use of this book contributed greatly to uniformity of See also:pronunciation in the United States, and, with his dictionary, secured the See also:general See also:adoption in the United States of a simpler See also:system of spelling than that current in See also:England. In 1785 he published Sketches of American Policy, in which he argued for a constitutional See also:government whose authority should be vested in See also:Congress. This he regarded as the first distinct proposal for a United States Constitution, and when in 1787 the work of the commissioners was completed at See also:Philadelphia, where Webster was then living as See also:superintendent of an See also:academy, he wrote in behalf of the constitution an Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution. In 1788 he started in New York the American See also:Magazine, but it failed at the end of a See also:year, and he resumed the practice of law at Hartford.

In 1793, in See also:

order to support See also:Washington's See also:administration, he removed to New York and established a daily See also:paper, the See also:Minerva (afterwards the Commercial Advertiser), and later a semi-weekly paper, the See also:Herald (afterwards the New York Spectator). In 1798 he removed to New Haven. He served in the Connecticut See also:House of Represen- tatives in 1800 and 1802-07, and as a See also:county See also:judge in 1807-11. In 1807 he published A Philosophical and See also:Practical Grammar of the English Language. In 18o6 he had brought out A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, and in 1807 he began work on his dictionary. While engaged on it he removed in 1812 to See also:Amherst, See also:Massachusetts, where he was See also:president of the See also:Board of Trustees of the Academy and assisted in See also:founding Amherst See also:College. He was also a member of the General See also:Court of Massachusetts. In 1822 he returned to New Haven, and the next year he received the degree of LL.D. from Yale. He spent a year (1824-1825) abroad, working on his dictionary, in See also:Paris and at the university of See also:Cambridge, where he finished his See also:manuscript. The work came out in 1828 in two volumes. It contained 12,000 words and from 30,000 to 40,000 See also:definitions that had not appeared in any earlier dictionary. An English edition soon followed.

In 1840 the second edition, corrected and enlarged, came out, in two volumes. He completed the revision of an appendix a few days before his See also:

death, which occurred in New Haven on the 28th of May 1843. The dictionary was revised in 1847 under the editorship of See also:Professor See also:Chauncey A. See also:Goodrich and published in one See also:volume. In 1859 a pictorial edition was issued. In 1864 it was revised mainly under the direction of Professor Noah See also:Porter, and again in 1890 under the same direction, the latter revision appearing with the See also:title of the See also:International Dictionary of the English Language. The latter was again issued in 1900, with a supplement of 25,000 words and phrases, under the supervision of William See also:Torrey See also:Harris, who edited another revision, in 1909, under the title of the New International Dictionary of the English Language. It has frequently been abridged. Among Webster's other See also:works are See also:Dissertations on the English Language (1789), a course of lectures that he had given three years before in some of the See also:chief American cities; Essays (179o) ; The Revolution in See also:France (1794) ; A Brief See also:History of Epidemics and Pestilential Diseases (1799), in two vols.; The Rights of Neutral Nations in See also:Time of See also:War (1802); See also:Historical Notices of the Origin and See also:State of Banking Institutions and See also:Insurance Offices (18o2); and A Collection of Papers on See also:Political, See also:Literary, and Moral Subjects (1843), which included " On the Supposed See also:Change in the Temperature of See also:Winter," a See also:treatise showing See also:long and careful See also:research. He also published Governor John See also:Winthrop's See also:Journal in 179o, and wrote a History of the United States, of which a revised edition appeared in 1839. See Memoir of Noah Webster by his son-in-law, Professor Chauncey A. Goodrich, in the See also:quarto See also:editions of the Dictionary, also Noah Webster (1882), by See also:Horace E.

End of Article: WEBSTER, NOAH (1758-1843)

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