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Words Of The Day For Webster: Happy Birthday

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 15, 2008

TAMPA - In the endeavor to fully plumb the English language, often it takes a puissant effort of circumlocution to make a point you can kvell over.

If you are flummoxed by that sentence, don't get tetchy or fall into a bilious mood, just pick up a Merriam-Webster dictionary and figure it out.

The man who first penned the dictionary in Connecticut was Noah Webster, who celebrates his semiquincentennial birthday today.

Born in Hartford, Conn., on Oct. 16, 1758, Webster believed in developing a uniquely American culture, including a language all its own. What came of his labor was the core, some would say, of Americana.

"English was a competing language in that day," said Peter Sokolowski, editor at large for Merriam-Webster in Springfield, Mass. "There was Dutch and French. English, by no means, was the strongest language in this country. Survival of the English language was not certain, either."

Through his documentation of language, Webster sought to solidify the culture of this new country.

"In a sense, Noah Webster's first dictionary, published in 1806, was a declaration of cultural independence," Sokolowski said. "He was a patriot. He fought in Revolution. He was friends with Washington, and he really believed America had to have its own culture and to have its own language."

His notion took hold.

"The collegiate dictionary is the second-best selling hardcover book in American history behind the Bible," he said. "Since 1898, it has sold 57 million copies. It is the great American publishing success story."

Webster published the Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, the first version of what would become the American classic, amid some criticism that he was mutilating the kings' English.

Compiling words and word origins wasn't easy. He had to learn 26 languages including Anglo-Saxon and Sanskrit to research word origins to achieve his magnum opus, published in 1828.

That dictionary contained 70,000 entries and incorporated a distinctively American vocabulary.

New works such as "skunk," "hickory" and "chowder" were mixed with the respelling of English words such as "music" (musick), "center" (centre) and "plow" (plough).

He wanted to change tongue to tung and women to wimmen, but those met with strong arguments, and he capitulated.

Today, the dictionary is on the bookshelves and in cyberspace.

"We put the dictionary online a dozen years ago," Sokolowski said. "It was a big decision to make it free." Still, sales of the printed version held their own, he said.

"Collegiate dictionary sales have been solid and steady," he said. "We believe in some measure that the online dictionary serves as reinforcement of our name.

"People want their dictionaries there," he said. "Even if only at home, they want the printed, the paper dictionary."

The advantage of the online version for the publisher is the capacity to see how it is being used.

"We can tell that there are more than 1.2 billion look-ups per year, 100 million look-ups per month," he said. "For the first time ever, we know what people who use dictionaries are looking up."

Last month for example, the word most looked up was the verb "vet," which came to the forefront in the presidential campaigns.

Every year, the publisher adds words that have wedged their way into common usage. Every 10 years, Sokolowski said, the dictionary undergoes a complete overhaul, cover to cover.

"Some words," he said, "do get dropped."

Nancy Barbara, the community relations manager with the Barnes & Noble Bookstore in Carrollwood, said sales of printed dictionaries have never lagged in Tampa.

"People are still buying dictionaries," she said. "There is something about having a book in your hand and looking up a word that will never be replaced by looking up a word online. People always will buy dictionaries."

Buyers span the generations, she said.

"There's just something ethereal about it," she said, "having that heavy book, thumbing through the thin pages."

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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