Pylimitics

In the US, some people use the word “webster’s” to mean “dictionary.” That’s because in 1828 Noah Webster published what was for a long time the most popular dictionary in the US. He titled it An American Dictionary of the English Language, but everybody just called it Webster’s Dictionary (which eventually became the title).

Noah Webster was born October 16, 1758 in Connecticut, in the US. He graduated from Yale College when he was 20 and passed the bar exam required to become a lawyer, but couldn’t find a job. So he changed careers and opened a private school. There weren’t any available textbooks, so he wrote his own, beginning with the Blue-Backed Speller. It became a widely-used elementary textbook in 1700s North America. It was also an early predecessor to the dictionary he would publish years later.

He published his first real dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, in 1806. As you might guess from the word “compendious” in the title, he believed that American English should have its own words and spellings. As soon as his first dictionary was published, he started work on a bigger and better version — that took him 22 years, and became the dictionary he’s still famous for. 

Webster’s Dictionary is still in print, but today it’s called the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. After Webster died in 1843 (at 84, which was quite an advanced age for those days), the rights to his dictionary were purchased by George and Charles Merriam, two brothers who owned a publishing house. That publisher is still in business (now owned by Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.) and still publishes the dictionary. 

If you visit West Hartford, Connecticut, you can see a statue of Webster just outside the public library. (Pro tip: it’s not a very good statue; the proportions are off.) And of course you can buy a copy of his dictionary — or use it online.