National Dictionary Day
Learn a new word or two on #NationalDictionaryDay
16 October is National Dictionary Day and you are encouraged to celebrate this day by learning a little bit of Noah Webster’s dictionary history.
Noah Webster, an American citizen, published his first dictionary – A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language – in 1806. A year later, he began compiling an expanded and fully comprehensive dictionary entitled An American Dictionary of the English Language. This dictionary took 27 years to complete. Webster learned 26 languages – including Old English (Anglo-Saxon), German, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, Hebrew, Arabic and Sanskrit – to evaluate the etymology of words.
Webster’s dictionary was completed at the University of Cambridge while he spent a year in Paris, France. The book contained 70 000 words, 12 000 of which have never been published. Webster was a spelling reformer and believed the English spelling rules were unnecessarily complex, leading him to introduce American English spellings in his dictionary. He replaced colour with color, wagon with waggon and centre with center. He also added American words such as skunk and squash, which had not appeared in British dictionaries.
Webster’s dictionary was published in 1828 – when he was 70 years old, and 2 500 copies were sold. A second edition, in two volumes, was published in 1840.
National Dictionary Day was created in honour of Noah Webster’s birthday, which was 16 October 1758. The day was set aside to emphasise the importance of learning and using dictionary skills to increase vocabulary. Webster is considered to be the Father of the Dictionary.
To celebrate today, learn a new word or two, or three! You can also play some dictionary-based games like Balderdash or Scrabble with family and friends.
You can post your new word (with it’s meaning) on social media using #NationalDictionaryDay.
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