Noah Webster

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Noah Webster

• Jen Andersen
• Nov. 14, 2008

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Noah Webster The Man

• Lexicographer
• Wrote spelling books
• Name became synonymous with dictionary

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Noahs First Dictionary

• Wanted to make a dictionary of the American
  Language
• Felt America should have its own national
  language
• Created the Compendious Dictionary in 1806

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No-uhz Spelling

• Wanted to get away from British spellings
• I.e. no u in honour
• Spel wurdz lik tha sownd
• Wimmin, tung, groop

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(No Transcript)
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FRENCH REVOLUTION!
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Now What?

• Big flop
• Became obsessed with etymologies
• Language of Eden
• Moved to Europe
• Finished his dictionary!
• Two-volume "American Dictionary of the English
  Language" (1828)

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Why is this okay now?

• All of the Federalists are dead!
• Jackson is president
• Republican!
• Go Common man!
• Gave up on his spellings
• Except for k like in mimic and u in
  humour

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Dictionary

• Americanisms
• Lengthy, caucus, skunk
• Very few
• Quotations from famous Americans
• Jefferson, Washington, Madison, Irving, Franklin

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Continued

• Added approximately 12,000 words to the lexicon
• Objects, qualities, actions, technology, science
  terms
• Demoralize
• LOVED spelling bees

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Second Great Awakening

• Religious Revival
• Instrument, n. 2. . . . The distribution of the
  Scriptures may be the instrument of a vastly
  extensive reformation in morals and religion.
• Love, n. 1. The love of God is the first duty of
  man. . . . v.t. 1. . . . The Christian loves his
  Bible.

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Preface

• In my view, the Christian religion is the most
  important and one of the first things in which
  all children, under a free government ought to be
  instructed...No truth is more evident to my mind
  than that the Christian religion must be the
  basis of any government intended to secure the
  rights and privileges of a free people.

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Old v. New

• 1828 Edition
• 70,000 entries
• Online dictionary
• Over 450,000 vocabulary definitions, each with
  etymological and phonological descriptions

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Marriage, n.

• The act of uniting a man and woman for life
  wedlock the legal union of a man and woman for
  life. Marriage is a contract both civil and
  religious, by which the parties engage to live
  together in mutual affection and fidelity, till
  death shall separate them. Marriage was
  instituted by God himself for the purpose of
  preventing the promiscuous intercourse of the
  sexes, for promoting domestic felicity, and for
  securing the maintenance and education of
  children.

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Marriage, n.

• 1 a the state of being united to a person of the
  opposite sex as husband or wife
• b the mutual relation of husband and wife
• c the institution whereby men and women are
  joined in a special kind of social and legal
  dependence for the purpose of founding and
  maintaining a family --- see MONOGAMY POLYGAMY
• Websters Third New Dictionary

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Wiktionary

• Open content dictionary
• Fo shizzle
• Guy on phone Yo dog we on the way to do the
  video
• Snoop Fo shizzle!
• Wiktionary

• Open content dictionary
• Fo shizzle
• Guy on phone Yo dog we on the way to do the
  video
• Snoop Fo shizzle!

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Urban Dictionary