BY NOAH WEBSTER, LL.D. ABRIDGED FROM THE QUARTO EDITION OF THE AUTHOR: TO WHICH ARE ADDED A SYNOPSIS OF WORDS DIFFERENTLY PRONOUNCED BY DIFFERENT ORTHOËPISTS; AND WALKER'S KEY TO THE CLASSICAL PRONUNCIATION OF GREEK, LATIN, AND SCRIPTURE PROPER NAMES. REVISED EDITION; WITH An Appendix, CONTAINING ALL THE ADDITIONAL WORDS IN THE LAST EDITION OF THE LARGER WORK. NEW-YORK: PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, No. 82 CLIFF-STREET. For Appendix, see page 941. DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT, 83. BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the tenth day of July, in the fifty-fourth year of the Independence of the United States of America, NOAH WEBSTER and JOSEPH E. WORCESTER, of the said district, have deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit: "An American Dictionary of the English Language; exhibiting the Origin, Orthography, Pronunciation, and Definitions of Words: by Noah Webster, LL. D. abridged from the Quarto Edition of the Author: to which are added, a Synopsis of Words differently pronounced by different Orthoëpists; and Walker's Key to the Classical Pronunciation of Greek, Latin, and Scripture Proper Names." In conformity to the act of Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned;" and also to the act, entitled, "An Act supplementary to an act, entitled, 'An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein menioned; and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." CHAS, A. INGERSOLL, Clerk of the District of Connecticut. DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, to wit: District Clerk's Office. BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the thirteenth day of July, A. D. 1829, in the fifty-fourth year of the Independence of the United States of America, NOAH WEBSTER and JOSEPH E. WORCESTER, of the said district, have deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit : "An American Dictionary of the English Language; exhibiting the Origin, Orthography, Pronunciation, and Definitions of Words: by Noah Webster, LL. D.: abridged from the Quarto Edition of the Author: to which are added, a Synopsis of Words differently pronounced by different Orthoëpists; and Walker's Key to the Classical Pronunciation of Greek, Latin, and Scripture Proper Names." In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned;" and also to an act, entitled, "An Act supplementary to an act, entitled, 'An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein men tioned; and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." JNO. W. DAVIS, Clerk of the District of Massachusetts The Appendix has been entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1841, By NOAH WEBSTER, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Connecticut. PREFACE. THE author of the American Dictionary of the English Language has been prevented, by the state of his health, from attending, in person, to its abridgment into the octavo form. The work has, therefore, been committed, for this purpose, to Mr. J. E. WORCESTER, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, who has strictly adhered to the general principles laid down for his direction by the author. Cases of doubt, arising in the application of these principles, and such changes and modifications of the original as seemed desirable, in a work of this kind, intended for general use, have been referred, for decision, to PROF. GOODRICH, of Yale College, who was requested by the author to act, on these subjects, as his representative. The Synopsis of words of disputed pronunciation has been prepared by the former of these gentlemen; Walker's "Key to the Classical Pronunciation of Greek, Latin and Scripture Proper Names" has passed under the revision of the latter. The following are some of the most important principles on which the Abridgment has been conducted. The vocabulary has been considerably enlarged. It here embraces all the words contained in the original work, and in Todd's edition of Johnson's Dictionary, together with such additional ones as have appeared to the author to be worthy of insertion. The leading and most important etymologies, as given in the quarto edition, are here retained. The definitions remain unaltered, except by an occasional compression in their statement. All the significations of words, as exhibited in the larger work, are here retained; and new ones have, in some instances, been added by the author's direction, as deficiencies, in this respect, have been discovered. The illustrations and authorities are generally omitted: In doubtful or contested cases, however, they are carefully retained. In cases of disputed orthography, the principle, adopted in the quarto edition, of introducing into the vocabulary the different forms in question, has been carried, in the Abridgment, to a considerably greater extent. In most instances of this kind, the old orthography takes the lead, and is immediately followed by the one proposed. The u and k, however, are entirely excluded from such words as honor and music, in accordance with the decided tendency of later usage, both in this country and in England. In derivative words, the final consonant of the primitive is doubled only when under the accent, in conformity with one of the best established principles of the language. On this subject, Walker observes, in his Rhyming Dictionary, "Dr. Lowth has justly remarked, that this error (that of doubling the final consonant when not under the accent) frequently takes place in the words worshipping, counselling, etc., which, having the accent on the first syllable, ought to be written worshiping, counseling, etc. An ignorance of this rule has led many to write bigotted for bigoted, and from this spelling has arisen a false pronunciation; but no letter seems to be more frequently doubled improperly than 1. Why we should write libelling, revelling, and yet offering, suffering, reasoning, I am at a loss to determine; and unless I can give a better plea than any other letter in the alphabet for being doubled in this situation, I must, in the style of Lucian, in his trial of the letter t, declare for an expulsion." In this expulsion, it is believed, the public |