National Dictionary Day

In honor of Noah Webster's birthday, October 16 has been designated as National Dictionary Day. Webster, who was born in 1758, published the first American dictionary in 1806. He hoped to standardize American speech, spelling and pronunciation.
Even though I now usually use the online Merriam Webster dictionary, I still have three print versions in the house. The blue Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary is the one I turn to most often. It was copyrighted in 1971. I had long desired what I called "a good dictionary" instead of the paper back one I had.  I finally bought this one at the Planned Parenthood Book Sale in Des Moines for $7.50.
At one time I had it on my desk at work. A co-worker apparently considered it office property (even though I had written "property of" my name inside) because whenever she needed to look up a word she would just come and take my dictionary without even asking. Anyone who knows me well knows how persnickety I am about my books. The co-worker's actions griped me to no end. I finally started keeping my dictionary in a drawer so she had to ask to use it.

My love affair with words began even before I learned to use a dictionary in grade school. I can remember asking my teacher how to spell a word. Mrs. Kimball would say: "Look it up in the dictionary", rather than spelling it for me. I said, "How can I look it up if I don't know how to spell it?" She would tell me to sound out the word which usually worked unless the word wasn't spelled the way it sounded and then she might help me. On the way to finding the word I wanted to spell, I discovered all those other new words on that page.
By the time I was in the 7th grade (my school picture from that year - AKA - the year I cut my own bangs), I was reading the dictionary for fun - just to discover new words and, by that time, their etymology. My teacher had not only helped me to think for myself, become a better speller and to be self-reliant, she had helped me discover the wonderful world of words.
The New International Webster's Collegiate Dictionary Of The English Language in the photo is one I bought ten years ago - not because I needed another dictionary but just because I wanted it.

This photo is of the inside cover of that gigantic Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary Of The English Language Unabridged, Copyrighted, 1950. Obtaining it for $2.50 at an auction a few years ago fulfilled my lifelong desire for owning such a tome. I remember one setting on a lectern in the study hall in high school. It wasn't a dictionary you took back to your desk to use - too heavy. You took your notebook up to the lectern with you and wrote down the spelling and or definition of the word you wanted. There were words in that dictionary that you didn't find in the others. (In high school terms that means, "Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.")

There is so much more to discover in a dictionary than how to spell or pronounce or correctly use a word. Opened to page 943 of the unabridged dictionary is a color plate of Leaves in Autumn. Page 943 in the New International Collegiate one is a table of Greek and Latin Elements in English. The left column is the word in Greek or Latin, the middle column is the word in English and the right column is an Example. As an illustration: "hemi-, Gk; half, English; hemisphere, Example." On page 943 of the Seventh Edition you get definitions of words from travertin to tree shrew.
Noah Webster said: "Language is not an abstract construction of the learned, or of dictionary makers, but is something arising out of the work, needs, ties, affections, tastes, of long generations of humanity, and has its bases broad and low, close to the ground." That is perhaps even more true now than when he said it - evidence a couple of the latest words: adorkable - defined as "attractive and charming in a nerdy or dorky way" and selfie - a picture taken of yourself to be uploaded to your social media page. Thank goodness there is an online Urban Dictionary I can turn to when I don't know what some of those new terms mean.
I celebrate Dictionary Day every day with Merriam-Webster's Online Word of the Day. Today's word is surfeit - as in: "an overabundant supply". I have an overabundant supply of dictionaries and in them a surfeit of words.