Dictionary Day
October 16, 1758, was the birthdate of Noah Webster, the “father” of the American dictionary. At the age of 16, he began college at Yale to study teaching. He had a zeal to reform the American academic system. The Blue-Backed Speller was his first textbook, which addressed English language grammar. In 1801, he began to define American terms that differed from spoken language in England. To facilitate the dictionary creation, he learned 26 languages. Despite Webster’s busy career, he also founded Amherst College. The first edition of An American Dictionary of the English Language , published in 1806, corrected English spellings to American English spellings, i.e., colour to color and musick to music. This edition defined 37,000 words; Webster’s last edition, in 1828, included over 65,000 terms. When Webster died in 1843, G&C Merriam, Co. bought the rights to An American Dictionary of the English Language . George...