THOROUGHLY REVISED AND IMPROVED, BY CHAUNCEY A. GOODRICH, D.D., LL.D., LATE PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC AND ORATORY, AND ALSO PROFESSOR OF THE With a Supplement of New Words, and an Additional Appendix of Biographical Names. LONDON: GEORGE BELL & SONS; LONGMAN & CO.; SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & CO.; WHITTAKER & CO.; HAMILTON, ADAMS & CO; KENT & CO. DUBLIN: M'GLASHAN & GILL. CALCUTTA: THACKER, SPINK & CO. 131. PREFACE. SINCE the publication of the REVISED EDITION OF WEBSTER'S DICTIONARY in 1847, the purpose has been kept steadily in view to prepare another edition embracing all the alterations and improvements which the progress of the language and the additional facilities for improving its Lexicography might seem to require. The late Professor GOODRICH had, from the first, directed his attention to the collection of words not inserted in the previous edition, and to the preparation of definitions of meanings which had been overlooked, or were made necessary by new applications of words in the writings of respectable authors, and by the progress of Science and the Arts. Many of these words and definitions were given to the public in the Pictorial Edition of 1859, together with numerous illustrative wood-cuts. To these was added a large collection of discriminated Synonyms, which had been carefully prepared by Professor Goodrich. This Edition was, however, a provisional one, designed to serve only until the more careful and thorough revision, which had been so long in contemplation, could be perfected. In preparing for the present revision, the attention of both the Editor and the Publishers was first directed to the Etymology. They were aware that, however admirable the industry and valuable the contributions of Dr. WEBSTER in this department, the science of comparative Philology was by no means perfect in his time, if indeed it could be said to exist at all. It is only within a very few years that the true principles on which this science rests have been suggested and confirmed, and the methods have been determined by which future investigations may be successfully prosecuted. It seemed necessary, first of all, that these new principles and methods should be applied in the entire revision of the Etymologies of Dr. Webster, by a scholar who had made Etymology his special study. In 1854, arrangements were made with Dr. C. A. F. MAHN, of Berlin, Prussia, to undertake this task. Dr. Mahn was recommended by some of the most distinguished scholars of Germany as admirably qualified for the service, and he had been favorably known by special researches in this department. He has employed several years upon the work, and has performed it in a manner worthy of his high reputation. The results are submitted to all persons who are interested in philological studies, with the belief that they will find in them a new and valuable contribution to the stores of linguistic knowledge. This feature of the present edition will, it is thought, be acknowledged by all scholars as one of marked superiority, and will be gratefully welcomed by the now very large number of instructors and studious persons who are interested in acquiring a more thorough knowledge of the English language. Professor JAMES D. DANA, of Yale College, had been engaged, at an early date, to revise the definitions in Geol. ogy, Natural History, etc., and the revision in these and some kindred departments has been completed by him, or has passed under his careful scrutiny. The work of revising the definitions of the principal words occasioned great and perplexing difficulties to Professor Goodrich and those with whom he conferred. He was well aware of the defective method which had been adopted by Dr. JOHNSON, of defining words by enumerating and explaining their special applications rather than by developing their broadly-distinguished meanings; and he knew that in this, Johnson had furnished the model for most, if not all, of the defining dictionaries of the English language which have since been published. Dr. Webster, in his strictures on Johnson's Dictionary, noticed, as one of its defects, that the author had, in many cases, failed to exhibit full and explicated definitions of important significations. This fault Dr. Webster endeavored to avoid, and with manifest success. His own definitions are superior to those of Johnson in fullness and precision, as well as in the greater copiousness and appropriateness of illustrative phrases. But he had not emancipated himself entirely from the influence of Johnson example in accumulating definitions that are really the same, though at first sight they may appear to be different. Dr. Webster insists, also, with earnestness, that it is the duty of the lexicographer to give first the primitive signification of every word, and to develop and arrange the dependent meanings in the order in which they were derived. But his theory in respect to these and other points was better than his practice. Of these and other imperfections in Dr. Webster's definitions, Professor Goodrich was fully aware. He was also aware that the dictionaries of many other languages, both ancient and modern, had been constructed on a better theory and after better methods. He had formed for himself a conception, more or less distinct, of the proper method of exhibiting and illustrating the definitions of the leading words. But it seemed to him an Herculean task to undertake to revise the work of Dr. Webster, and he was reluctant |