Celebrate Noah Webster; open a dictionary
Kay James
Kay James, Kay's Comments
Grab your dictionary tomorrow. It's time to celebrate.
Thursday is Noah Webster's birthday. He was born Oct. 16, 1758, and he probably would appreciate you opening the book and its ancestors that he made famous. I appreciate Noah every day at work.
Webster graduated from Yale in 1778 and was admitted to the bar, but he was not a successful lawyer, so he became a schoolteacher. In 1783, he produced his first textbook on grammar and spelling, "A Grammatical Institute of the English Language." He also wrote "The American Spelling Book," which became a bestseller. It sold more than 80 million copies in the 100 years it was used. With that income he retired from teaching and became a student of linguistics. In 1828, he published the "American Dictionary of the English Language."
Since Webster was a fan of simplified spelling, he included those spellings in his new dictionary. Most never caught on, he gave us a simplified or at least a different spelling of some words. Because of Webster, we spell color without an u as the British do in colour.
He also replaced -re spellings taken from the French with -er spellings in such words as center (centre) and theater (theatre.) Of course, theater spelled theatre is creeping back into the language put forth by those I consider pompous Francophiles or Anglophiles. Theater was good enough for Webster, and it should be good enough for theater groups. My Associated Press Stylebook says to use theater except when the proper name is spelled as theatre. Webster's New World Dictionary agrees with me that the preferred spelling is theater. Why do so many theaters and groups use the -re spelling?
We need to celebrate Webster's birthday and the birth of the dictionary in America, because the use of dictionaries is falling by the wayside. These days we depend on spell checking programs instead of looking up a word in the dictionary.
A spell checking program is fine for finding misspelled words, but it does not help you with finding a preferred spelling or whether you have the right word. They also limit the learning of new vocabulary.
For example, the spell checking program for the program we use here at the newspaper accepts both theater and theatre. If I did not open the dictionary, I would not know which was the preferred spelling.
Spell checkers will also not tell you whether you have the right word. I saw a news story some years ago in another publication that used rain, rein and reign incorrectly in a two paragraph story. I can't even remember what it was about. I only remember the errors. It sure impressed in me how not to write. The writer either could not spell or did not care.
These days, you can find dictionaries online. They will help you find meanings, but are almost useless if you are nearly clueless about the spelling. With a hard copy dictionary, if you only know the first letter, you can usually find the word and how to spell it. I've skimmed numerous pages of the dictionary when I've known the meaning of the word and have a general idea how to pronounce it and spell it. That method can be time consuming, but it is better than guessing and hoping the spell checker will show the correct spelling. Sometimes a spellchecker gives you a different but similar word with a meaning that does not fit the sentence.
Another benefit of a dictionary as a book is that you can add new words to your vocabulary when searching for a spelling or a meaning. For example, while looking up theater, I came across several words with which I was unfamiliar. Health care people might know what to call that bulging part of your thumb where it forms part of the palm, but I did not. Now I know it is the thenar. I probably will not use that word again unless I injure that part of my hand. Maybe I can impress a doctor.
Finally, printed dictionaries are handy. I keep one by my bed so that when I am reading at night and come across a word I do not know, I look the meaning up. Many times you can determine a word's meaning by context, but not always. Plus, it stays with you if you look it up.
A spell checker does not help with meaning, but you could look up the word online. However, my computer is in another room.
I don't always find the word. I read a book a few months ago by an English author, and she used several words I did not know. My dictionary did not have them. I'll have to get an unabridged dictionary or assume someone spelled those words wrong.
Kay Lapp James is editor of the Wisconsin Dells Events. Contact her at wde-editorial@capitalnewspapers.com or phone (608) 254-8327, ext. 3567.