Meet Mr. Webster, Noah (Just a little something extra: Historical Perspective)
Born Oct. 16, 1758, West Hartford, Conn., U.S.;
Died May 28, 1843, New Haven, Conn., U.S.
U.S. lexicographer known for his American Spelling Book (1783) and his American Dictionary of the English Language , 2 vol. (1828; 2nd ed. 1840). Webster was instrumental in giving American English a dignity and vitality of its own. Both his speller and dictionary reflected his principle that spelling, grammar, and usage should be based upon the living, spoken language rather than on artificial rules. He also made useful contributions as a teacher, grammarian, journalist, essayist, lecturer, and lobbyist.
'ART, n. [L. ars, artis.]
1. The disposition or modification of things by human skill, to answer the purpose intended. In this sense art stands opposed to nature.
2. A system of rules, serving to facilitate the performance of certain actions; opposed to science, or to speculative principles; as the art of building or engraving. Arts are divided into useful or mechanic, and liberal or polite.
The mechanic arts are those in which the hands and body are more concerned than the mind; as in making clothes, and utensils. These art are called trades.
The liberal or polite arts are those in which the mind or imagination is chiefly concerned; as poetry, music and painting. In America, literature and the elegant arts must grow up side by side with the coarser plants of daily necessity.
3. Skill, dexterity, or the power of performing certain actions, acquired by experience, study or observation; as, a man has the art of managing his business to advantage.
'ARTISAN, n. s as z. [L. ars. See Art.]
An artist; one skilled in any art, mystery or trade; a handicrafts-man; a mechanic; a tradesman.
'ARTIST, n. [L. ars. See Art.]
1. One skilled in an art or trade; one who is master or professor of a manual art; a good workman in any trade.
2. A skilful man; not a novice.
3. In an academical sense, a proficient in the faculty of arts; a philosopher.
4. One skilled in the fine arts; as a painter, sculptor, architect, &c.
BI'AS, n.
1. A weight on the side of a bowl which turns it from a straight line.
2. A leaning of the mind; inclination; prepossession; propensity towards an object, not leaving the mind indifferent; as, education gives a bias to the mind.
3. That which causes the mind to lean or incline from a state of indifference, to a particular object or course.
BI'AS, v.t. To incline to one side; to warp; to give a particular direction to the mind; to prejudice; to prepossess. The judgment is often biassed by interest.
This word is used by Shakespeare as an adverb, bias and thwart,i.e. aslope; and as an adjective.
Blow till they bias cheek
Outswell the cholic of puft Aquilon.
BI'AS-DRAWING, n. Partiality. [Not used.]
BI'ASED, pp. Inclined from a right line; warped; prejudiced.
BI'ASING, ppr. Giving a bias, particular direction or propensity; warping; prejudicing.
CARPENTER, n. An artificer who works in timber; a framer and builder of houses, and of ships. Those who build houses are called house-carpenters, and those who build ships are called ship-carpenters.
In New England, a distinction is often made between the man who frames, and the man who executes the interior wood-work of a house. The framer is the carpenter, and the finisher is called joiner. This distinction is noticed by Johnson, and seems to be a genuine English distinction. But in some other parts of America, as in New-York, the term carpenter includes both the framer and the joiner; and in truth both branches of business are often performed by the same person. The word is never applied, as in Italy and Spain, to a coach-maker.
CARPENTRY, n. The art of cutting, framing, and joining timber, in the construction of buildings; divided into house-carpentry and ship-carpentry.
DEMAND, v.t. [L. To command; to send; hence, to commit or entrust. To ask is to press or urge.]
1. To ask or call for, as one who has a claim or right to receive what is sought; to claim or seek as due by right. The creditor demands principal and interest of his debt. Here the claim is derived from law or justice.
2. To ask by authority; to require; to seek or claim an answer by virtue of a right or supposed right in the interrogator, derived from his office, station, power or authority.
The officers of the children of Israel-were beaten, and demanded, wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task in making brick. Ex. 5.
3. To require as necessary or useful; as, the execution of this work demands great industry and care.
4. To ask; to question; to inquire.
The soldiers also demanded of him, saying, what shall we do? Luke 3.
5. To ask or require, as a seller of goods; as, what price do you demand?
6. To sue for; to seek to obtain by legal process; as, the plaintiff, in his action, demands unreasonable damages.
In French, demander generally signifies simply to ask, request, or petition, when the answer or thing asked for, is a matter of grace or courtesy. But in English, demand is now seldom used in that sense, and rarely indeed can the French demander be rendered correctly in English by demand, except in the case of the seller of goods, who demands, [asks, requires,] a certain price for his wares. The common expression, a king sent to demand another kings daughter in marriage, is improper.
DEMAND, n. An asking for or claim made by virtue of a right or supposed right to the thing sought; an asking with
authority; a challenging as due; as, the demand of the creditor was reasonable; the note is payable on demand.
He that has confidence to turn his wishes into demands, will be but a little way from thinking he ought to
obtain them.
2. The asking or requiring of a price for goods offered for sale; as, I cannot agree to his demand.
3. That which is or may be claimed as due; debt; as, what are your demands on the estate?
4. The calling for in order to purchase; desire to possess; as, the demand for the Bible has been great and extensive; copies are in great demand.
5. A desire or a seeking to obtain. We say, the company of a gentleman is in great demand; the lady is in great demand or request.
6. In law, the asking or seeking for what is due or claimed as due, either expressly by words, or by implication, as by seizure of goods, or entry into lands.
DISQUISITION, n. [L., to seek.] A formal or systematic inquiry into any subject, by arguments, or discussion of the facts and circumstances that may elucidate truth; as a disquistion on government or morals; a disquistion concerning the antediluvian earth. [It is usually applied to a written treatise.]
FERO'CIOUS, a. [L. ferox; allied to ferus, wild, fera, a wild animal.]
1. Fierce; savage; wild; indicating cruelty; as a ferocious look, countenance or features.
2. Ravenous; rapacious; as a ferocious lion.
3. Fierce; barbarous; cruel; as ferocious savages.
FER'CIOUSLY, adv. Fiercely; with savage cruelty.
FERO'CIOUSNESS, n. Savage fierceness; cruelty; ferocity.
FEROC'ITY, n. [L. ferocitas.]
1. Savage wildness or fierceness; fury; cruelty; as the ferocity of barbarians.
2. Fierceness indicating a savage heart; as ferocity of countenance.
INFAT'UATE, v.t. [L. infatuo; in and fatuus, foolish.]
1. To make foolish; to affect with folly; to weaken the intellectual powers, or to deprive of sound judgment. In general, this word does not signify to deprive absolutely of rational powers and reduce to idiocy, but to deprive of sound judgment, so that a person infatuated acts in certain cases as a fool, or without common discretion and prudence. Whom God intends to destroy, he first infatuates.
The judgment of God will be very visible in infatuating a people, ripe and prepared for destruction.
2. To prepossess or incline to a person or thing in a manner not justified by prudence or reason; to inspire with an extravagant or foolish passion, too obstinate to be controlled by reason. Men are often infatuated with a love of gaming, or of sensual pleasure.
INFAT'UATED, pp. Affected with folly.
INFAT'UATING, ppr. Affecting with folly.
INFATUA'TION, n. The act of affecting with folly.
1. A state of mind in which the intellectual powers are weakened, either generally, or in regard to particular objects, so that the person affected acts without his usual judgment, and contrary to the dictates of reason. All men who waste their substance in gaming, intemperance or any other vice, are chargeable with infatuation.
INFAUST'ING, n. [L. infaustus.] The act of making unlucky.
LENS, n. plu. lenses. [L. lens, a lentil.] A transparent substance, usually glass, so formed that rays of light passing through it are made to change their direction, and to magnify or diminish objects at a certain distance. Lenses are double-convex, or convex on both sides; double-concave, or concave on both sides; plano-convex, or plano-concave, that is, with one side plane, and the other convex or concave; or convex on one side and concave on the other; the latter is called a meniscus.
LOQUAC'ITY, n. [L. loquacitas.] Talkativeness; the habit or practice of talking continually or excessively.
Too great loquacity and too great taciturnity by fits.
PERCEP'TION, n. [L. perceptio. See Perceive.]
1. The act of perceiving or of receiving impressions by the senses; or that act or process of the mind which makes known an external object. In other words, the notice which the mind takes of external objects. We gain a knowledge of the coldness and smoothness of marble by perception.
2. In philosophy, the faculty of perceiving; the faculty or peculiar part of man's constitution, by which he has knowledge through the medium or instrumentality of the bodily organs.
3. Notion; idea.
4. The state of being affected or capable of being affected by something external.
This experiment discovers perception in plants.
PERCEP'TIVE, a. Having the faculty of perceiving.
PERCEPTIV'ITY, n. The power of perception of thinking.
PREPOSSESS', v.t. [pre and possess.] To preoccupy, as ground or land; to take previous possession of.
1. To preoccupy the mind or heart so as to preclude other things; hence, to bias or prejudice. A mind prepossessed with opinions favorable to a person or cause, will not readily admit unfavorable opinions to take possession, nor yield to reasons that disturb the possessors. When a lady has prepossessed the heart or affections of a man, he does not readily listen to suggestions that tend to remove the prepossession. Prepossess is more frequently used in a good sense than prejudice.
PREPOSSESS'ED, pp. Preoccupied; inclined previously to favor or disfavor.
PREPOSSESS'ING, ppr. Taking previous possession.
1. a. Tending to invite favor; having power to secure the possession of favor, esteem or love. The countenance, address and manners of a person are sometimes prepossessing on a first acquaintance.
PREPOSSES'SION, n. Preoccupation; prior possession.
1. Preconceived opinion; the effect of previous impressions on the mind or heart, in favor or against any person or thing. It is often used in a good sense; sometimes it is equivalent to prejudice, and sometimes a softer name for it. In general, it conveys an idea less odious than prejudice; as the prepossessions of education.
PREPOS'TEROUS, a. [L. proeposterus; proe, before,and posterus, latter.]
1. Literally, having that first which ought to be last; inverted in order.
The method I take may be censured as preposterous, because I treat last of the antediluvian earth, which was first in the order of nature.
2. Perverted; wrong; absurd; contrary to nature or reason; not adapted to the end; as, a republican government in the hands of females, is preposterous. To draw general conclusions from particular facts, is preposterous reasoning.
3. Foolish; absurd; applied to persons.
PREPOS'TEROUSLY, adv. In a wrong or inverted order; absurdly; foolishly.
PREPOS'TEROUSNESS, n. Wrong order or method; absurdity; inconsistency with nature or reason.
PREPO'TENCY, n. [L. proepotentia; proe and potentia, power.]
Superior power; predominance. [Little used.]
PREPO'TENT, a. [L. proepotens.] Very powerful. [Little used.]
PUZ'ZLE, v.t. [from the root of pose, which see.]
1. To perplex; to embarrass; to put to a stand; to gravel.
A shrewd disputant in those points, is dexterous in puzzling others.
He is perpetually puzzled and perplexed amidst his own blunders.
2. To make intricate; to entangle.
The ways of heaven are dark and intricate,
Puzzl'd in mazes and perplex'd with error.
PUZ'ZLE, v.i. To be bewildered; to be awkward.
PUZ'ZLE, n. Perplexity; embarrassment.
PUZ'ZLED, pp. Perplexed; intricate; put to a stand.
PUZ'ZLE-HEADED, a. Having the head full of confused notions.
SHOP, n.
1. A builking in which goods, wares, drugs, &c. are sold by retail.
2. a building in which mechanics work, and where they keep their manufactures for sale.
Keep your shop , and your shop will keep you. Franklin .
SHOP, v.i. To visit shops for purchasing goods; used chiefly in the participle; as, the laky is shopping .
SHOP'BOARD, n. [shop and board .] A bench on which work is performed; as a doctor or divine taken from the shopboard .
SHOP'BOOK, n. [shop and book.] A book in which a tradesman keeps his accounts.
SHOP'KEEPER, n. [shop and keep .] A trader who sells in a shop or by retail; in distinction from a merchant, or one who sells by wholesale.
SI'LENCE, n. [L. silentium, from sileo, to be still.]
1. In a general sense, stillness, or entire absence of sound or noise; as the silence of midnight.
2. In animals, the state of holding the peace; forbearance of speech in man, or of noise in other animals. I was dumb with silence; I held my peace, even from good. Ps 39.
3. Habitual taciturnity; opposed to loquacity.
4. Secrecy. These things were transacted in silence.
5. Stillness; calmness; quiet; cessation of rage, agitation or tumult; as the elements reduced to silence.
6. Absence of mention; oblivion, Eternal silence be their doom. And what most merits fame, in silence hid.
7. Silence, in used elliptically for let there be silence, an injunction to keep silence.
SI'LENCE, v. t.
1. To oblige to hold the peace; to restrain from noise or speaking.
2. To still; to quiet; to restrain; to appease. This would silence all further opposition. These would have silenced their scruples.
3. To stop; as, to silence complaints or clamor.
4. To still; to cause to cease firing; as, to silence guns or a battery.
5. To restrain from preaching by revoking a license to preach; as, to silence a minister of the gospel. The Rev. Thomas Hooker, of Chelmsford in Essex, was silenced for non-conformity.
6. To put an end to; to cause to cease. The question between agriculture and commerce has received a decision which has silenced the rivalships between them.
SI'LENT, a.
1. Not speaking; mute. Ps. 22.
2. Habitually taciturn; speaking little; not inclined to much talking; not loquacious. Ulysses, he adds was the most eloquent and most silent of men.
3. Still; having not noise; as the silent watches of the night; the silent groves; all was silent.
4. Not operative; wanting efficacy.
5. Not mentioning; not proclaiming. This new created world, of which in hell Fame is not silent.
6. Calm; as, the winds were silent.
7. Not acting; not transacting business in person; as a silent partner in a commercial house.
8. Hot pronounced; having no sound; as, e is silent in fable.
SILEN'TIARY, n. One appointed to keep silence and order in court; one sworn not to divulge secrets of state.
SI'LENTLY, adv.
1. Without speech or words. Each silently demands thy grace, and seems to watch thy eye.
2. without noise; as, to march silently.
3. Without mention. He mentioned other difficulties, but this he silently passed over.
SI'LENTNESS, n. State of being silent; stillness; silence.
SUPPLI'ED, pp. [from supply.] Fully furnished; having a sufficiency.
SUPPLI'ER, n. He that supplies.
SUPPLY', v.t. [L. suppleo; sub and pleo, disused, to fill.]
1. To fill up, as any deficiency happens; to furnish what is wanted; to afford or furnish a sufficiency; as, to supply the poor with bread and clothing; to supply the daily wants of nature; to supply the navy with masts and spars; to supply the treasury with money. The city is well supplied with water.
I wanted nothing fortune could supply.
2. To serve instead of.
Burning ships the banish'd sun supply.
3. To give; to bring or furnish.
Nearer care supplies
Signs to my breast, and sorrow to my eyes.
4. To fill vacant room.
The sun was set, and Vesper to supply
His absent beams, had lighted up the sky.
5. To fill; as, to supply a vacancy.
6. In general, to furnish; to give or afford what is wanted.
Modern infidelity supplies no such motives.
SUPPLY', n. Sufficiency for wants given or furnished. The poor have a daily supply of food; the army has ample supplies of provisions and munitions of war. Customs, taxes and excise constitute the supplies of revenue.
SUPPLY'ING, ppr. Yielding or furnishing what is wanted; affording a sufficiency.
SUPPLY'MENT, n. A furnishing. [Not in use.]
TACITURN'ITY, n. [L. taciturnitas, from taceo, to be silent.]
Habitual silence or reserve in speaking.
Too great loquacity, and too great taciturnity by fits.
TRE'ATISE, n. [L. tractatus.] A tract; a written composition on a particular subject, in which the principles of it are discussed or explained. A treatise is of an indefinite length; but it implies more form and method than an essay, and less fullness or copiousness than a system.
VEIL, n. [L. velum.
1. A cover; a curtain; something to intercept the view and lude an object.
2. A cover; a disguise. [See Vail. The latter orthography gives the Latin pronunciation as well as the English, and is to be preferred.
VEIL, v.t.
1. To cover with a veil; to conceal.
2. To invest; to cover.
3. To hide. [See Vail.]
VEIN, n. [L. vena, from the root of venio, to come, to pass. The sense is a passage, a conduit.]
1. A vessel in animal bodies, which receives the blood from the extreme arteries, and returns it to the heart. The veins may be arranged in three divisions. 1. Those that commence from the capillaries all over the body, and return the blood to the heart. 2. The pulmonary veins. 3. The veins connected with the vena portarum, in which the blood that has circulated through the organs of digestion, is conveyed to the liver.
2. In plants, a tube or an assemblage of tubes, through which the sap is transmitted along the leaves. The term is more properly applied to the finer and more complex ramifications, which interbranch with each other like net-work; the larger and more direct assemblages of vessels being called ribs and nerves. Veins are also found in the calyx and corol of flowers.
The vessels which branch or variously divide over the surface of leaves are called veins.
3. In geology, a fissure in rocks or strata, filled with a particular substance. Thus metallic veins intersect rocks or strata of other substances. Metalliferous veins have been traced in the earth for miles; some in South America are said to have been traced eighty miles. Many species of stones, as granite, porphyry, &c. are often found in veins.
4. A streak or wave of different color, appearing in wood, marble, and other stones; variegation.
5. A cavity or fissure in the earth or in other substance.
6. Tendency or turn of mind; a particular disposition or cast of genius; as a rich vein of wit or humor; a satirical vein
Invoke the muses, and improve my vein.
7. Current.
He can open a vein of true and noble thinking.
8. Humor; particular temper.
9. Strain; quality; as my usual vein.
VEINED, a. [from vein.]
1. Full of veins; streaked; variegated; as veined marble.
2. In botany, having vessels branching over the surface, as a leaf.
VEINLESS, a. In botany, having no veins; as a veinless leaf.
VEINY, a. Full of veins; as veiny marble.
VELIF'EROUS, a. [L. velum, a sail, and fero, to bear.] Bearing or carrying sails.
VELITA'TION, n. [L. velitatio.] A dispute or contest; a slight skirmish. [Not in use.]
