THE CENTURY DICTIONARY 
PREPARED UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF 
WILLIAM DWIGHT WHITNEY, PH. D., LL. D. 
PROFESSOR OF COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY AND SANSKRIT IN YALE UNIVERSITY 
THE plan of " The Century Dictionary " in- 
cludes three things : the construction of a 
general dictionary of the English language 
which shall be serviceable for every literary 
and practical use ; a more complete collection 
of the technical terms of the various sciences, 
arts, trades, and professions than has yet been 
attempted ; and the addition to the definitions 
proper of such related encyclopedic matter, 
with pictorial illustrations, as shall constitute 
a convenient book of general reference. 
About 200,000 words will be defined. The 
Dictionary will be a practically complete record 
of all the noteworthy words which have been 
in use since English literature has existed, espe- 
cially of all that wealth of new words and of 
applications of old words which has sprung 
from the development of the thought and life 
of the nineteenth century. It will record not 
merely the written language, but the spoken 
language as well (that is, all important provin- 
cial and colloquial words), and it will include 
(in the one alphabetical order of the Diction- 
ary) abbreviations and such foreign words and 
phrases as have become a familiar part of 
English speech. 
THE ETYMOLOGIES. 
The etymologies have been written anew on 
a uniform plan, and in accordance with the es- 
tablished principles of comparative philology. 
It has been possible in many cases, by means 
of the fresh material at the disposal of the 
etymologists, to clear up doubts or difficulties 
hitherto resting upon the history of particular 
words, to decide definitely in favor of one of 
several suggested etymologies, to discard nu- 
merous current errors, and to give for the first 
time the history of many words of which the 
etymologies were previously unknown or erro- 
neously stated. Beginning with the current 
accepted form of spelling, each important word 
has been traced back through earlier forms to 
its remotest known origin. The various prefixes 
and suffixes useful in the formation of English 
words are treated very fully in separate articles. 
HOMONYMS. 
Words of various origin and meaning but 
of the same spelling, have been distinguished 
by small superior figures (1, 2 , 3 , etc.). In 
numbering these homonyms the rule has been 
to give precedence to the oldest or the most 
familiar, or to that one which is most nearly 
English in origin. The superior numbers ap- 
ply not so much to the individual word as to 
the group or root to which it belongs, hence 
the different grammatical uses of the same 
homonym are numbered alike when they are 
separately entered in the Dictionary. Thus a 
verb and a noun of the same origin and the 
same present spelling receive the same superior 
number. But when two words of the same form 
and of the same radical origin now differ con- 
siderably in meaning, so as to be used as dif- 
ferent words, they are separately numbered. 
THE ORTHOGRAPHY. 
Of the great body of words constituting the 
familiar language the spelling is determined 
by well-established usage, and, however ac- 
cidental and unacceptable, in many cases, it 
may be, it is not the office of a dictionary like 
this to propose improvements, or to adopt those 
which have been proposed and have not yet 
won some degree of acceptance and use. But 
there are also considerable classes as to which 
usage is wavering, more than one form being 
sanctioned by excellent authorities, either in 
this country or Great Britain, or in both. Fa- 
miliar examples are words ending in or or our 
(as labor, labour), in er or re (as center, centre), 
in ize or ise (as civilize, civilise) ; those having a 
single or double consonant after an unaccented 
vowel (as traveler, traveller), or spelled with e or 
with CE or ce (as hemorrhage, hatmorrhage) ; and 
so on. In such cases both forms are given, 
with an expressed preference for the briefer 
one or the one more accordant with native 
analogies. 
THE PRONUNCIATION. 
No attempt has been made to record all the 
varieties of popular or even educated utter- 
ance, or to report the determinations made by 
different recognized authorities. It has been 
necessary rather to make a selection of words 
to which alternative pronunciations should be 
accorded, and to give preference among these 
according to the circumstances of each particu- 
lar case, in view of the general analogies and 
tendencies of English utterance. The scheme 
by which the pronunciation is indicated is quite 
simple, avoiding over-refinement in the dis- 
crimination of sounds, and being designed to 
be readily understood and used. (See Key to 
Pronunciation on back cover.) 
DEFINITIONS OF COMMON WORDS. 
In the preparation of the definitions of com- 
mon words, there has been at hand, besides 
the material generally accessible to students 
of the language, a special collection of quota- 
tions selected for this work from English books 
of all kinds and of all periods of the language, 
which is probably much larger than any which 
has hitherto been made for the use of an English 
dictionary, excerpt that accumulated for the 
Philological Society of London. Thousands of 
non-technical words, many of them occurring 
in the classics of the language, and thousands 
of meanings, many of them familiar, which 
have not hitherto been noticed by the diction- 
aries, have in this way been obtained. The 
arrangement of the definitions historically, in 
the order in which the senses defined have en- 
tered the language, has been adopted wher- 
ever possible. 
THE QUOTATIONS. 
These form a very large collection (about 
200,000), representing all periods and 
branches of English literature. The classics 
of the language have been drawn upon, and 
valuable citations have been made from less 
famous authors in all departments of litera- 
ture. American writers especially are repre- 
sented in greater fullness than in any similar 
work. A list of authors and works (and edi- 
tions) cited will be published with the con- 
cluding part of the Dictionary. 
DEFINITIONS OF TECHNICAL TERMS. 
Much space has been devoted to the special 
terms of the various sciences, fine arts, me- 
chanical arts, professions, and trades, and 
much care has been bestowed upon their treat- 
ment. They have been collected by an extended 
search through all branches of literature, with 
the design of providing a very complete and 
many-sided technical dictionary. Many thou- 
sands of words have thus been gathered which 
have never before been recorded in a general 
dictionary, or even in special glossaries. To 
the biological sciences a degree of promi- 
nence has been given corresponding to the re- 
markable recent increase in their vocabulary. 
The new material in the departments of biology 
and zoology includes not less than five thou- 
sand words and senses not recorded even in 
special dictionaries. In the treatment of phy- 
sical and mathematical sciences, of the mechan- 
ical arts and trades, and of the philological 
sciences, an equally broad method has been 
adopted. In the definition of theological and 
ecclesiastical terms, the aim of the Dictionary 
has been to present all the special doctrines of 
the different divisions of the Church in such a 
manner as to convey to the reader the actual 
intent of those who accept them. In defining 
legal terms the design has been to offer all the 
information that is needed by the general 
reader, and also to aid the professional reader 
by giving in a concise form all the important 
technical words and meanings. Special atten- 
tion has also been paid to the definitions of 
the principal terms of painting, etching, en- 
graving, and various other art-processes ; of 
architecture, sculpture, archeology, decorative 
art, ceramics, etc. ; of musical terms, nautical 
and military terms, etc. 
ENCYCLOPEDIC FEATURES. 
The inclusion of so extensive and varied a 
vocabulary, the introduction of special phrases, 
and the full description of things often found 
essential to an intelligible definition of their 
names, would alone have given to this Diction- 
ary a distinctly encyclopedic character. It has, 
however, been deemed desirable to go some- 
what further in this direction than these con- 
ditions render strictly necessary. 
Accordingly, not only have many technical 
matters been treated with unusual fullness, 
but much practical information of a kind which 
dictionaries have hitherto excluded has been 
added. The result is that "The Century 
Dictionary " covers to a great extent the field 
of the ordinary encyclopedia, with this princi- 
pal difference that the information given is 
for the most part distributed under the indi- 
vidual words and phrases with which it is con- 
nected, instead of being collected under a few 
general topics. Proper names, both biograph- 
ical and geographical, are of course omitted, ex- 
cept as they appear in derivative adjectives, as 
Darwinian from Darwin, or Indian from India. 
The alphabetical distribution of the encyclo- 
pedic matter under a large number of words 
will, it is believed, be found to be particularly 
helpful in the search for those details which 
are generally looked for in works of reference. 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
The pictorial illustrations have been so se- 
lected and executed as to be subordinate to the 
text, while possessing a considerable degree of 
independent suggestiveness and artistic value. 
To secure technical accuracy, the illustrations 
have, as a rule, been selected by the specialists 
in charge of the various departments, and have 
in all cases been examined by them in proofs. 
The cuts number about six thousand. 
MODE OF ISSUE, PRICE, ETC. 
" The Century Dictionary" will be comprised 
in about 6,500 quarto pages. It is published 
by subscription and in twenty-four parts or 
sections, to be finally bound into six quarto vol- 
umes, if desired by the subscriber. These sec- 
tions will be issued about once a month. The 
price of the sections is $2.50 each, and no 
subscriptions are taken except for the entire 
work. 
The plan of the Dictionary is more fully de- 
scribed in the preface (of which the above is in 
part a condensation), which accompanies the 
first section, and to which reference is made. 
A list of the abbreviations used in the ety- 
mologies and definitions, and keys to pronun- 
ciations and to signs used in the etymologies, 
will be found on the back cover-lining. 
THE CENTURY CO., 33 EAST 17 ST., NEW YORK. 
