vi PREFACE. 
line between these two sides of the language, either with respect to words or to their individual senses. 
This dictionary, therefore, includes words of dialectal form or provincial use which appear to be an 
important part of the history of the language. Within the sphere of mere colloquialism, slang, and 
cant, a much narrower rule of inclusion has, of course, been followed; but colloquialism and even 
slang must be noticed by the lexicographer who desires to portray the language in its 
Colloquialism and natural and full outlines, and these phases of English have therefore been treated with 
liberality. Americanisms, especially, have received the recognition natufally to be 
expected from an American dictionary, many being recorded for the first time ; on the 
other hand, many words and uses heretofore regarded as peculiar to this country have been found to 
be survivals of older or provincial English, or to have gained a foothold in broader English use. 
Another notable increase in the vocabulary is that due to the admission of the many terms which have 
come into existence during the present century especially during the last twenty years in connection 
with the advance in all departments of knowledge and labor, scientific, artistic, professional, mechanical, 
and practical. This increase is nowhere more conspicuous than in the language of the 
ech ' physical sciences, and of those departments of study, such as archaeology, which are con- 
cerned with the life and customs of the past. Not only have English words been coined in 
astonishing numbers, but many words of foreign origin or form, especially New Latin and French, have 
been imported for real or imaginary needs. To consign these terms to special glossaries is unduly to 
restrict the dictionary at the point at which it comes into the closest contact with what is vital and 
interesting in contemporary thought and life ; it is also practically impossible, for this technical language 
is, in numberless instances, too closely interwoven with common speech to be dissevered from it. A 
similar increase is noticeable in the language of the mechanical arts and trades. The progress of inven- 
tion has brought nearly as great a flood of new words and senses as has the progress of science. To 
exclude this language of the shop and the market from a general English dictionary is as undesirable 
as to exclude that of science, and for similar reasons. Both these lines of development have therefore 
been recorded with great fullness. There is also a considerable number of foreign words Latin, 
French, and other not in technical use, which have been admitted because they either have become 
established in English literature or stand for noteworthy things that have no English names. Lastly, 
the individual words have been supplemented by the insertion of idiomatical phrases that are not fully 
explained by the definitions of their component parts alone, and have in use the force of single words ; 
and of the numerous phrase-names used in the arts and sciences. The number of these phrases here 
defined is very large. 
No English dictionary, however, can well include every word or every form of a word that has 
been used by any English writer or speaker. There is a very large number of words and forms dis- 
coverable in the literature of all periods of the language, in the various dialects, and in colloquial 
use, which have no practical claim upon the notice of the lexicographer. A large 
words that must group not meriting inclusion consists of words used only for the nonce by writers of 
be excluded. 
all periods and of all degrees of authority, and especially by recent writers in news- 
papers and other ephemeral publications ; of words intended by their inventors for wider use in popular 
or technical speech, but which have not been accepted; and of many special names of things, as of 
many chemical compounds, of many inventions, of patented commercial articles, and the like. Yet 
another group is composed of many substantive uses of adjectives, adjective uses of substantives 
(as of nouns of material), participial adjectives, verbal nouns ending in -ing, abstract nouns ending 
in -ness, adverbs ending in -ly from adjectives, adjectives ending in -ish, regular compounds, etc., 
which can be used at will in accordance with the established principles of the language, but which 
are too obvious, both in meaning and formation, and often too occasional in use, to need separate 
definition. So also dialectal, provincial, or colloquial words must be excluded, so far as they stand 
out of vital relation to the main body of the language which it is the object of a general dic- 
tionary to explain. The special limitations of the technical and scientific vocabulary will be men- 
tioned later. 
