PEEFACE. ix 
cither in this country or in Great Britain, or in both. Familiar examples are words ending in -w 
or -our (as la-bor, labour), in -cr or -re (as center, centre), in -'use or -inc. (as ni-Hiz<; rirHisr); 
having a single or double consonant after an unaccented vowel (as traveler, traveller; irorsliifte 
shipped), or spelt with e or with or ; (as hemorrhage, diarrhea; lift'iimrrlitif/e, ilinr- 
rhcea); 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 language is struggling toward 
a more consistent and phonetic spelling, and it is proper, in disputed and doubtful cases, to cast the 
influence of the dictionary in favor of this movement, both by its own usage in the body of the text, 
and at the head of articles by the order of forms, or the selection of the form under which the word 
shall be treated. Technical words not in general use, and words introduced from other languages, 
have also their varieties of orthographic form : the former, in part, because of the ignorance or care- 
lessness of those who have made adaptations from Latin or Greek ; the latter, because of the different 
styles of transliteration or imitation adopted. In such cases, slight variants are here sometimes dis- 
regarded, the more correct form being given alone, or with mere mention of others ; in other cases, the 
different forms are given, with cross references to the preferred one, under which the word is treated. 
Finally, the obsolete words which have no accepted spelling, but occur only in the variety of forms 
characteristic of the pei'iods from which they come, are treated regularly under that form which is 
nearest to, or most analogous with, present English, and the quotations, of whatever form, are as a 
rule presented there; side-forms are entered as liberally as seemed in any measure desirable, with 
references to the one preferred. All citations, however, are given in the orthography (though not 
always with the punctuation) of the texts from which they are taken. 
Still greater than the variation in the orthography, even the accepted orthography, of English 
words, is the variation in the pronunciation. And here the same general principles must govern the 
usage of the dictionary. No attempt is made to record all the varieties of popular, or even of educated, 
utterance, or to report the determinations made by different recognized authorities. 
It has been necessary, rather, to make a selection of words to which alternative pro- 
nunciations should be accorded, and to give preference among these according to the circumstances 
of each particular case, in view of the general analogies and tendencies of English utterance. A 
large number of scientific names and terms words that are written rather than uttered, even by 
those who use them most are here entered and have a pronunciation noted for the first time. 
For such words no prescriptive usage can be claimed to exist ; the pronunciation must be deter- 
mined by the analogies of words more properly English, or by those governing kindred and more 
common words from the same sources. With respect to many foreign words, more or less used as 
English, it is often questionable how far usage has given them an English pronunciation, or has 
modified in the direction of English the sound belonging to them where they are vernacular. In 
not a few instances a twofold pronunciation is indicated for them, one Anglicized and the other 
original. Words of present provincial use are for the most part pronounced according to literary 
analogies, without regard to the varieties of their local utterance. The principal exceptions are 
Scotch words having a certain literary standing (owing to their use especially by Scott and Burns) ; 
these are more carefully marked for their provincial pronunciation. Wholly obsolete words are left 
unmarked. 
There are certain difficult points in varying English utterance, the treatment of which by the 
dictionary calls for special explanation. One is the so-called "long w" (as in ttse, muse, cure), repre- 
sented here, as almost everywhere, by u. In its full pronunciation, this is as precisely yoo (yd) as if 
written with the two characters. But there has long existed a tendency to lessen or remove the 
y-element of the combination in certain situations unfavorable to its production. After an r, this 
tendency has worked itself fully out ; the pronunciation oo (6) has taken the place of M in that situa- 
tion so generally as to be alone accepted by all recent authorities (although some speakers still show 
