xii PREFACE. 
record. All have been verified from the works from which they have been taken, and are furnished 
with exact references, except a few obtained from the Imperial Dictionary, which could not readily 
be traced to their sources, but were of sufficient value to justify their insertion on the authority of 
that work. Their dates can be ascertained approximately from the list of authors 
and works (and editions) cited, which will be published with the concluding part of 
the dictionary. These quotations have been used freely wherever they have seemed to be helpful ; but 
it has not been possible thus to illustrate every word or every meaning of each word without an 
undue increase in the bulk of the book. The omissions affect chiefly technical and obvious senses. 
In denning this common English vocabulary, important aid has been received from Mr. Benjamin E. 
Smith, who has also had, under the editor-in-chief, the special direction and revision of the work on all 
parts of the dictionary, with the charge of putting the book through the press; from Mr. Francis A. 
Teall, who has also aided in criticizing the proofs; from Mr. Robert Lilley, in the preliminary working- 
up of the literary material as well as in the final revision of it; from Dr. Charles P. G. Scott, who 
has also had special charge of the older English, and of provincial English ; from Prof. Thomas R. 
Lounsbury, who has contributed to the dictionary the results of a systematic reading of Chaucer; from 
Dr. John W. Palmer, who has aided in revising the manuscript prepared for the press, and has also 
contributed much special literary matter; from Prof. Henry M. Whitney, who has given assistance in 
preparing the definitions of common words in certain later divisions of the work and has also examined 
the proofs; from Mr. Thomas W. Ludlow; from Mr. Franklin H. Hooper; from Mr. Leighton Hoskins, 
who has also contributed material for the definitions of most of the terms in prosody ; from Miss 
Katharine B. Wood, who has superintended the collecting of new words and the selection and verifi- 
cation of the quotations ; from Miss Mary L. Avery ; and from many others who have helped at special 
points, or by criticisms and suggestions, particularly Prof. Charles S. Peirce and Prof. Josiah D. Whitney. 
Much space has been devoted to the special terms of the various sciences, fine arts, mechanical 
arts, professions, and trades, and much care has been bestowed upon their treatment. They have 
been collected by an extended search through all branches of technical literature, with the design of 
providing a very complete and many-sided technical dictionary. Many thousands of 
ricarte S 3 fteCh words nave tnus been gathered which have never before been recorded in a gen- 
eral dictionary, or even in special glossaries. Their definitions are intended to be so 
precise as to be of service to the specialist, and, also, to be simple and "popular" enough to be 
intelligible to the layman. It is obvious, however, that the attempt to reconcile these aims must 
impose certain limitations upon each. On the one hand, strictly technical forms of statement must 
in many cases be simplified to suit the capacity and requirements of those who are not technically 
trained; and, on the other, whenever (as often, for example, in mathematics, biology, and anatomy) 
a true definition is possible only in technical language, or the definition concerned is of interest only 
to a specialist, the question of immediate intelligibility to a layman cannot be regarded as of prime 
importance. In general, however, whenever purely technical interests and the demands of popular 
use obviously clash, preference has been given to the latter so far as has been possible without sacrifice 
of accuracy. In many instances, to a technical definition has been added a popular explanation or 
amplification. It is also clear that the completeness with which the lexicographic material of interest to 
the specialist can be given must vary greatly with the different subjects. Those (as metaphysics, 
theology, law, the fine arts, etc.) the vocabulary of which consists mainly of abstract terms which are 
distinctly English in form, of common English words used in special senses, or of fully naturalized 
foreign words, may be presented much more fully than those (as zoology, botany, chemistry, 
mineralogy, etc.) which employ great numbers of artificial names, many of them Latin. 
The technical material has been contributed by the gentlemen whose names are given in the list of 
collaborators, with the assistance at special points of many others; and all their work, after editorial 
revision, has been submitted to them in one or more proofs for correction. This method of obtaining 
