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- miliar examples are words ending in or or our ical arts and trades, and of the philological 
eludes three things : the construction of a (as labor, labour), in er or re (as center, centre), sciences, an equally broad method has been 
general dictionary of the English language in ize or ise (as civilize, eii'ilise) ; those having a adopted. In the definition of theological and 
which shall be serviceable for every literary single or double consonant after an unaccented ecclesiastical terms, the aim of the Dictionary 
and practical use ; a more complete collection vowel (as traveler, traveller), or spelled with e or has been to present all the special doctrines of 
of the technical terms of the various sciences, with ; or <z (as hemorrhage, Invmorrhage) ; and the different divisions of the Church in such a 
arts, trades, and- professions than has yet been so on. In such eases both forms are given, manner as to convey to the reader the actual 
attempted; and the addition to the definitions with an expressed preference for the briefer intent of those who accept them. In defining 
proper of such related encyclopedic matter, one or the one more accordant with native legal terms the design has been to offer all the 
with pictorial illustrations, as shall constitute analogies. information that is needed by the general 
a convenient book of general reference. THE PRONUNCIATION. reader^ and also to aid the professional reader 
About 200,000 words will be defined. The - T . ,, by giving in a concise form all the important 
Dictionary will be a practically complete rec- No attempt has been made to record all the technical words and meanings. Special atteu- 
ord of all the noteworthy words which have varieties of popular or even educated utter- tion hag also been id to tho definitions of 
been in use since English literature has ex- a ? e ' or to report the determinations made by the p rino i pal terms of painting, etching, en- 
isted, especially of all that wealth of new words different recognized authorities. It has been ^^ing, and various other art-processes; of 
and of applications of old words which has necessary rather to make a selection of words | rchite f c ' ture scu i p ture, archaeology, decorative 
sprung from the development of the thought to wh f h alternative pronunciations should be art ceramic ^ e te ; of musical tei^is, nautical 
and life of the nineteenth century. It will re- accorded, and to give preference among these an( J military ' term ' ete . 
cord not merely the written language, but tho according to the circumstances of each particu- 
spoken language as well (that is* all important ' ar !> ase > m w ? the general analogies and ENCYCLOPEDIC FEATURES. 
provincial and colloquial words) audit will in- tendencies of English utterance. The scheme Th inclusion of so ext ensive and varied a 
e.\iei 
/ 7iT i u u I i "j i, ; -TV- bvwhich thp pronunciation is indicated is rmitp AmJ inclusion 01 so extensive ana varied a 
i (in the one alphabetical order of the Die- D . vwnl ' laicateo. is quite voca v, u i arv thp introduction of >pial tihrnsps 
.. \ i i . i i stiiYinlp nvnirlincr nvpr rpfinpmpyit in tlio Hia vu^auuiitiy, tile lULluuuniun Ul bpccidl pijluoth, 
tionary) abbreviations and such foreign words simple, avoiding over us- d th , ',! description of thinsrs often found 
and nhrflsps as have hpoomp a fnmilinr narf- nf crimination of sounds, and being designed to B8 V 1 'P"V . " i ~ g ?,. 
EnsHsh speech tamiliar part ot understood and used. (See Key to osse "tial to an intelligible definition of their 
Pronunciation on back cover.) J name *'. y. oul d alone have given to this Diction- 
TUP PTVMI~>I nripc ary a distinctly encyclopedic character. It has, 
TH DEFINITIONS OF COMMON WORDS. however, been deemed desirable to go some- 
The etymologies have been written anew on In the preparation of the definitions of com- what further in this direction than these con- 
a uniform plan, and in accordance with the es- mou wor ds, there has been at hand, besides ditions render strictly necessary, 
tablished principles of comparative philology. tuo mater i a l generally accessible to students Accordingly, not only have many technical 
It has been possible m many cases, by means of t he language, a special collection of quota- matters been treated with unusual fullness, 
of the fresh material at the disposal of the tions selected for this work from English books but much practical information of a kind which 
etymologist, to clear up doubts or difficulties of a ll kinds and of all periods of the language dictionaries have hitherto excluded has been 
ntherto resting upon the 'history of particular which is pro1mb i y much larger than any which added. The result is that "The Century 
words, to decide definite y m favor of one of has hitherto been made for the use of an English Dictionary" covers to a great extent the field 
several suggested etymologies, to discard nu- dictionary, except that accumulated for the of the ordinary encyclopedia, with this princi- 
merous current errors, and to give for the first Philological Society of London. Thousands of Pal difference that the information gfven is 
time tie history of many words of which the non-technical words, many of them occurring for the most part distributed under the indi- 
etymologies were previously unknown or erro- in the classics of the language, and thousands vidual words and phrases with which it is con- 
leously stated. Beginning with the current of mea nings, many of them familiar, which nected, instead of being collected under a few 
accepted form of spelling, each important word have not hitherto been noticed by the diction- general topics. Proper names, both biograph- 
has been traced back through earlier forms to arie have in this been OD \ ained . * The ical and geographical, are of course omitted, ex- 
LnJTS ^est known origin The various prefixes arrangement of the definitions historically, in cept as they appear in derivative adjectives, as 
ion of English t he order in which the senses defined have en- Darwinian from Darwin, or Indian from India. 
words are treated very fully in separate articles. tered the language, has been adopted wher- The alphabetical distribution of the encyclo- 
HOMDNYVK ever possible. pedic matter under a large number of words 
NYMi - THE QUOTATIONS will, it is believed, be found to be particularly 
Words of various origin and meaning but _,. . helpful in the search for those details which 
of the same spelling, have been distinguished 3 form a very large collection (about are generally looked for in works of reference 
by small superior figures (1, 2, 3 f e t e .). In 200,000), representing all periods and 
numbering these homonyms the rule has been branches of English literature. The classics ILLUSTRATIONS 
to give precedence to the oldest or the most of the language have been drawn upon, and Th p ietorial illustrations hnve hpp an afi 
familiar, or to that one which is most nearly valuable citations have been made from less j Jj.^ and executed M to hf ^nbordintp tn t> 
English in origin. The superior numbers ap- famous authors in all departments of litera- I subordinate to the 
ply not so much to the individual word as to ture- American writers especially are repre- ?' wn " e siderable degree of 
the group or root to which it belongs, hence sented in greater fullness than in any similar Jj??* ls an , d artistic value, 
the different grammatical uses of the same work - A t of authors and works (and edi- ?*Jf*^f! !!^ n , 1Cal ac curacy the .llustratipns 
homonym are numbered alike when thev are tions ) cited will be published with the con- ^ av ?' a a rule, been selected by the specialists 
" entered in the Dictionary Thus a eluding part of the Dictionary. e f ar ^ e of the various departments, and have 
" "- DEFINITIONS OF TECHNICAL TERMS V m OT fs - 
^^ntetw^l^w^Sa^^f^ Much space has been devoted to the special 
and of the same radical origin now differ con- T? , f th f vanou s sciences, fine arts, me- MO ISSUE, PRICE, ETC. 
siderably in meaning, so as to be used as dif- ai l lcal arts , professions, and trades, and " The Century Dictionary " will be comprised 
ferent words, they are separately numbered. 10 f H?, V* 8 be , en bestowed upon their treat- in about 6,500 quarto pages. It is published 
ment. They have been collected by an extended by subscription and in twenty-four parts or 
THE ORTHOGRAPHY. J? ar 5 h r g h all branches of literature, with sections, to be finally bound into six quarto vol- 
may be, it is not the office of a dictionary hke the biological sciences a deoT-pn nf nrmv,; T^o^ior, t . TW * 
this to propose improvements, or to adopt those nence has been given coiTeSDofd^L to ftT?~ ^h H P ti *t r>ic t lo . na r v V s T M fully . de - 
i being sand words and senses not recorded even in mologies and defin 
either in special dictionaries. In the treatment of phy- ciations and to sig! 
>th. Fa- sical and mathematical sciences, of the mechan- will be found on th 
THE CENTURY CO., 33 EAST 17^ ST., NEW YORK. 
