THE CENTURY DICTIONARY 
PREPARED UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF 
WILLIAM DWI-GHT WHITNEY, PH. D., LL. D. 
PROFESSOR OP COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY AND SANSKRIT IN YALE UNIVERSITY 
rrVHE plan of "The Century Dictionary " in- miliar examples are words ending in or or our ical arts and trades, and of the philological 
. J_ 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 ige or ise (as civilize, civilise) ; 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 ce or ce (as hemorrhage, hcemorrhage) ; and the different divisions of the Church in such a 
arts, trades, and professions than has yet been so on. In such cases 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 ,, ' * ,, i, , At ~i n ii , bv giv^g 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 atten- 
ord of all the noteworthy words which have varieties of popular or even educated utter- tion hag algo been id to t he definitions of 
been in use since English literature has ex- an e > or to report the determinations made by the principal terms of painting, etching, en- 
isted, especially of all that wealth of new words different recognized authorities. It has been g,. 8V f n g and various other art-processes; of 
and of applications of old words which has necessary rather to make a selection of words are hitecture, sculpture, archteology, decorative 
sprung from the development of the thought to wh j ch alternative pronunciations should be art ceramics, etc? ; of musical terms, nautical 
and life of the nineteenth century. It will re- accorded, and to give preference among these an( | military i erms e tc. 
cord not merely the written language, but the according to the circumstances of each particn- 
spoken language as well (that isf all important i ar , case ! m w ? the general analogies and ENCYCLOPEDIC FEATURES, 
provincial and colloquial words) and it Vill in- tendencies of English utterance. The scheme The inclugion of go exte nsive and varied a 
elude (in the one alphabetical order of the Die- by which the pronunciation is indicated is quite vocabul the intro duction of special phrases, 
tionary) abbreviations and such foreign words simple, avwding over-refinement m the dis- and the f u ll description of things often found 
and phrases as have become a familia? part of crimmat on of sounds and being designed to eggential to an in tangible definition of their 
English speech. pXunc ^on back cr ) ( y names > would alone have ^ ven to this Diction - 
__ CTVM ,,, ary a distinctly encyclopedic character. It has, 
THE ETYMOLOGIES. DEFINITIONS OF COMMON WORDS. however, been deemed desirable to go some- 
The etymologies have been written anew on i n the preparation of the definitions of com- what further in this direction than these con- 
a uniform plan, and in accordance with the es- m on words there has been at hand besides ditions render strictly necessary, 
tablished principles of comparative philology, the material generally accessible to 'students Accordingly, not only have many technical 
It has been possible in many cases, by means o f the language a special collection of quota- niatters 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 n kinds and of all periods of the language, dictionaries have hitherto excluded has been 
hitherto resting upon the history of particular wh ich i 8 pro bably much larger than any which added. The result is that " The Century 
words, to decide definitely in 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 philoloical Society of London. Thousands of P al difference that the information given is 
time the history of many words of which the non-technical words, many of them occurring * or 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- 
neously 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 ar ies have in this way been obtained. The ical and geographical, are of course omitted, ex- 
its remotest known origin. The various prefixes arrangement of the definitions historically, in cept as they appear in derivative adjectives, as 
and suffixes useful in the formation of English the order in which the senses defined have en- Darwinian from Daridn, 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- 
ever possible. pedic matter under a large number of words 
HOMONYMS. _,jp onoTATIONS 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 ifl ese torm a very large collection (about are generally looked for in works of reference, 
by small superior figures (l, 2 3, etc.). 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 The pictorial iii ustra tions have been so se- 
familiar, or to that one which is most nearly valuable citations have been made from less i ec ted and executed as to be subordinate to the 
English in origin. The superior numbers ap- famous authors m all departments of htera- text while poS8es8ing a considerable degree of 
ply not so much to the individual word as to ture. American writers especially are repre- independent suggestiveness and artistic value, 
the group or root to which it belongs, hence sented ?> ater fullness than in any similar To g cure tec hni?al accuracy, the illustrations 
the different grammatical uses of the same ^ ork : ^list of authors and works (and edi- have, as a rule, been selected by the specialists 
homonym are numbered alike when they are *JW cited will be published with the con- in charge of the various departments, and have 
separately entered in the Dictionary. Thus a eluding part of the Dictionary. in &n c | geg been examined by them in proofs, 
verb and a noun of the same origin and the DEFINITIONS OF TECHNICAL TERMS. The cuts number about six thousand, 
same present spelling receive the same superior M e h b devoted to the snecial 
number. But when two words of the same form termg o f the various sciences fine arts me MODE OF ISSUE, PRICE, ETC. 
the same radical origin now differ eon- chan ical arts, professions, and trades,' and " The Century Dictionary will be comprised 
siderably m meaning, so as to be used as dif- muoh care hag ' b ^ en bestowe d upon their treat- in about 6, 500 quarto pages. It is published 
ferent words, they are separately numbered. ment- Th ey h ave been collected by an extended by subscription and in twenty-four parts or 
THE ORTHOCR APHY search through all branches of literature, with sections, to be finally bound into six quarto vol- 
the design of providing a very complete and umes, if desired by the subscriber. These see- 
the great body of words constituting the manysided technical dictionary. Many thou- tions will be issued about once a month. The 
familiar language the spelling is determined sands of words have thus been gathered which price of the sections is $2.50 each, and no 
by well-established usage, and, however ac- have never before been recorded in a general subscriptions are taken except for the entire 
cidental and unacceptable, in many eases,_ it dictionary, or even in special glossaries. To work. 
may be, it is not the office of a dictionary like the biological sciences a degree of promi- The plan for the Dictionary is more fully de- 
this to propose improvements, or to adopt those nence has been given corresponding to the re- scribed in the preface (of which the above is in 
which have been proposed and have not yet m a rk a ble recent increase in their vocabulary, part a condensation), which accompanies the 
won some degree of acceptance and use. But The new material in the departments of biology first section, and to which reference is made, 
there are also considerable classes as to which and zoology includes not less than five thou- A list of the abbreviations used in the ety- 
usage is wavering, more than one form being sand words and senses not recorded even in mologies and definitions, and keys to pronun 
sanctioned by excellent authorities, either in special dictionaries. In the treatment of phy- ciations and to signs used in the etymologies, 
this country or Great Britain, or in both. Fa- sical and mathematical sciences, of themechan- will be found on the back cover-lining. 
THE CENTURY CO., )) EAST 17 ST., NEW YORK. 
