THE CENTURY DICTIONARY 
PREPARED UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF 
WILLIAM DWIGHT WHITNEY, PH. D., LL. D. 
PROFESSOR OF COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY AND SANSKRIT m 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, 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 ot 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 as or 03 (as hemorrhage, hannorrhage) ; 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 
a convenient book of general reference. " THE PRONUNCIATION reader, and also to aid the professional reader 
jjaSSy^ZS^ZSfr ^ No attempt has been made to record all the t^^SKSf ^^ 
ord of all the noteworthy words wfiich have varieties ot popular or even educated utter- tion haa a i so been paid to the definitions of 
been in use since English literature has ex- a ? 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^^g and various other art-processes; of 
and of applications of old words which has necessary rather to make a selection of words architecture, sculpture, archfflology, decorative 
sprung from the development of the thought to *** * alternative pronunciations should be art ceramics, etc"; of musical terms, nautical 
a'ndlife of . and military terms, etc. 
lar oase > in view of the g eneral analogies and ENCYCLOPEDIC FEATURES. 
a- tendencies , of >"*,<^!*Sg The ****< f * ******* and ied a 
elude (in the one alphabetical order of the Die- b 7 which the pronunciation is indicated is quite vocabul t he introduction of special phrases, 
tionary) abbreviations and such foreign words simple, avoiding over-refinement in the -dis- and t h e fuli description of things often found 
and phrases as have become a familial part of crimination of sounds, and being designed to essential to an ineligible definition of their 
English speech. e readily understood and used. (See Key to w j ha ^ yen to thig Diction . 
Pronunciation on back cover.) ary a a^gUy encyclopedic character. It has, 
THE ETYMOLOGIES. DEFINITIONS OF COMMON WORDS. however, been deemed desirable to go some- 
The etymologies have been written anew on T n t he preparation of the definitions of com- w . fl at further in this direction than these con- 
a uniform plan, and in accordance with the es- mon wor ds 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 ^ language, a special collection of quota- matters been treated with unusual rullness, 
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 o f a n ki n ds and of all periods of the language, dictionaries have hitherto excluded has been 
hitherto resting upon the history of particular wn i c h is probably 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 tne ordinary encyclopedia, with this prmci- 
merous current errors, and to give for the first Philological 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 for th e most part distributed under the mdi- 
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 o f meanings, many of them familiar, which nected, instead of being collected under a lew 
accepted form of spelling, each important word h ave no t hitherto been noticed by the diction- general topics. Proper names, both biograph- 
has been traced back through earlier forms to ar j eg have in this way been obtained. The i a l an d 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 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- 
ever possible. pedic matter under a large number of words 
HOMONYMS. iruc ,~.T ,,-IT A TH-IVTC wi 11 ! ^ is believed, be found to be particularly 
Words of various oriein and meaning but QUOIAllONb. helpful in the search for those details which 
of the same spelling, have been distinguished on T n h s n e J; orm a very J arge c o Uecti ? n (about are generally looked for in works of reference. 
bv small Riinnrinr fi<rnrfis (l 2 3 P tn > Tn 200,000), representing all periods and 
numrrlng t^ese Lnfonyms ( the rule ha^been "f f ^^ U * atn f ' ^ ^^ ILLUSTRATIONS. 
to give precedence to the oldest or the most of the language have been drawn upon, and The pictoria i iii ustr ations have been so se- 
familiar, or to that one which is most nearly jaluable 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 in all departments of htera- text wMle poS8essin g a considerable degree of 
ply not so much to the individual word as to ture. American writers especially are repre- ^dependent suggestiveness and artistic value. 
the group or root to which it belongs, hence sen * ed 1 ?,? r , ea * er Mness than in any similar To g oure tec hnieal accuracy, the illustrations 
the different grammatical uses of the same rk ; A ^ st f , f thor ?, an , d . wor . k ^ ft?" have, as a rule, been selected by the specialists 
- 
, ,, .. , , 
homonym are numbered alike when they are l cited will be published with the con- in charge of the various departments, and have 
separately entered in the Dictionary. Thus a clud mg pai in a ll cases 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 Much ce has been devoted to the special Mnn _ __ 
number. But when two words of the same form terms o f the various sciences, fine arts, me- MODE OF ISSUE, PRICE, ETC. 
and of the same radical origin now differ con- chan i ca i ar t s , professions, and trades, and " The Century Dictionary " will be comprised 
siderablyin meaning, so as to be used as dif- muc h care has been bestowed upon their treat- in about 6,500 quarto pages. It is published 
ferent words, they are separately numbered. ment- They have been collected by an extended by subscription and in twenty-four parts or 
THP DRTHnrp APHY search through all branches of literature, with sections, to be finally bound into six quarto vol- 
UUKAFHY. the design of providing a very complete and umes, if desired by the subscriber. These sec- 
Of the great body of words constituting the many-sided technical dictionary. Many thpu- 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 cases, 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 markable 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. 
