Word: merriam
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THESE are excerpts from the new edition of Webster's New International Dictionary, published last week by G. & C. Merriam Co. (see EDUCATION). In offering new definitions, the new edition makes important use of phrases quoted from widely diverse sources, the quotation being chosen "primarily for its contribution to an understanding of meaning." The eleven phrases quoted above are from TIME-a sampling of more than 100 instances in which the new dictionary uses TIME as a source...
...first great English dictionary. Samuel Johnson intended his definitions to be laws that would firmly establish meanings. But usage thumbs its nose at laws; the dictionary nowadays is more a Social Register of words than a Supreme Court of language. In the 27 years since the G. & C. Merriam Co. published the Second Edition of its unabridged Webster's New International Dictionary, thousands of new words have clamored to be listed. Last week, after investing $3,500,000 and 757 "editor-years," Merriam responded with a brand-new edition ($47.50 and up). It is the most radical version...
...Merriam Co. is the only direct descendant, corporately speaking, of Noah Webster,* who in 1828 produced the first truly American dictionary, which in its 70,000 listings stressed the New World's lusty new words, from applesauce to skunk. The descendants have never matched Noah's style, clarity and wit. He was a practical man given to phonetic spelling (ake, crum, skreen). He was a feeling man given to personalizing his definitions: "All sin is hateful in the sight of God and of good men." Or: "In short, we love whatever gives us pleasure and delight, whether animal...
Nonetheless, from A to zyzzogeton (a genus of South American leaf hoppers), Merriam-Webster's Third Edition is lighter and brighter than its immediate predecessor. It weighs 13½ v. 16½ Ibs., has 2,662 v. 3,194 pages, contains 450,000 v. 600,000 entries. Gone are the gazetteer, the biographical dictionary, and 100,000 obsolete or nonlexical terms, such as the names of characters in Dickens. In are 100,000 brand-new terms, from astronaut, beatnik, boo-boo, countdown, den mother and drip-dry, to footsie, hard sell, mccarthyism, no-show, schlemiel, sit-in, wage dividend...
...millions of voters: Upton Sinclair's E.P.I.C. (End Poverty in California) and the Ham-and-Eggs movement, both Utopian schemes to aid the poor and aged. Running as the Democratic nominee for Governor on an E.P.I.C. platform in 1934, Sinclair got 879,000 votes to Republican Frank Merriam's 1,138,000. Ham-and-Eggs, cooked up by a radio announcer and two admen, attracted wide public support (and several notorious scoundrels), forced a special referendum on its $3O-Every-Thursday proposal for California to pay off $1.5 billion in annual pensions with worthless scrip. It lost...