One of the most important political documents in American history wasn’t, strictly speaking, a political document. Noah Webster’s An American dictionary of the English language was published 196 years ago this month and contained 70,000 words, 12,000 of which had never appeared in a dictionary before. The work wasn’t his first dictionary - that was in 1806 - but it was his most expansive and thoroughly researched. Webster, a 1778 Yale graduate, didn’t alter word spellings from British English just to be different, he had an intellectual foundation for doing so. Even back then, the English had long been the cool kids on the planet, too hip for the room. America and Mr W had the temerity to do things differently. In fact, the entire dictionary was a statement in ways the US was culturally and linguistically distinct from its mother country. In 1828 America, a brand new nation, that mattered. Here’s how.
© 2024 John Oliver
Substack is the home for great culture