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Oblong 12mo (3.88 x 4.63 inches), original calf, 32, 203, [1] pages. "The favourable reception with which the School Dictionary met, the last year, with the remarks of the Authors Correspondents upon it have been one inducement with us, to undertake this compilation, upon a new, and enlarged plan." The second edition (published the same year as the first) of the second dictionary compiled by an American, preceded by the earlier 1798 (or perhaps 1797) School Dictionary by Samuel Johson, Jr., that earlier work printed and sold in New Haven by Edward O Brien. "Johnson s first lexicon, declared to be tentative and introductory to a future edition, was disposed of so quickly that the author set about a new and larger work. This time he had as collaborator the Reverend John Elliott of East Guilford, Connecticut" (Burkett 16). This dictionary includes a complimentary notice from Noah Webster and this second edition expands the prefatory matter and adds nearly 500 words over the 9000 or so in the first edition. Though largely a derivative work, the Preface notes, "Custom is daily introducing new words into our language, many of which are frequently used, and their signification important to be known. These we have attempted to collect." The authors had cleaned up the original School Dictionary in the name of modesty and juvenile sensibilities; some terms were altogether eliminated (Bedswerver, Courtesan, Ovary, etc.), while those words that were "suffered to remain, but their definitions undergo a softening revision in the interests of delicacy and chastity of language. . . . Seraglio, in 1798 a house for women of pleasure, now modestly a house for women. . . . Rouge to the School Dictionary had been red paint used on the face by prostitutes, but in 1800 it is red paint used on the face" (Gibson 288-289). See Burkett, Eva Mae. American Dictionaries of the English Language Before 1861. Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press, 1979. See also Gibson, Martha Jane. "America s First Lexicographer: Samuel Johnson Jr., 1757-1836." American Speech 11, no. 4 (1936): 283 92. Alston (vol. 5) 351; Evans 37356. No free endpapers, portions of the front pastedown perished; final leaf of text mounted to the rear board, but the final page is blank, so there is no loss of text. Some penciled sums; early ink signatures of Daniel Tuthill and Betsey Tuthill at the foot of the final page of text. Some general light wear, rubbing, and soiling; in very good condition.
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