“The ignorance or negligence which introduced wrong spelling, &, in some cases, made words which are nonsense, & then permitted these words to occupy a place in our best books, even in the Bible, for centuries; appeared to me an abuse of the language not to be tolerated….
I was educated in all the errors & blunders of the English books; & it has given me more trouble to unlearn & correct them, than to have learned the language correctly at first. And I am still learning, as much as I was forty years ago. Some errors were admitted into the first edition of my books, because I had not discovered them…
This fascinating letter to the editors of a newspaper or journal explains Webster’s rationale for updates to his monumental An American Dictionary of the English Language, first published in 1828. Webster’s dictionary made an immediate impact on American culture and national identity, yet numerous critics were quick to point out inconsistencies and make much of a handful of seemingly nonsensical words.
