from delancyplace.com:

In today's selection -- in the early 1800s, the differences between British and
American
English had become sufficiently pronounced that American dictionaries began to appear,
the most famous of which was written by Noah Webster. There was an outcry against
these and the new words they included, with many in the general public decrying
the dangerous spirit of innovation and appalled by such neologisms as lengthy, presidential,
and departmental:

"Webster's epic, monumental American Dictionary of the English Language was published
in 1828. It rivaled -- and dwarfed -- [Londoner] Samuel Johnson's 1755 Dictionary
of the English Lan*guage: Johnson's listed some 43,000 words, Webster defined more
than 70,000, and Webster, unlike Johnson, had written his dictionary himself, without
so much as an amanuensis. ...

"Webster's proposal [first made in 1800 to write this dictionary] made national
news. No news might have been better. Within a week, a Philadelphia newspaper editor
called Webster's idea preposterous (it is 'perfectly absurd to talk of the American
language') and his motives mercenary ('the plain truth is that he means to make
money').

"To be fair, much the same scorn had greeted two American dictionaries, published
just months earlier. A pair of Connect*icut men, including the aptly-named-but-no-relation
Samuel Johnson, Jr., offered a work promising 'a number of words in vogue not included
in any dictionary.' Reviewers agreed that most of them didn't belong in any dictionary:
sans culottes (no: French!), tomahawk (axe it: Indian!), and lengthy (good grief:
what's next, strengthy?). 'At best, useless,' was one critic's three-word verdict
on the first American dictionary. No bet*ter were notices of Massachusetts minister
Caleb Alexander's Columbian Dictionary, containing "'Many NEW WORDS, peculiar to
the United States.' 'A disgusting collection' of idiotic words 'coined by presumptuous
ignorance,' wrote one reviewer, re*ferring to Alexander's inclusion of Americanisms
like rateability and caucus. His final ruling on The Columbian Dictionary? 'A record
of our imbecility.' ...

"Federalist critics of Webster's proposed dictionary at*tacked it by calling it
innovative. Federalist editor Joseph Dennie, signing himself 'An Enemy to Innovation,'
wrote, 'These innovations in literature are precisely what [French Revolutionary]
Jacobinism is in Politics. They are both owing to the stupid vanity of the present
day, which induces mankind to despise the well-tried principles of their Ancestors.'
It was just this kind of thing that led to anarchy. 'If we once sanction the impertinence
of individuals, who think themselves authorized to coin new words on every occasion,'
Dennie warned, 'our language will soon become a confused jargon, which will require
a new Dic*tionary every year.' ...

"In the Monthly Anthology, James Savage attacked Webster without mercy, sparing
not his 'suspicions of the definitions of Johnson,' his 'ridiculous violations of
grammar,' nor his 'hurtful innovations in orthography.' 'But the fault of most alarming
enormity in this work,' Savage concluded, 'is the approbation given to the vulgarisms'
like congressional, presidential, departmental, crock, spry, tote, whop, and, of
course, the inevitable lengthy."

Author: Jill Lepore
Title: The Story of America
Publisher: Princeton
Date: Copyright 2012 by Jill Lepore
Pages: 112-122
The Story of America: Essays on Origins
by Jill Lepore by Princeton University Press
Hardcover
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