Century Dictionary
![]() First alphabetical page of the 1911 edition | |
Edited by | William Dwight Whitney Benjamin Eli Smith |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Publisher | The Century Company |
Published | 1889–1891 (first edition, volumes 1–6) 1895 (volumes 1–10) 1906 (volumes 1–12) |
No. of books | 12 |
Followed by | The New Century Dictionary |
The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia is one of the largest encyclopedic dictionaries of the English language. It was compared favorably with the Oxford English Dictionary, and frequently consulted for more factual information than would normally be the case for a dictionary.
History
The Century Dictionary is based on
The first edition of the Century Dictionary was published from 1889 to 1891 by The Century Company,[3] and was described as "six volumes in twenty four". The first edition runs to 7,046 pages and features some 10,000 wood-engraved illustrations. It was edited by Sanskrit scholar and linguist William Dwight Whitney, with Benjamin Eli Smith's assistance.[4]
In 1895 a 10-volume edition was published, with the first eight volumes containing the dictionary proper, and the last two containing a
After Whitney's death in 1894, supplementary volumes were published under Smith's supervision, including The Century Cyclopedia of Names (1894) and The Century Atlas (1897).[6] A two-volume Supplement of new vocabulary, published in 1909, completed the dictionary. A reformatted edition, The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, was published in 1911 in twelve quarto volumes: ten of vocabulary, plus the volume of names and the atlas. This set went through several printings, the last in 1914. The same year, the ten vocabulary volumes were published as one giant volume, about 8500 pages in a very thin paper. The now much coveted India paper edition also appeared around this time, usually in five double volumes (rarely, in 10 single volumes) plus one additional for the Cyclopedia.
The completed dictionary contained over 500,000 entries, more than
Although no revised edition of the dictionary was ever again published, an abridged edition with new words and other features, The New Century Dictionary (edited by H.G. Emery and K.G. Brewster; revision editor, Catherine B. Avery,) was published by
The Century Dictionary was admired for the quality of its entries, the craftsmanship in its design, typography, and binding, and its excellent illustrations. It has been used as an information source for the makers of many later dictionaries, including editors of the Oxford English Dictionary, who cited it over 2,000 times in the first edition. In 1913, a Ph.D. dissertation on "American Dictionaries" concluded its 14-page chapter on the Century Dictionary with the assessment that the work "far surpasses anything in American lexicography".[7]
Typography and typesetting
The Century Dictionary was typeset and printed by
Digitization efforts
The works are out of copyright, and efforts have been made to digitize the volumes.
24-part set
1889–91
Volume | Part | Coverage | Digitized editions |
---|---|---|---|
Vol 1. | 1 | A – Appet. | 1889–91 |
2 | Appet. – Bice | 1889–91 | |
3 | Bice – Carboy | 1889–91 | |
4 | Carboy – Cono. | 1889–91 | |
Vol 2. | 5 | Cono. – Deflect | 1889–91, 1889–91 |
6 | Deflect – Drool | 1889–91 | |
7 | Droop – Expirant | 1889–91 | |
8 | Expirant – Fz | 1889–91 | |
Vol 3. | 9 | G – Halve | 1889–91, 1889–91, 1889–91 |
10 | Halve – Iguvine | 1889–91, 1889–91 | |
11 | Ihleite – Juno | 1889–91 | |
12 | Juno – Lyverey | 1889–91 | |
Vol 4. | 13 | M – Mormon | 1889–91, 1889–91, 1889–91 |
14 | Mormon – Optic | 1889–91 | |
15 | Optic – Pilar | 1889–91 | |
16 | Pilar – Pyx-veil | 1889–91 | |
Vol 5. | 17 | Q – Ring | 1889–91 |
18 | Ring – Sea-gull | 1889–91 | |
19 | Sea-gull – Smash | 1889–91 | |
20 | Smash – Stro. | 1889–91 | |
Vol 6. | 21 | Stru. – Term | 1889–91 1889–91 |
22 | Term – Trust | 1889–91 | |
23 | Trust – Vysar | 1889–91 | |
24 | W – Z | 1889–91 |
Ten-volume set
Volume | Coverage | Editions digitized | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Vol 1 | A. B. Celt | 1895, 1897, 1901, 1904, 1906 | |
Vol 2 | Celt. – Drool | 1895, 1897, 1901, 1901, 1904, 1904, 1906 | |
Vol 3 | Droop. E. F. G. | 1895, 1897, 1897, 1904 | |
Vol 4 | H. I. J. K. L. | 1895, 1897, 1901, 1901, 1904, 1904 | |
Vol 5 | M. N. O. Phar. | 1895, 1897, 1901, 1904 | |
Vol 6 | Phar. Q. R. Salse. | 1895, 1897, 1901, 1901, 1904 | |
Vol 7 | Salsi. – Tech. | 1895, 1897, 1901, 1901, 1904, 1904 | |
Vol 8 | Tech. U. V. W. X. Y. Z | 1895, 1897,1901, 1901, 1904 | |
Vol 9 | Proper Names | 1897, 1904 Separately: 1894, 1895 (Vol 1), 1895 (Vol 1), 1895 (Vol 2), 1914, 1918, 1954 (New Century, Vol 1 of 3) |
|
Vol 10 | Atlas | 1897, 1901 | |
Vol 11 | Dictionary Supplement A–L | 1909, 1910, 1910, 1910 | |
Vol 12 | Dictionary Supplement M–Z | 1910 |
Twelve-volume set
- 1911, University of Michigan and Cornell University
Citations
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/20588. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ Tichenor 2005, p. 90.
- ^ Bailey 1996, p. 9.
- ^ Bailey 1996, p. 6.
- ^ S. Padraig Walsh Anglo-American General Encyclopedias 1704–1967 New York: R. R. Baker and Company, 1968 pp. 20–1
- ^ Bailey 1996, p. 7.
- ^ Steger, Stewart Archer (1913). American Dictionaries. Baltimore: J.H. Furst. p. 96. Retrieved 2020-06-15.
- ^ Metcalf 1996, p. 18.
- ^ Metcalf 1996, pp. 18–25.
- ^ Tichenor 2005, pp. 91–92.
General sources
- Adams, James Truslow. Dictionary of American History. New York: Scribner, 1940.
- Bailey, Richard W. (1996). "Origins". Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America. 17 (1): 1–16. ISSN 2160-5076.
- Metcalf, Allan (1996). "Typography". Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America. 17 (1): 17–28. ISSN 2160-5076.
- Liberman, Anatoly (1996). "Etymology". Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America. 17 (1): 29–54. ISSN 2160-5076.
- Gilman, E. W. (1996). "Definitions and Usage". Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America. 17 (1): 55–67. S2CID 178894798.
- Lance, Donald M. (1996). "Pronunciation". Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America. 17 (1): 68–78. ISSN 2160-5076.
- Hancher, Michael (1996). "Illustrations". Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America. 17 (1): 79–115. ISSN 2160-5076.
- Barnhart, Robert K. (1996). "Aftermath". Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America. 17 (1): 116–125. ISSN 2160-5076.
- Steger, Stewart Archer (1913). "VI. The Century Dictionary". American dictionaries (Ph.D. University of Virginia). Baltimore: J.H. Furst. pp. 83–91. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
- Tichenor, Irene (2005). No Art Without Craft: The Life of Theodore Low De Vinne, Printer. Boston: David R. Godine. ISBN 978-1-56792-286-8.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- The complete Century Dictionary is in image form, where it can be searched by the word or viewed by the page in its original form, with zoom-in option.
- The Century Dictionary, and Supplement online with easy word search