Sunteți pe pagina 1din 38

Merriam-

Websters
Collegiate
n
Dictionary
ELEVENTH
EDI TI ON
Merriam-Webster, Incorporated
Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
A GENUINE MERRIAM-WEBSTER
The name Webster alone is no guarantee of excellence. It is used by a
number of publishers and may serve mainly to mislead an unwary
buyer.
Merriam-Webster is the name you should look for when you
consider the purchase of dictionaries or other fine reference books.
It carries the reputation of a company that has been publishing since
1831 and is your assurance of quality and authority.
Copyright m 2005 by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Merriam-Websters collegiate dictionary. Eleventh ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-87779-807-1 Laminated unindexed : alk. paper
ISBN-10: 0-87779-807-9 Laminated unindexed : alk. paper
ISBN-13: 978-0-87779-808-8 Jacketed hardcover unindexed : alk. paper
ISBN-10: 0-87779-808-7 Jacketed hardcover unindexed : alk. paper
ISBN-13: 978-0-87779-809-5 Jacketed hardcover with CD-ROM : alk. paper
ISBN-10: 0-87779-809-5 Jacketed hardcover with CD-ROM : alk. paper
ISBN-13: 978-0-87779-810-1 Leatherlook with CD-ROM : alk. paper
ISBN-10: 0-87779-810-9 Leatherlook with CD-ROM : alk. paper
ISBN-13: 978-0-87779-813-2 Canadian
ISBN-10: 0-87779-813-3 Canadian
ISBN-13: 978-0-87779-814-9 International
ISBN-10: 0-87779-814-1 International
1. English languageDictionaries. I. Title: Collegiate dictionary. II. Merriam-
Webster, Inc.
PE1628.M36 2003
423dc21 2003003674
CIP
Merriam-Websters Collegiate
n
Dictionary, Eleventh Edition, principal copyright
2003
COLLEGIATE is a registered trademark of Merriam-Webster, Incorporated
All rights reserved. No part of this book covered by the copyrights hereon may be
reproduced or copied in any form or by any meansgraphic, electronic, or
mechanical, including photocopying, taping, or information storage and retrieval
systemswithout written permission of the publisher.
Made in the United States of America
567TT:QWV0504
Contents
Preface 6a
Explanatory Chart 8a
Explanatory Notes 10a
The English Language in the Dictionary 25a
Guide to Pronunciation 33a
Abbreviations in This Work 38a
Pronunciation Symbols 40a
A Dictionary of the English Language 1
Foreign Words and Phrases 1460
Biographical Names 1466
Geographical Names 1511
Signs and Symbols 1600
A Handbook of Style 1604
Index 1623
Preface
When Websters Collegiate Dictionary was first pub-
lished, the year was 1898, and Americans were being ex-
horted to remember the Maine. As the eleventh consec-
utive edition of this standard reference book appears, we
have crossed the nearly inconceivable divide between the
second and third millennia of the modern era, but since
daily lives can scarcely be led in constant awareness of a
span of time that vast, we now situate ourselves, for the
most part, in the first decade of the twenty-first century.
Over the time between these editions, the world has made
its way through two global wars and many others of a
more limited kind wide-ranging social, political, and eco-
nomic change not to say, revolution and successive
waves of technological change that have transformed com-
munication, transportation, information storage and re-
trieval, and great numbers of other human activities. At
every turn these events and developments have had a ma-
jor effect on the stock of words that English speakers use,
and it has been the job of a good general dictionary to
record these changes. The present book is the latest effort
by the editorial team of Merriam-Webster to meet that re-
sponsibility.
Merriam-Websters Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edi-
tion, like all earlier editions is meant to serve the general
public as its chief source of information about the words
of our language. Its title may suggest a special appropriate-
ness for the older student, but those who work in offices
and those who read, think, and write at home will equally
find it a trustworthy guide to the English of our day.
The ever-expanding vocabulary of our language exerts
inexorable pressure on the contents of any dictionary.
Words and senses are born at a far greater rate than that at
which they die out. The 1664 pages of this Collegiate make
it the most comprehensive ever published. And its treat-
ment of words is as nearly exhaustive as the compass of an
abridged work permits. As in all Merriam-Webster dictio-
naries, the information given is based on the collection of
15,700,000 citations maintained in the offices of this com-
pany. These citations show words used in a wide range of
printed sources, and the collection is constantly being aug-
mented through the efforts of the editorial staff. Thus, the
user of the dictionary may be confident that entries in the
Collegiate are based on current as well as older material.
The citation files hold 5,700,000 more examples than were
available to the editors of Websters Third New Interna-
tional Dictionary, published in 1961, and 1,200,000 more
than the editors of the Tenth Edition had at their disposal.
The editors of this edition also had available to them a
machine-readable corpus of over 76,000,000 words of text
drawn from the wide and constantly changing range of
publications that supply the paper slips in the citation
files. It is now nearly four times the size of the corpus used
by the editors of the Tenth Edition.
Those entries known to be trademarks or service marks
are so labeled and are treated in accordance with a formu-
la approved by the United States Trademark Association.
No entry in this dictionary, however, should be regarded
as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.
The best features of the vocabulary section in the last
edition have been retained, reviewed, and improved for
this one. Additional pictorial illustrations are present, and
many of them were drawn especially for this book in order
to supplement and clarify definitions. Synonym para-
graphs and usage paragraphs are both here again, aug-
mented in number. The dates of first use provided at most
main entries have proved to be very popular with users of
the Collegiate. For the Eleventh Edition, thousands of
these dates have been pushed back in time, anywhere from
a single year to several centuries from published materials
both print and electronic not available ten years ago,
from the continuing investigations of our own editors, and
from the contributions of hundreds of interested readers.
Two important changes in the treatment of the vocabulary
have been made for this edition, one to provide additional
information and the other to make information easier to
find. All standard variants are now shown at the relevant
main entry so that the reader may see at a glance whether
they are equal variants with the main entry or are distinct-
ly less frequent. And entries for abbreviations as well as
for the symbols for chemical elements are now quickly
found in the vocabulary section and need not be sought in
a separate section tucked away in the back matter, as in
the previous edition.
The front matter of this book establishes a context for
understanding what this dictionary is and how it came to
be, as well as how it may be used most effectively. The Ex-
planatory Notes address themselves to the latter topic.
They answer the users questions about the conventions,
devices, and techniques by which the editors have been
able to compress mountains of information about English
words into so few pages. All users of the dictionary are
urged to read this section through and then consult it for
special information as they need to. The brief essay on our
language as it is recorded in Merriam-Webster dictionar-
ies, and this Collegiate in particular, is meant to satisfy an
interest in lexicography often expressed in the correspon-
dence which our editors receive. The Guide to Pronuncia-
tion serves both to show how the pronunciations in this
book are arrived at and to explain the mechanics of the re-
spelling system in which they are set down.
The back matter retains five sections from the last edi-
tion of the Collegiate. These are Foreign Words and Phras-
es that occur frequently in English texts but have not be-
come part of the English vocabulary thousands of proper
names brought together under the separate headings Bio-
graphical Names and Geographical Names a gathering of
important Signs and Symbols that cannot readily be alpha-
betized and a Handbook of Style in which various stylistic
conventions as of punctuation and capitalization are
summarized and exemplified. All the sections have been
carefully updated for this edition.
Looking at a copy of that long-ago first Collegiate Dic-
tionary, one is struck by how different it is, as a physical
book and as a work of reference, from the present edition.
The board covers are heavy, the margins of the page are
wide, and the type is relatively large at the same time it
holds only about 1100 pages and less than half the number
of vocabulary entries of this Eleventh Edition. At that time
the Merriam-Webster citation file was no more than in its
infancy. Yet the editors of that book created it with the
same careful, serious attention that the present editors
have brought to their work.
We believe that this work sustains and advances the tra-
dition of excellence in lexicography that is the heritage of
Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. The editorial staff who
produced it include a number of people who have made
contributions to three or four successive editions of the
Collegiate Dictionary. That experience and that continuity
form an important part of what the Eleventh Edition is, as
do the energy and care of those who have joined the staff
just within the last few years. Some of the latter group will
very likely contribute in major ways to the twelfth, the
thirteenth, perhaps even the fourteenth edition of the Col-
legiate. In the meantime, the entire staff, whose names
are given on the facing page, offer their work to people
everywhere who need information about the vocabulary
of English, in the assurance that it will prove a reliable
companion.
Frederick C. Mish
Editor in Chief
6a
Editorial Staff
Editor in Chief
Frederick C. Mish
Director of Defining
Stephen J. Perrault
Director of Editorial Operations
Madeline L. Novak
Senior Editors
Robert D. Copeland special projects
Joanne M. Despres dates
James G. Lowe general defining
Roger W. Pease, Jr. science defining
James L. Rader etymology
Associate Editors
Michael G. Belanger biographical names
Susan L. Brady Rebecca R. Bryer
Deanna Stathis Chiasson
Kathleen M. Doherty abbreviations and
quotations Anne Eason
Joshua S. Guenter pronunciation
Daniel J. Hopkins geography
Joan I. Narmontas life science
Thomas F. Pitoniak production
Donna L. Rickerby data files
Michael D. Roundy physical science
Maria Sansalone cross-reference
Peter A. Sokolowski Karen L. Wilkinson
Linda Picard Wood
Assistant Editors
Emily B. Arsenault Rose Martino Bigelow
Daniel B. Brandon Emily A. Brewster
Diane Caswell Christian Jennifer N. Cislo
Christopher Chapin Connor Penny L. Couillard
Allison S. Crawford Ilya A. Davidovich
Benjamin T. Korzec G. James Kossuth III
Jeffrey D. Middleton illustrations
Adrienne M. Scholz Neil S. Serven
Kory L. Stamper Emily A. Vezina Judy Yeh
Director of Electronic Product Development
Gerald L. Wick
Electronic Product Development Staff
Michael G. Guzzi manager
L. Jill Nebeker Web production
Elizabeth S. Wolf content coordinator
Director of General Reference
Mark A. Stevens
General Reference Editors
C. Roger Davis Jocelyn White Franklin
Librarian
Francine A. Roberts
Departmental Secretary
Georgette B. Boucher
Head of Data Entry
Veronica P. McLymont
Senior Clerk
Carol A. Fugiel
Clerical and Data-Entry Staff
Mary M. Dunn Florence A. Fowler
Patricia M. Jensen E. Louise Johnson
Stacy-Ann S. Lall Suzanne M. Talaia
Editorial Contributors
Cynthia S. Ashby Sharon Goldstein
Electronic Product Development Consultant
Kara L. Noble
Merriam-Webster, Incorporated
John M. Morse
President and Publisher
angle brackets
PAGE 19a
binomial
PAGE 22a
boldface colon
PAGE 20a
called also
PAGE 19a
capitalization label
PAGE 15a
centered dots
PAGE 11a
cognate cross-reference
PAGE 23a
cutback inflected forms
PAGES 14a, 15a
date
PAGES 17a, 18a
defined run-on entry
PAGES 11a, 12a
definition
PAGES 20a, 21a
directional cross-reference
PAGE 23a
equal variant
PAGE 11a
etymology
PAGES 15a, 16a, 17a
functional label
PAGE 13a
guide phrase
PAGE 19a
homographs
PAGE 10a
illustrative quotation
PAGE 19a
inflected forms
PAGES 13a, 14a, 15a
inflectional cross-reference
PAGE 23a
list of undefined words
PAGE 24a
lowercase
PAGE 15a
main entry
PAGE 10a
guide words
PAGES 10a, 11a
often attrib
PAGE 15a
primary stress
PAGE 12a
pronunciation
PAGES 12a, 13a
regional label
PAGE 18a
secondary stress
PAGE 12a
secondary variant
PAGE 11a
sense divider
PAGE 20a
sense letter
PAGE 20a
sense number
PAGE 20a
stylistic label
PAGES 18a, 19a
subject label
PAGE 19a
swung dash (boldface)
PAGE 13a
swung dash (lightface)
PAGE 19a
synonymous cross-reference
PAGE 23a
synonym paragraph
PAGES 23a, 24a
syn see
PAGES 23a, 24a
temporal label
PAGE 18a
undefined run-on entry
PAGES 11a, 12a
uppercase
PAGE 15a
usage note
PAGE 19a
usage paragraph
PAGES 19a, 20a
usage see
PAGE 20a
verbal illustration
PAGE 19a
Explanatory Notes
Entries
MAIN ENTRIES
A boldface letter or a combination of such letters, in-
cluding punctuation marks and diacritics where needed,
that is set flush with the left-hand margin of each column
of type is a main entry or entry word. The main entry may
consist of letters set solid, of letters joined by a hyphen or
a slash, or of letters separated by one or more spaces:
1
alone . . . adj
auetodaf . . . n
and/or . . . conj
automatic pilot n
The material in lightface type that follows each main entry
on the same line and on succeeding indented lines explains
and justifies its inclusion in the dictionary.
Variation in the styling of compound words in English is
frequent and widespread. It is often completely acceptable
to choose freely among open, hyphenated, and closed al-
ternatives as life style, life-style, or lifestyle. However, to
show all the stylings that are found for English compounds
would require space that can be better used for other in-
formation. So this dictionary limits itself to a single styling
for a compound:
peaceemakeer
pellmell
boom box
When a compound is widely used and one styling predom-
inates, that styling is shown. When a compound is uncom-
mon or when the evidence indicates that two or three styl-
ings are approximately equal in frequency, the styling
shown is based on the analogy of similar compounds.
ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS
Abbreviations and symbols for chemical elements are
included as main entries in the vocabulary:
ca abbr circa
Ca symbol calcium
Abbreviations have been normalized to one form. In prac-
tice, however, there is considerable variation in the use of
periods and in capitalization as mph, m.p.h., Mph, and
MPH, and stylings other than those given in this dictio-
nary are often acceptable.
For a list of abbreviations regularly used in this dictio-
nary, see the section Abbreviations in This Work else-
where in the front matter. Many of these are also in gener-
al use, but as a rule an abbreviation is entered either in the
vocabulary or in that list, not both.
ORDER OF MAIN ENTRIES
The main entries follow one another in alphabetical or-
der letter by letter without regard to intervening spaces or
hyphens: battle royal follows battlement and earth
shattering follows earthshaking. Those containing an Ara-
bic numeral are alphabetized as if the numeral were
spelled out: 3-D comes between three-color and three
decker. Those that often begin with the abbreviation St. in
common usage have the abbreviation spelled out: Saint
Anthonys fire.
Full words come before parts of words made up of the
same letters. Solid compounds come first and are followed
by hyphenated compounds and then open compounds.
Lowercase entries come before entries that begin with a
capital letter:
3
semi . . . n
semi- . . . prefix
takeeout . . . n
takeout . . . adj
take out vt
timeoethy . . . n
Timeoethy . . . n
HOMOGRAPHS
When one main entry has exactly the same written form
as another, the two are distinguished by superscript nu-
merals preceding each word:
1
melt . . . vb
1
pine . . . n
2
melt n
2
pine vi
Sometimes such homographs are related: the two entries
melt are derived from the same root. Sometimes there is
no relationship: the two entries pine are unrelated beyond
the accident of spelling. The order of homographs is usual-
ly historical: the one first used in English is entered first. A
homograph derived from an earlier homograph by func-
tional shift, however, follows its parent immediately, with
the result that occasionally one homograph appears ahead
of another that is older in usage. For example, of the three
entries kennel the second a verb is derived from the first
a noun. Even though the unrelated third entry kennel
was used in English many years before the second, it fol-
lows the two related entries.
Abbreviations and symbols that are homographs of oth-
er entries are listed last:
1
bus . . . n
2
bus vb
3
bus abbr
GUIDE WORDS
A pair of guide words is printed at the top of each page.
The entries that fall alphabetically between the guide
words are found on that page.
It is important to remember that alphabetical order
rather than position of an entry on the page determines
the selection of guide words. The first guide word is the al-
phabetically first entry on the page. The second guide
word is usually the alphabetically last entry on the page:
glee I globular cluster
The entry need not be a main entry. Another boldface
worda variant, an inflected form, or a defined or unde-
fined run-onmay be selected as a guide word. For this
reason the last printed main entry on a page is not always
the last entry alphabetically:
IQ I ironness
On the page where these guide words are used, ironmon-
gery is the last printed entry, but ironness, a derivative
word run on at
2
iron, is the last entry alphabetically and so
has been chosen as the second guide word.
All guide words must themselves be in alphabetical or-
der from page to page throughout the dictionary thus, the
alphabetically last entry on a page is not used if it follows
alphabetically the first guide word on the next page:
joint I Jotun
On the page where these guide words are found, Jotunn, a
variant at the entry Jotun, is the last entry alphabetically,
but it is not used as the second guide word because it fol-
lows alphabetically the entry Jotunheim, which is the first
guide word on the next page. To use Jotunn would violate
the alphabetical order of guide words from page to page,
and so the entry Jotun is the second guide word instead.
END-OF-LINE DIVISION
The centered dots within entry words indicate division
points at which a hyphen may be put at the end of a line of
print or writing. Thus the noun posesiebileiety may be ended
on one line with:
pos-
possi-
possibil-
possibili-
and continued on the next with:
sibility
bility
ity
ty
Centered dots are not shown after a single initial letter or
before a single terminal letter because printers seldom cut
off a single letter:
aswirl . . . adj
mouthy . . . adj
idea . . . n
Nor are they shown at second and succeeding homographs
unless these differ among themselves:
1
reeform . . . vb
1
mineute . . . n
2
reform n
2
minute vt
3
reform adj
3
mienute . . . adj
There are acceptable alternative end-of-line divisions
just as there are acceptable variant spellings and pronunci-
ations. It is, for example, all but impossible to produce a
convincing argument that either of the divisions
ausetereiety, auestereiety is better than the other. But space
cannot be taken for entries like ausetereiety or auestereiety,
and auesetereiety would likely be confusing to many. No
more than one division is, therefore, shown for an entry in
this dictionary.
Many words have two or more common pronunciation
variants, and the same end-of-line division is not always
appropriate for each of them. The division flaegelelar, for
example, best fits the variant fl-je-lr whereas the divi-
sion flageelelar best fits the variant fla-j-lr. In instances
like this, the division falling farther to the left is used, re-
gardless of the order of the pronunciations:
aegelelar fl-je-lr, fla-j-lr
For more information on centered dots within entry
words see the paragraph on hyphens in the Guide to Pro-
nunciation.
A double hyphen at the end of a line in this dictionary
stands for a hyphen that belongs at that point in a hyphen-
ated word and that is retained when the word is written as
a unit on one line.
lemon thyme n 1629 : a thyme Thymus citriodorus having lemon
scented leaves used as a seasoning also : its leaves
VARIANTS
When a main entry is followed by the word or and an-
other spelling, the two spellings occur with equal or nearly
equal frequency and can be considered equal variants.
Both are standard, and either one may be used according
to personal inclination:
ocher or ochre
If two variants joined by or are out of alphabetical order,
they remain equal variants. The one printed first is, how-
ever, slightly more common than the second:
polelyewog or poleliewog
When another spelling is joined to the main entry by the
word also, the spelling after also occurs appreciably less
often and thus is considered a secondary variant:
canecelelaetion also caneceleation
Secondary variants belong to standard usage and may be
used according to personal inclination. If there are two
secondary variants, the second is joined to the first by or.
Once the word also is used to signal a secondary variant,
all following variants are joined by or:
1
Shakeespeareean or Shakeespeareian also Shakespereean or
Shakespereian
The use of or to indicate equal variants and also to indi-
cate secondary variants applies not only to main entries,
but to all boldface entry words, including inflected forms
and run-on entries.
Variants of main entries whose spelling places them al-
phabetically more than a column away from the main en-
try are entered at their own alphabetical places as well as
at the main entry:
gibe or jibe . . . vb
1
jibe var of crnr
1
rhyme also rime . . . n
rhymeester also rimeester . . . n
3
rime, rimester var of nvmr, nvmrs1r
Variants having a usage label appear only at their own al-
phabetical places:
metre . . . chiefly Brit var of mr1r
agin . . . dial var of AcArs1
RUN-ON ENTRIES
The defined senses of a main entry may be followed by
one or more derivatives or by a homograph with a differ-
ent functional label. These are run-on entries. Each is in-
troduced by a lightface dash and each has a functional la-
Explanatory Notes 11a
bcI. Thcv arc not dcfincd, howcvcr, sincc thcir mcaninus
arc rcadiIv dcrivabIc from thc mcaninu of thc root word:
slay . . . vb . . . - slayeer n
spireiteed . . . adj . . . - spireiteedely adv - spireiteedeness n
stacecaeto . . . adj . . . - staccato adv - staccato n
Thc dcfincd scnscs of a main cntrv mav bc foIIowcd bv
onc or morc phrascs containinu thc cntrv word or an in-
fIcctcd form of it. Thcsc arc aIso run-on cntrics. Each is in-
troduccd bv a Iiuhtfacc dash but thcrc is no functionaI Ia-
bcI. Thcv arc, howcvcr, dcfincd sincc thcir mcaninus arc
morc than thc sum of thc mcaninus of thcir cIcmcnts:
1
hole . . . n . . . - in the hole 1 : . . .
1
live . . . vb . . . - live it up : . . .
Dcfincd phrascs of this sort arc run on at thc cntrv consti-
tutinu thc first maIor cIcmcnt in thc phrasc. Thc first ma-
Ior cIcmcnt is ordinariIv a vcrb or a noun, but whcn thcsc
arc abscnt anothcr part of spccch mav scrvc instcad:
1
but . . . conj . . . - but what : . . .
Whcn thcrc arc variants, howcvcr, thc run-on appcars at
thc cntrv constitutinu thc first maIor invariabIc cIcmcnt in
thc phrasc:
1
clock . . . n . . . - kill the clock or run out the clock : . . .
1
hand . . . n . . . - on all hands or on every hand : . . .
A run-on cntrv is an indcpcndcnt cntrv with rcspcct to
function and status. LabcIs at thc main cntrv do not appIv
unIcss thcv arc rcpcatcd.
Attcntion is caIIcd to thc dcfinition of vocabulary entry
in this book. Thc tcrm dictionary entry incIudcs aII vocabu-
Iarv cntrics as wcII as aII boIdfacc cntrics in thc scparatc
scctions of thc back mattcr hcadcd Forciun Words and
Phrascs," BiouraphicaI Namcs," and GcouraphicaI
Namcs."
Pronunciation
Pronunciation is indicatcd bctwccn a pair of rcvcrscd vir-
uuIcs \ \ foIIowinu thc cntrv word. Thc svmboIs uscd arc
Iistcd in thc chart printcd insidc thc back covcr of this dic-
tionarv and on thc pauc facinu thc first pauc of thc dictio-
narv propcr. An abbrcviatcd Iist appcars at thc bottom of
thc sccond coIumn on cach riuht-hand pauc of thc vocabu-
Iarv. ExpIanations of thc svmboIs arc uivcn in thc Guidc to
Pronunciation.
SYLLABLES
A hvphcn is uscd in thc pronunciation to show svIIabic
division. Thcsc hvphcns somctimcs coincidc with thc ccn-
tcrcd dots in thc cntrv word that indicatc cnd-of-Iinc divi-
sion; somctimcs thcv do not:
abesenetee \,ab-sn-'tc\
1
meteric \'mc-trik\
STRESS
A hiuh-sct mark \'\ indicatcs primarv (stronucst) strcss
or acccnt; a Iow-sct mark \,\ indicatcs sccondarv (mcdi-
um) strcss or acccnt:
heartebeat \'hrt-,bct\
Thc strcss mark stands at thc bcuinninu of thc svIIabIc that
rcccivcs thc strcss.
Strcss marks arc an indication of thc rcIativc promi-
ncncc of thc svIIabIcs in a word. In runninu spccch thc pri-
marv strcss can varv in EnuIish words for scvcraI contcxtu-
aI and scmantic rcasons. Bccausc thc variation is so urcat,
this book shows thc primarv strcss of a word in its pronun-
ciation as a sinuIc word out of contcxt.
VARIANT PRONLNCIATIONS
Thc prcscncc of variant pronunciations indicatcs that
not aII cducatcd spcakcrs pronouncc words thc samc wav.
A sccond-pIacc variant is not to bc rcuardcd as Icss acccpt-
abIc than thc pronunciation that is uivcn first. It mav, in
fact, bc uscd bv as manv cducatcd spcakcrs as thc first
variant, but thc rcquircmcnts of thc printcd pauc makc
onc prcccdc thc othcr:
apriecot \'a-pr-,kt, '-\
foreeign \'for-n, 'fr-\
A variant that is apprcciabIv Icss common than thc prcccd-
inu variant is prcccdcd bv thc word also:
1
aleloy \'a-,Ioi also -'Ioi\
A variant prcccdcd bv sometimes is cvcn Icss common,
thouuh it docs occur in cducatcd spccch:
ineveiegle \in-'v-uI sometimes -'vc-\
Somctimcs a rcuionaI IabcI prcccdcs a variant:
1
great \'urt, Southern also 'urc()t\
Thc IabcI dial prcccdcs a variant that is notcworthv or
common in a diaIcct or diaIccts of Amcrican EnuIish, but
that is not considcrcd to bc a standard pronunciation:
ask \'ask, 'sk; dial 'aks\
Thc svmboI \\ is pIaccd bcforc a pronunciation variant
that occurs in cducatcd spccch but that is considcrcd bv
somc to bc unacccptabIc:
nuecleear \'n-kIc-r, 'nv-, -kv-Ir\
This svmboI rcfcrs onIv to thc immcdiatcIv foIIowinu vari-
ant and not to subscqucnt variants scparatcd from it bv a
comma or a scmicoIon.
PARENTHESES IN
PRONLNCIATIONS
SvmboIs cncIoscd bv parcnthcscs rcprcscnt cIcmcnts
that arc prcscnt in thc pronunciation of somc spcakcrs but
arc abscnt from thc pronunciation of othcr spcakcrs, or cI-
cmcnts that arc prcscnt in somc but abscnt from othcr ut-
tcranccs of thc samc spcakcr:
1
twinekle \'twi-kI\ vb . . . twinekling \-k(-)Ii\
sateisefacetoery \,sa-ts-'fak-t(-)rc\
reesponse \ri-'spn(t)s\
Thus, thc parcnthcscs at twinkling mcan that thcrc arc
somc who pronouncc thc \\ bctwccn \k\ and \I\ and oth-
crs who do not pronouncc it.
PARTIAL AND ABSENT
PRONLNCIATIONS
Whcn a main cntrv has Icss than a fuII pronunciation,
thc missinu part is to bc suppIicd from a pronunciation in
a prcccdinu cntrv or within thc samc pair of rcvcrscd vir-
uuIcs:
chamepieoneship \-,ship\
12a Explanatory Notes
Maedeiera \m-'dir-, -'dcr-\
Thc pronunciation of thc first thrcc svIIabIcs of champion-
ship is found at thc main cntrv champion:
1
chamepieon \'cham-pc-n\
Thc hvphcns bcforc and aftcr \'dcr\ in thc pronunciation
of Madeira indicatc that both thc first and thc Iast parts of
thc pronunciation arc to bc takcn from thc immcdiatcIv
prcccdinu pronunciation.
PartiaI pronunciations arc usuaIIv shown whcn two or
morc variants havc a part in common. Whcn a variation of
strcss is invoIvcd, a partiaI pronunciation mav bc tcrmi-
natcd at thc strcss mark which stands at thc bcuinninu of a
svIIabIc not shown:
dieverse \d-'vrs, d-', 'd-,\
anechoevy \'an-,cho-vc, an-'\
In ucncraI, no pronunciation is indicatcd for opcn com-
pounds consistinu of two or morc EnuIish words that havc
own-pIacc cntrv:
witch doctor n
A pronunciation is shown, howcvcr, for anv cIcmcnt of an
opcn compound that docs not havc cntrv at its own aIpha-
bcticaI pIacc:
diephosephoeglyecereic acid \(,)d-'fs-fo-uIi-,scr-ik-\
sieve of Ereaetosetheenes \-,cr--'ts-th-,ncz\
OnIv thc first cntrv in a scqucncc of numbcrcd homo-
uraphs is uivcn a pronunciation if thcir pronunciations arc
thc samc:
1
reeward \ri-'word\
2
reward
Pronunciations arc shown for obsoIctc words onIv if thcv
occur in Shakcspcarc:
cloisetress \'kIoi-strs\ n . . . obs
Thc pronunciation of unpronounccd dcrivativcs and
compounds run on at a main cntrv is a combination of thc
pronunciation at thc main cntrv and thc pronunciation of
thc suffix or finaI cIcmcnt as uivcn at its aIphabcticaI pIacc
in thc vocabuIarv:
ovaleness n
shot in the dark
Thus, thc pronunciation of ovalness is thc sum of thc pro-
nunciations of oval and -ness that of shot in the dark, thc
sum of thc pronunciation of thc four cIcmcnts that makc
up thc phrasc.
Thc notation sic is uscd at a fcw pronunciation rcspcII-
inus which arc corrcct but arc at variancc with thc spcIIinu
of thc word.
Kieriebati \'kir--,bas-sic\
Functional Labels
An itaIic IabcI indicatinu a part of spccch or somc othcr
functionaI cIassification foIIows thc pronunciation or, if
no pronunciation is uivcn, thc main cntrv. Thc main tradi-
tionaI parts of spccch arc indicatcd as foIIows:
1
bold . . . adj
1
but . . . conj
handeiely . . . adv oops . . . interj
boeleero . . . n someeone . . . pron
2
under prep
1
shrink . . . vb
If a vcrb is both transitivc and intransitivc, thc IabcIs vt
and vi introducc thc subdivisions:
ateten . . . vb . . . vt . . . vi
A boIdfacc swunu dash is uscd to stand for thc main cn-
trv (as flatten) and scparatc thc subdivisions of thc vcrb. If
thcrc is no subdivision, vt or vi takcs thc pIacc of vb:
2
eece vt
apeperetain . . . vi
LabcIinu a vcrb as transitivc, howcvcr, docs not prccIudc
occasionaI intransitivc usc (as in absoIutc constructions).
Othcr itaIicizcd IabcIs uscd to indicatc functionaI cIassi-
fications that arc not traditionaI parts of spccch arc:
geog abbr -itis n suffix
poly- comb form -ize vb suffix
-logy n comb form Lyecra . . . trademark
-iferous adj comb form -nd symbol
super- prefix
1
may . . . verbal auxiliary
Gramemy . . . service mark gidedyeap . . . vb imper
1
-ic adj suffix meethinks . . . vb impersonal
2
-ward or -wards adv suffix NC17 . . . certification mark
Two functionaI IabcIs arc somctimcs combincd:
zilch . . . adj or n
aoat . . . adj or adv
FunctionaI IabcIs arc not shown for main cntrics that
arc noun phrascs havinu a prcposition in thc middIc:
ball of re (ca. 1900) : a pcrson of unusuaI cncruv . . .
FunctionaI IabcIs arc aIso not shown for phrascs that arc
dcfincd run-on cntrics.
Inflected Forms
In comparison with somc othcr Ianuuaucs, EnuIish docs
not havc manv infIcctcd forms. Of thosc which it has, scv-
craI arc infIcctcd forms of words bcIonuinu to smaII,
cIoscd uroups (as thc pcrsonaI pronouns or thc dcmonstra-
tivcs). Thcsc forms can rcadiIv bc found at thcir own aI-
phabcticaI pIaccs with a fuII cntrv (as whom, thc obIcctivc
casc form of who) or with a cross-rcfcrcncc in smaII capitaI
Icttcrs to anothcr cntrv (as those, thc pIuraI form of that).
Most othcr infIcctcd forms, howcvcr, arc covcrcd cx-
pIicitIv or bv impIication at thc main cntrv for thc basc
form. Thcsc arc thc pIuraIs of nouns, thc principaI parts of
vcrbs (thc past tcnsc, thc past participIc whcn it diffcrs
from thc past tcnsc, and thc prcscnt participIc), and thc
comparativc and supcrIativc forms of adIcctivcs and ad-
vcrbs. In ucncraI, it mav bc said that whcn thcsc infIcctcd
forms arc crcatcd in a manncr considcrcd rcuuIar in En-
uIish (as bv addinu -s or -es to nouns, -ed and -ing to vcrbs,
and -er and -est to adIcctivcs and advcrbs) and whcn it
sccms that thcrc is nothinu about thc formation IikcIv to
uivc thc dictionarv uscr doubts, thc infIcctcd form is not
shown in ordcr to savc spacc for information morc IikcIv
to bc souuht. InfIcctcd forms arc aIso not shown at undc-
fincd run-ons or at somc cntrics bcarinu a Iimitinu IabcI:
gouremand . . . n . . . - gouremanedize . . . vi
1
femeienine . . . adj . . . - femeienineeness . . . n
Explanatory Notes 13a
2
lake n . . . laky . . . adj
2
cote . . . vt . . . obs : to pass by
crouse . . . adj . . . chiefly Scot : nrsx, LrvrLv
On the other hand, if the inflected form is created in an ir-
regular way or if the dictionary user is likely to have
doubts about it even though it is formed regularly, the
inflected form is shown in boldface, either in full or cut
back to a convenient and easily recognizable point. Full
details about the kinds of entries at which inflected forms
are shown and the kinds at which they are not shown are
given in the three following sections.
NOUNS
The plurals of nouns are shown in this dictionary when
suffixation brings about a change of final -y to -i-, when
the noun ends in a consonant plus -o, when the noun ends
in -oo or -ey, when the noun has an irregular plural or a
zero plural or a foreign plural, when the noun is a com-
pound that pluralizes any element but the last, when a fi-
nal consonant is doubled, when the noun has variant plu-
rals, and when it is believed that the dictionary user might
have reasonable doubts about the spelling of the plural or
when the plural is spelled in a way contrary to expecta-
tions:
2
spy n, pl spies
sielo . . . n, pl silos
2
shampoo n, pl shampoos
galeley . . . n, pl galleys
1
mouse . . . n, pl mice
moose . . . n, pl moose
crieteerieon . . . n, pl -ria
soninlaw . . . n, pl sonsinlaw
1
quiz . . . n, pl quizezes
1
sh . . . n, pl sh or shees
coregi . . . n, pl corgis
3
dry n, pl drys
Cutback inflected forms are used when the noun has three
or more syllables:
ameeniety . . . n, pl -ties
The plurals of nouns are usually not shown when the base
word is unchanged by suffixation, when the noun is a
compound whose second element is readily recognizable
as a regular free form entered at its own place, or when the
noun is unlikely to occur in the plural:
1
night . . . n
2
crunch n
foreefoot . . . n
moenogeaemy . . . n
Nouns that are plural in form and that regularly occur in
plural construction are labeled n pl:
muncheies . . . n pl
Nouns that are plural in form but that are not always con-
strued as plurals are appropriately labeled:
roeboteics . . . n pl but sing in constr
two bits n pl but sing or pl in constr
A noun that is singular in construction takes a singular
verb when it is used as a subject a noun that is plural in
construction takes a plural verb when it is used as a sub-
ject.
VERBS
The principal parts of verbs are shown in this dictionary
when suffixation brings about a doubling of a final conso-
nant or an elision of a final -e or a change of final -y to -i-,
when final -c changes to -ck in suffixation, when the verb
ends in -ey, when the inflection is irregular, when there are
variant inflected forms, and when it is believed that the
dictionary user might have reasonable doubts about the
spelling of an inflected form or when the inflected form is
spelled in a way contrary to expectations:
2
snag vt snagged; snageging
1
move . . . vb moved; moveing
1
cry . . . vb cried; cryeing
2
frolic vi froleicked; froleickeing
1
surevey . . . vb sureveyed; sureveyeing
1
drive . . . vb drove . . . driveen . . . driveing
2
bus vb bused also bussed; buseing also busesing
2
visa vt viesaed . . . viesaeing
2
chagrin vt chaegrined . . . chaegrineing
The principal parts of a regularly inflected verb are shown
when it is desirable to indicate the pronunciation of one of
the inflected forms:
learn . . . vb learned lrnd, lrnt learneing
ripeen . . . vb ripeened; ripeeneing r-p-ni, rp-ni
Cutback inflected forms are often used when the verb has
three or more syllables, when it is a disyllable that ends in
-l and has variant spellings, and when it is a compound
whose second element is readily recognized as an irregular
verb:
elimeienate . . . vb -nateed; -nateing
3
quarrel vi -reled or -relled; -releing or -releling
1
reetake . . . vt -took . . . -takeen . . . -takeing
The principal parts of verbs are usually not shown when
the base word is unchanged by suffixation or when the
verb is a compound whose second element is readily rec-
ognizable as a regular free form entered at its own place:
1
jump . . . vb
preejudge . . . vt
Another inflected form of English verbs is the third per-
son singular of the present tense, which is regularly
formed by the addition of -s or -es to the base form of the
verb. This inflected form is not shown except at a handful
of entries as have and do for which it is in some way
anomalous.
ADJECTIVES ADVERBS
The comparative and superlative forms of adjectives
and adverbs are shown in this dictionary when suffixation
brings about a doubling of a final consonant or an elision
of a final -e or a change of final -y to -i-, when the word
ends in -ey, when the inflection is irregular, and when
there are variant inflected forms:
1
red . . . adj rededer; rededest
1
tame . . . adj tameer; tameest
1
kindely . . . adj kindelieer; -est
1
earely . . . adv earelieer; -est
14a Explanatory Notes
diceey . . . adj diceieer; -est
1
good . . . adj beteter . . . best
1
bad . . . adj worse . . . worst
1
far . . . adv farether . . . or furether . . . farethest or furethest
The superlative forms of adjectives and adverbs of two or
more syllables are usually cut back:
3
fancy adj fanecieer; -est
1
earely . . . adv earelieer; -est
The comparative and superlative forms of regularly in-
flected adjectives and adverbs are shown when it is desir-
able to indicate the pronunciation of the inflected forms:
1
young . . . adj youneger y-gr younegest y-gst
The inclusion of inflected forms in -er and -est at adjective
and adverb entries means nothing more about the use of
more and most with these adjectives and adverbs than that
their comparative and superlative degrees may be ex-
pressed in either way lazier or more lazy laziest or most
lazy.
At a few adjective entries only the superlative form is
shown:
3
mere adj, superlative mereest
The absence of the comparative form indicates that there
is no evidence of its use.
The comparative and superlative forms of adjectives
and adverbs are not shown when the base word is un-
changed by suffixation or when the word is a compound
whose second element is readily recognizable as a regular
free form entered at its own place:
1
near . . . adv
unewary . . . adj
The comparative and superlative forms of adverbs are not
shown when they are identical with the inflected forms of
a preceding adjective homograph:
1
hot . . . adj hoteter; hotetest
2
hot adv
Capitalization
Most entries in this dictionary begin with a lowercase let-
ter. A few of these have an italicized label often cap, which
indicates that the word is as likely to be capitalized as not,
that it is as acceptable with an uppercase initial as it is with
one in lowercase. Some entries begin with an uppercase
letter, which indicates that the word is usually capitalized.
The absence of an initial capital or of an often cap label in-
dicates that the word is not ordinarily capitalized:
lunkehead . . . n
gareganetuan . . . adj, often cap
Moehawk . . . n
The capitalization of entries that are open or hyphenat-
ed compounds is similarly indicated by the form of the en-
try or by an italicized label:
obstacle course n
neoExepresesioneism . . . n, often cap N
offoffBroadway n, often cap both Os
unAmereiecan . . . adj
Dutch oven n
Old Glory n
A word that is capitalized in some senses and lowercase
in others shows variations from the form of the main entry
by the use of italicized labels at the appropriate senses:
reenaisesance . . . n . . . 1 cap . . . 2 often cap
Sheteland . . . n . . . 2 often not cap
Trineiety . . . n . . . 2 not cap
Attributive Nouns
The italicized label often attrib placed after the functional
label n indicates that the noun is often used as an adjective
equivalent in attributive position before another noun:
1
botetle . . . n, often attrib
busieness . . . n, often attrib
Examples of the attributive use of these nouns are bottle
opener and business ethics.
While any noun may occasionally be used attributively,
the label often attrib is limited to those having broad attrib-
utive use. This label is not used when an adjective homo-
graph as iron or paper is entered. And it is not used at
open compounds as health food that may be used attribu-
tively with an inserted hyphen as in health-food store.
Etymology
The matter in boldface square brackets preceding the def-
inition is the etymology. Meanings given in roman type
within these brackets are not definitions of the entry, but
are meanings of the Middle English, Old English, or non-
English words within the brackets.
The etymology traces a vocabulary entry as far back as
possible in English as to Old English, tells from what lan-
guage and in what form it came into English, and except
in the case of such words outside the general vocabulary
of English as bascule and zloty traces the pre-English
source as far back as possible if the source is an Indo
European language. These etyma are printed in italics.
OLD, MIDDLE, AND MODERN
ENGLISH
The etymology usually gives the Middle English and the
Old English forms of words in the following style:
1
nap . . . vi . . . [ME nappen, fr. OE hnappian . . . ]
1
old . . . adj [ME, fr. OE eald . . . ]
An etymology in which a word is traced back to Middle
English but not to Old English indicates that the word is
found in Middle English but not in those texts that have
survived from the Old English period:
1
slab . . . n [ME slabbe]
1
nag . . . n . . . [ME nagge akin to D negge small horse]
An etymology in which a word is traced back directly to
Old English with no intervening mention of Middle En-
glish indicates that the word has not survived continuously
from Old English times to the present. Rather, it died out
after the Old English period and has been revived in mod-
ern times:
geemot . . . n [OE gemt . . . ]
thegn . . . n [OE . . . ]
An etymology is not usually given for a word created in
English by the combination of existing constituents or by
Explanatory Notes 15a
functionaI shift. This indicatcs that thc idcntitv of thc con-
stitucnts is cxpcctcd to bc scIf-cvidcnt to thc uscr.
bookeshelf . . . n . . . : an opcn shcIf for hoIdinu books
1
reeproof . . . adj . . . : proof auainst or rcsistant to firc
offputeting . . . adj . . . : that puts onc off : rrLLr1, orsco-
cr1rc
penal code n . . . : a codc of Iaws conccrninu crimcs and offcnscs and
thcir punishmcnt
3
stalk n . . . 1 : thc act of staIkinu
In thc casc of a famiIv of words obviousIv rcIatcd to a
common EnuIish word but diffcrinu from it bv containinu
various casiIv rccounizabIc suffixcs, an ctvmoIouv is usuaI-
Iv uivcn onIv at thc basc word, cvcn thouuh somc of thc
dcrivativcs mav havc bccn formcd in a Ianuuauc othcr
than EnuIish:
1
equal . . . adj [ME, fr. L aequalis, fr. aequus IcvcI, cquaI] . . . 1 a (1)
: of thc samc mcasurc, quantitv, amount, or numbcr as anothcr
equaleiety . . . n . . . 1 : thc quaIitv or statc of bcinu cquaI
equaleize . . . vt . . . 1 : to makc cquaI
WhiIc equalize was formcd in Modcrn EnuIish, equality
was actuaIIv borrowcd into MiddIc EnuIish (via AnuIo-
Frcnch) from Latin aequalitas.
Incorporatinu matcriaI from maIor schoIarIv rcfcrcncc
works compIctcd in rcccnt vcars, thc ctvmoIouics of Iatc
OId and MiddIc EnuIish words borrowcd from Frcnch now
appIv thc IabcI AnuIo-Frcnch" (abbrcviatcd AF) to aII
mcdicvaI Frcnch words known to havc bccn uscd in
Frcnch documcnts writtcn in Britain bcforc about 1400.
This trcatmcnt acknowIcducs that Iitcratc EnuIish spcak-
crs thcn wcrc tvpicaIIv biIinuuaI or triIinuuaI rcadcrs and
writcrs who cuItivatcd distinctivc varictics of Latin and
Frcnch as wcII as of EnuIish, and that words movcd casiIv
from onc to anothcr of thcsc thrcc Ianuuaucs. Thc IabcI
AnuIo-Frcnch" shouId not bc takcn to mcan that thc ctv-
mon is attcstcd cxcIusivcIv in AnuIo-Frcnch, for in thc
urcat maIoritv of cascs thc word has a counatc form in thc
contincntaI northcrn Frcnch of Picardv and Normandv or
thc Frcnch of Paris and its surroundinus. Bccausc AnuIo-
Frcnch is onc diaIcct of mcdicvaI Frcnch, it faIIs within thc
domain of widcr IabcIs OId Frcnch" and MiddIc
Frcnch," which covcr aII diaIccts of Frcnch in thcir rcspcc-
tivc timc framcs. A simiIar caution appIics to dcrivativc
words:
1
joureney . . . n . . . [ME, fr. AF jurnee dav, dav`s Iourncv, fr. jur dav, fr.
LL diurnum . . . ]
This ctvmoIouv docs not mcan that thc dcrivation of ju-
rnee from jur took pIacc onIv in AnuIo-Frcnch. Forms cor-
rcspondinu to AnuIo-Frcnch jurnee cxist in othcr diaIccts
of OId and MiddIc Frcnch, as wcII as in OId Occitan, and
thc word survivcs in Modcrn Frcnch as journe, dav."
LANGLAGES OTHER THAN
ENGLISH
Thc ctvmoIouv uivcs thc Ianuuauc from which words
borrowcd into EnuIish havc comc. It aIso uivcs thc form or
a transIitcration of thc word in that Ianuuauc if thc form
diffcrs from that in EnuIish:
1
mareble . . . n [ME, fr. AF marbre, fr. L marmor, fr. Gk marmaros]
howeitezer . . . n [D houwitser, uItim. fr. Czcch houfnice baIIista]
souk . . . n [Ar sTq markct]
In a fcw cascs thc cxprcssion uItim. fr." rcpIaccs thc
morc usuaI fr." This cxprcssion indicatcs that onc or
morc intcrmcdiatc stcps havc bccn omittcd in tracinu thc
dcrivation of thc form prcccdinu thc cxprcssion from thc
form foIIowinu it:
trieloebite . . . n [uItim. fr. Gk trilobos thrcc-Iobcd, fr. tri- + lobos Iobc]
Whcn a Ianuuauc namc that is not itscIf an cntrv in thc
dictionarv is uscd in an ctvmoIouv, a short parcnthcticaI
dcfinition wiII immcdiatcIv foIIow thc namc:
kookeaeburera . . . n [Wiradhuri (AustraIian aboriuinaI Ianuuauc of ccn-
traI Ncw South WaIcs) gugubarra]
Howcvcr, subfamiIv, Ianuuauc, or diaIcct namcs modificd
bv quaIificrs that simpIv add ucouraphicaI oricntation-as
Intcrior SaIish," MF (Picard diaI.)," or Southcrn
Paiutc"-wiII not bc furthcr dcfincd as Ionu as both thc
quaIificr and thc word bcinu quaIificd arc both cntrics in
thc dictionarv.
Words citcd from ccrtain Amcrican Indian Ianuuaucs
and from somc othcr Ianuuaucs that arc infrcqucntIv
printcd havc bccn rcndcrcd with thc phonctic svmboIs
uscd bv schoIars of thosc Ianuuaucs. Thcsc svmboIs in-
cIudc thc foIIowinu: a raiscd dot to thc riuht of a vowcI Ict-
tcr to mark vowcI Icnuth; a hook bcIow a vowcI Icttcr to
mark nasaIitv; an apostrophc ovcr a consonant Icttcr to
mark uIottaI rcIcasc; a supcrscript w to thc riuht of a con-
sonant Icttcr to mark IabiaIization; thc svmboI Z to rcndcr
\o\; thc svmboI q to rcndcr a hiuh ccntraI vowcI; thc Grcck
Icttcrs , , and to rcndcr voiccd IabiaI, dcntaI, and vcIar
fricativcs; thc svmboI to rcndcr \th\; thc svmboI x to rcn-
dcr \k\; thc svmboI p to rcndcr a uIottaI stop; and thc svm-
boI (crosscd Iambda") for a voiccIcss IatcraI affricatc.
ExampIcs of thcsc svmboIs can bc found at ctvmoIouics
for thc words Athabascan, babassu, coho, fist, Lhasa apso,
potlatch, and sego lily.
ASSLMED OR RECONSTRLCTED
FORMS
An astcrisk pIaccd bcforc a word mcans that it is as-
sumcd to havc cxistcd or has bccn rcconstructcd bv mcans
of comparativc cvidcncc. In somc cascs, thc assumption
mav bc duc to Iack of cvidcncc:
4
bore n [ME *bore wavc, fr. ON bra] (1601)
Thc word is unattcstcd bcforc Modcrn EnuIish, thouuh thc
IikcIihood is stronu that it was borrowcd from Scandina-
vian much carIicr. Thc casc of thc word battlement is
somcwhat diffcrcnt:
batetleement . . . n [ME batelment, fr. AF *bataillement, fr. batailler to
fortifv with battIcmcnts - morc at nA11Lr]
It is hiuhIv probabIc that bataillement cxistcd in AnuIo-
Frcnch, uivcn that both thc undcrIvinu vcrb batailler and
thc MiddIc EnuIish dcrivativc batelment arc attcstcd.
Thc astcrisk is invariabIv uscd bcforc words IabcIcd VL,
which stands for VuIuar Latin," thc traditionaI namc for
thc unrccordcd spokcn Latin of both thc uncducatcd and
cducatcd, cspcciaIIv in thc finaI ccnturics of thc Roman
Empirc. VuIuar Latin forms can bc rcconstructcd on thc
basis of thcir Iatcr outcomc in thc Romancc Ianuuaucs and
of thcir rcIationship with known Latin words:
1
canevas . . . n [ME canevas, fr. AF canevas, chanevaz, fr. VL *cannaba-
ceus hcmpcn, fr. L cannabis hcmp . . . ]
WORDS OF LNKNOWN ORIGIN
Whcn thc sourcc of a word appcarinu as a main cntrv is
unknown, thc cxprcssion oriuin unknown" is usuaIIv
uscd. OnIv in cxccptionaI circumstanccs (as with somc
cthnic namcs) docs thc abscncc of an ctvmoIouv mcan that
it has not bccn possibIc to furnish an informativc ctvmoIo-
uv. Morc oftcn, it mcans that no ctvmoIouv is bcIicvcd to
bc ncccssarv. This is thc casc, for instancc, with most of
thc cntrics idcntificd as variants and with manv dcriva-
tivcs.
16a Explanatory Notes
ETYMOLOGIES OF TECHNICAL
WORDS
Much of the technical vocabulary of the sciences and
other specialized studies consists of words or word ele-
ments that are current in two or more languages, with only
such slight modifications as are necessary to adapt them to
the structure of the individual language in each case.
Many words and word elements of this kind have become
sufficiently a part of the general vocabulary of English as
to require entry in an abridged dictionary. Because of the
vast extent of the relevant published material in many lan-
guages and in many scientific and other specialized fields,
it is impracticable to ascertain the language of origin of ev-
ery such term. Yet it would not be accurate to formulate a
statement about the origin of any such term in a way that
could be interpreted as implying that it was coined in En-
glish. Accordingly, whenever a term that is entered in this
dictionary belongs recognizably to this class of interna-
tionally current terms and whenever no positive evidence
is at hand to show that it was coined in English, the ety-
mology recognizes its international status and the possibil-
ity that it originated elsewhere than in English by use of
the label ISV for International Scientific Vocabulary:
megaewatt . . . n [ISV]
phyeloegeeneteic . . . adj [ISV, fr. NL phylogenesis . . . ]
1
-ol n suffix [ISV, fr. alcohol]
COMPRESSION OF INFORMATION
An etymology giving the name of a language including
ME or OE and not giving the foreign or Middle English
or Old English form indicates that this form is the same as
that of the entry word:
kaepok . . . n [Malay]
1
poegrom . . . n [Yiddish, fr. Russ . . . ]
1
dumb . . . adj [ME, fr. OE . . . ]
An etymology giving the name of a language including
ME or OE and the form in that language but not giving
the foreign or Middle English or Old English meaning in-
dicates that this meaning is the same as that expressed in
the first definition in the entry:
1
weaery . . . adj . . . [ME wery, fr. OE wrig . . . ] . . . 1 : exhausted in
strength . . .
When a word from a foreign language or Middle En-
glish or Old English is a key element in the etymologies of
several related entries that are found close together, the
meaning of the word is usually given at only one of the en-
tries:
veeloece . . . adv or adj [It, fr. L veloc-, velox]
veeloceiepede . . . n [F vlocipde, fr. L veloc-, velox + ped-, pes foot
more at roo1]
veeloceiety . . . n . . . [MF velocit, fr. L velocitat-, velocitas, fr. veloc-,
velox quick prob. akin to L vegre to enliven more at wAxr]
When an etymology includes the expression by alter.
and the altered form is not cited, the form is the term giv-
en in small capital letters as the definition:
ole . . . adj [by alter.] . . . : oLo
When the origin of a word is traced to the name of a per-
son or place not further identified, additional information
may be found in the Biographical Names or Geographical
Names section in the back matter:
faread . . . n [Michael Faraday]
jodhepur . . . n [Jodhpur, India]
RELATED WORDS
When a word of Indo-European origin has been traced
back to the earliest language in which it is attested, words
descended from the same Indo-European base in other
languages especially Old High German, Latin, Greek, and
Sanskrit are usually given:
naevel . . . n [ME, fr. OE nafela akin to OHG nabalo navel, L umbili-
cus, Gk omphalos]
1
wind . . . n . . . [ME, fr. OE akin to OHG wint wind, L ventus, Gk anai
to blow, Skt vti it blows]
Sometimes, however, to avoid space-consuming repetition,
the expression more at directs the user to another entry
where the cognates are given:
hoely . . . adj . . . [ME, fr. OE hlig akin to OE hl whole more at
wnoLr]
Besides the use of akin to to denote relatedness, some
etymologies make special use of akin to as part of a
longer formula of . . . origin akin to. . . . This formula
indicates that a word was borrowed from some language
belonging to a group of languages whose name is inserted
in the blank before the word origin, that it is impossible to
say that the word in question is a borrowing of a particular
attested word in a particular language of the source group,
and that the form cited in the blank after the expression
akin to is related to the word in question as attested within
the source group:
baenana . . . n . . . [Sp or Pg Sp, fr. Pg, of African origin akin to Wolof
banaana banana]
2
briar n [ . . . F bruyre heath, fr. MF bruiere, fr. VL brucaria, fr. LL
brucus heather, of Celt origin akin to OIr froech heather akin to Gk
ereik heather]
This last example shows the two contrasting uses of akin
to. The word cited immediately after of Celt origin akin
to is an attested Celtic word descended from the same et-
ymon as the unattested Celtic source of the Latin word.
The word cited after the second akin to is evidence that
the Celtic etymon has deeper relations within Indo
European.
Dates
At most main entries a date will be found enclosed in pa-
rentheses immediately preceding the boldface colon or the
number that introduces the first sense:
exepoes also exepoese . . . n [F expos, fr. pp. of exposer] 1803 1 : a
formal statement of facts 2 : an exposure of something discreditable
This is the date of the earliest recorded use in English, as
far as it could be determined, of the sense which the date
precedes. Several caveats are appropriate at this point.
First, a few classes of main entries that are not complete
words as prefixes, suffixes, and combining forms or are
not generic words as trademarks are not given dates. Sec-
ond, the date given applies only to the first sense of the
word entered in this dictionary and not necessarily to the
words very earliest meaning in English. Many words, es-
pecially those with long histories, have obsolete, archaic,
or uncommon senses that are not entered in this dictio-
nary, and such senses have been excluded from consider-
ation in determining the date:
greenehorn . . . n [obs. greenhorn animal with green or young horns]
1682 1 : an inexperienced or naive person
The 1682 date is for sense 1, not for the word as a whole.
Greenhorn also has an obsolete sense, animal with green
Explanatory Notes 17a
or young horns, that was recorded as early as 1460, but
since this sense is not entered, it is ignored for purposes of
dating. Third, the printed date should not be taken to
mark the very first time that the wordor even the
sensewas used in English. Many words were certainly in
spoken use for decades or even longer before they passed
into the written language. The date is for the earliest writ-
ten or printed use that the editors have been able to dis-
cover. This fact means further that any date is subject to
change as evidence of still earlier use may emerge, and
many dates given now can confidently be expected to yield
to others in future printings and editions.
A date will appear in one of three different styles:
nuclear family n 1947 : a family group that consists only of father,
mother, and children
1
moonelight . . . n 14c : the light of the moon
1
sheet . . . n ME shete, fr. OE scte, scete . . . bef. 12c 1 a : a broad
piece of cloth esp :
The style that names a year as 1947 is the one used for
the period from the sixteenth century to the present. The
style that names only a century as 14c is the one used for
the period from the twelfth century through the fifteenth
century, a span that roughly approximates the period of
Middle English. The style bef. 12c is used for the period
before the twelfth century back to the earliest records of
English, a span that approximates the period of Old En-
glish. Words first attested after 1500 can usually be dated
to a single year because the precise dates of publication of
modern printed texts are known. If a word must be dated
from a modern text of uncertain chronology, it will be as-
signed the latest possible date of the texts publication pre-
fixed by the abbreviation ca. for circa. For words from
the Old and Middle English periods the examples of use on
which the dates depend very often occur in manuscripts
which are themselves of uncertain date and which may
record a text whose date of composition is highly conjec-
tural. To date words from these periods by year would fre-
quently give a quite misleading impression of the state of
our knowledge, and so the broader formulas involving
centuries are used instead.
Each date reflects a particular instance of the use of a
word, most often within a continuous text. In cases where
the earliest appearance of a word dated by year is not from
continuous text but from a source as a dictionary or glos-
sary that defines or explains the word instead of simply
using it, the year is preceded by ca.:
magnesium hydroxide n ca. 1909 : a slightly alkaline crystalline
compound MgOH2 . . .
In such instances, ca. indicates that while the source pro-
viding the date attests that the word was in use in the rele-
vant sense at that time, it does not offer an example of the
normal use of the word and thus gives no better than an
approximate date for such use. For the example above no
use has so far been found that is earlier than its appear-
ance as an entry in Websters New International Dictio-
nary, published in 1909, so the date is given with the qual-
ifying abbreviation.
Usage
USAGE LABELS
Three types of status labels are used in this dictionary
temporal, regional, and stylisticto signal that a word
or a sense of a word is not part of the standard vocabulary
of English.
The temporal label obs for obsolete means that there
is no evidence of use since 1755:
1
peredu . . . n . . . obs
goveernement . . . n . . . 2 obs
The label obs is a comment on the word being defined.
When a thing, as distinguished from the word used to des-
ignate it, is obsolete, appropriate orientation is usually giv-
en in the definition:
1
cateaepult . . . n . . . 1 : an ancient military device for hurling missiles
farethinegale . . . n . . . : a support as of hoops worn esp. in the 16th
century beneath a skirt to expand it at the hipline
The temporal label archaic means that a word or sense
once in common use is found today only sporadically or in
special contexts:
1
goody . . . n . . . archaic
lonegietude . . . n . . . 2 archaic
A word or sense limited in use to a specific region of the
U.S. has a regional label. Some regional labels correspond
loosely to areas defined in Hans Kuraths Word Geography
of the Eastern United States. The adverb chiefly precedes a
label when the word has some currency outside the speci-
fied region, and a double label is used to indicate consider-
able currency in each of two specific regions:
pung . . . n . . . NewEng
banequette . . . n . . . 1 . . . b Southern
3
pasetor . . . n . . . chiefly Southwest
doegie . . . n . . . chiefly West
galelery . . . n . . . 2 . . . b Southern Midland
1
potelatch . . . n . . . 2 Northwest
smearecase . . . n . . . chiefly Midland
cruleler . . . n . . . 2 Northern Midland
Words current in all regions of the U.S. have no label.
A word or sense limited in use to one of the other coun-
tries of the English-speaking world has an appropriate re-
gional label:
cutety sark . . . n . . . chiefly Scot
lareriekin . . . n . . . chiefly Austral
inedaeba . . . n . . . chiefly SoAfr
spalepeen . . . n . . . chiefly Irish
1
bonenet . . . n . . . 2 a Brit
book off vi . . . chiefly Canad
1
dinekum . . . adj . . . Austral NewZeal
gareron . . . n . . . Scot Irish
The label Brit indicates that a word or sense is current in
the United Kingdom or in more than one nation of the
Commonwealth as the United Kingdom, Australia, and
Canada.
The label dial for dialect indicates that the pattern of
use of a word or sense is too complex for summary label-
ing: it usually includes several regional varieties of Ameri-
can English or of American and British English:
leasteways . . . adv . . . dial
The label dial Brit indicates currency in several dialects
of the Commonwealth dial Eng indicates currency in one
or more provincial dialects of England:
boegle . . . n . . . dial Brit
1
hob . . . n . . . 1 dial Eng
The stylistic label slang is used with words or senses that
are especially appropriate in contexts of extreme informal-
ity, that are usually not limited to a particular region or
18a Explanatory Notes
arca of intcrcst, and that arc composcd tvpicaIIv of short-
cncd or aItcrcd forms or cxtravauant or facctious fiuurcs
of spccch:
4
barb n . . . slang : nAnr1LA1r
2
skinny n . . . slang : insidc information : oor
breadebaseket . . . n . . . 1 slang : s1omAcn
Thcrc is no satisfactorv obIcctivc tcst for sIanu, cspcciaIIv
with rcfcrcncc to a word out of contcxt. No word, in fact,
is invariabIv sIanu, and manv standard words can bc uivcn
sIanu appIications.
Thc stvIistic IabcI nonstand for nonstandard" is uscd
for a fcw words or scnscs that arc disapprovcd bv manv
but that havc somc currcncv in rcputabIc contcxts:
learn . . . vb . . . 2 a nonstand
irereegardeless . . . adv . . . nonstand
Thc stvIistic IabcIs disparaging, offensive, obscene, and
vulgar arc uscd for thosc words or scnscs that in common
usc arc intcndcd to hurt or shock or that arc IikcIv to uivc
offcnsc cvcn whcn thcv arc uscd without such an intcnt:
grinego . . . n . . . often disparaging
piss away vt . . . sometimes vulgar
A subIcct IabcI or uuidc phrasc is somctimcs uscd to in-
dicatc thc spccific appIication of a word or scnsc:
2
break n . . . 5 . . . d mining
anetiemageneteic . . . adj . . . of a watch
1
huemor . . . n . . . 2 a in medieval physiology
In ucncraI, howcvcr, subIcct oricntation Iics in thc dcfini-
tion:
Diedo . . . n . . . : a Icucndarv quccn of Carthauc in ViruiI`s Aeneid who
kiIIs hcrscIf whcn Acncas Icavcs hcr
jeet . . . n . . . : a sprinuinu Iump in baIIct madc from onc foot to thc
othcr in anv dircction
ILLLSTRATIONS OF LSAGE
Dcfinitions arc somctimcs foIIowcd bv vcrbaI iIIustra-
tions that show a tvpicaI usc of thc word in contcxt. Thcsc
iIIustrations arc cncIoscd in anuIc brackcts, and thc word
bcinu iIIustratcd is usuaIIv rcpIaccd bv a Iiuhtfacc swunu
dash. Thc swunu dash stands for thc boIdfacc cntrv word,
and it mav bc foIIowcd bv an itaIicizcd suffix:
1
key . . . n . . . 3 a . . . :thc ~ to a riddIc;
comemit . . . vt . . . 1 . . . c . . . :~ it to mcmorv;
2
plummet vi . . . 2 . . . :priccs ~ed;
weak . . . adj . . . 4 . . . b . . . (2) . . . :historv was mv ~est subIcct;
Thc swunu dash is not uscd whcn thc form of thc boIdfacc
cntrv word is chanucd in suffixation, and it is not uscd for
opcn compounds:
1
true . . . adj . . . 8 . . . :in thc truest scnsc;
turn off vt . . . 4 . . . :turn thc watcr off;
IIIustrativc quotations arc aIso uscd to show words in
tvpicaI contcxts:
coneicteed . . . adj . . . :this unhappv and ~ modcrn woman -1ohn
Lpdikc;
Omissions in quotations arc indicatcd bv cIIipscs:
alieneation . . . n . . . 1 . . . :~ . . . from thc vaIucs of onc`s socictv and
famiIv -S. L. HaIIcck;
LSAGE NOTES
Dcfinitions arc somctimcs foIIowcd bv usauc notcs that
uivc suppIcmcntarv information about such mattcrs as idi-
om, svntax, scmantic rcIationship, and status. A usauc
notc is introduccd bv a Iiuhtfacc dash:
1
inch . . . n . . . 5 : . . . - usu. uscd in thc phrasc give an inch
2
drum . . . vt . . . 2 : . . . - usu. uscd with out
1
so . . . adv . . . 1 a : . . . - oftcn uscd as a substitutc for a prcccdinu
cIausc
1
sforezanedo . . . adj or adv . . . : . . . - uscd as a dircction in music
hajji . . . n . . . : . . . - oftcn uscd as a titIc
Two or morc usauc notcs arc scparatcd bv a scmicoIon:
2
thine pron . . . : that which bcIonus to thcc - uscd without a foIIowinu
noun as a pronoun cquivaIcnt in mcaninu to thc adIcctivc thy uscd
csp. in cccIcsiasticaI or Iitcrarv Ianuuauc and stiII survivinu in thc
spccch of Fricnds csp. amonu thcmscIvcs
Somctimcs a usauc notc caIIs attcntion to onc or morc
tcrms with thc samc dcnotation as thc main cntrv:
water moccasin n . . . 1 : a vcnomous scmiaquatic pit vipcr (Agkistro-
don piscivorus) chicfIv of thc southcastcrn L.S. that is cIoscIv rcIatcd to
thc coppcrhcad - caIIcd aIso cottonmouth, cottonmouth moccasin
Thc caIIcd-aIso tcrms arc shown in itaIic tvpc. If such a
tcrm faIIs aIphabcticaIIv morc than a coIumn awav from
thc main cntrv, it is cntcrcd at its own pIacc with thc soIc
dcfinition bcinu a svnonvmous cross-rcfcrcncc to thc cn-
trv whcrc it appcars in thc usauc notc:
cotetonemouth . . . n . . . : wA1r moccAsr
cottonmouth moccasin n . . . : wA1r moccAsr
Somctimcs a usauc notc is uscd in pIacc of a dcfinition.
Somc function words (as conIunctions and prcpositions)
havc IittIc or no scmantic contcnt; most intcrIcctions cx-
prcss fccIinus but arc othcrwisc untransIatabIc into mcan-
inu; and somc othcr words (as oaths and honorific titIcs)
arc morc amcnabIc to commcnt than to dcfinition:
1
of . . . prep . . . 1 - uscd as a function word to indicatc a point of rcck-
oninu
1
oyez . . . vb imper . . . - uscd bv a court or pubIic cricr to uain attcn-
tion bcforc a procIamation
1
or . . . conj . . . 1 - uscd as a function word to indicatc an aItcrnativc
gosh . . . interj . . . - uscd as a miId oath to cxprcss surprisc
sir . . . n . . . 2 a - uscd as a usu. rcspcctfuI form of addrcss
LSAGE PARAGRAPHS
Bricf usauc parauraphs havc bccn pIaccd at a numbcr of
cntrics for tcrms that arc considcrcd to prcscnt probIcms
of confuscd or disputcd usauc. A usauc parauraph tvpicaI-
Iv summarizcs thc historicaI backuround of thc itcm and
its associatcd bodv of opinion, comparcs thcsc with avaiI-
abIc cvidcncc of currcnt usauc, and oftcn adds a fcw words
of suitabIc advicc for thc dictionarv uscr.
Each parauraph is siunaIcd bv an indcntcd boIdfacc itaI-
ic usage. Whcrc appropriatc, discussion is kcvcd bv scnsc
numbcr to thc dcfinition of thc mcaninu in qucstion. Most
parauraphs incorporatc appropriatc vcrbaI iIIustrations
and iIIustrativc quotations to cIarifv and cxcmpIifv thc
points bcinu madc:
agegraevate . . . vt . . . 1 obs a : to makc hcavv : nLor b : r-
crAsr 2 : to makc worsc, morc scrious, or morc scvcrc : intcnsifv
unpIcasantIv :probIcms havc bccn aggravated bv ncuIcct; 3 a : to
rousc to dispIcasurc or anucr bv usu. pcrsistcnt and oftcn pcttv uoad-
inu b : to producc infIammation in
usage AIthouuh aggravate has bccn uscd in scnsc 3a sincc thc 17th
ccnturv, it has bccn thc obIcct of disapprovaI onIv sincc about 1870. It
is uscd in cxpositorv prosc :whcn his siIIv conccit . . . about his not-
vcrv-uood carIv work has bcuun to aggravate us -WiIIiam Stvron;
Explanatory Notes 19a
but seems to be more common in speech and casual writing a good
profession for him, because bus drivers get aggravated Jackie Glea-
son interview, 1986 now this letter comes to aggravate me a
thousand times worse Mark Twain letter, 1864. Sense 2 is far
more common than sense 3a in published prose. Such is not the case,
however, with aggravation and aggravating. Aggravation is used in
sense 3 somewhat more than in its earlier senses aggravating has prac-
tically no use other than to express annoyance.
When a second word is also discussed in a paragraph,
the main entry for that word is followed by a run-on usage
see . . . , which refers to the entry where the paragraph
may be found:
2
afefect . . . vb . . . usage see rrrrc1
Definitions
DIVISION OF SENSES
A boldface colon is used in this dictionary to introduce a
definition:
1
cooeper . . . n . . . : one that makes or repairs wooden casks or tubs
It is also used to separate two or more definitions of a sin-
gle sense:
unecage . . . vt . . . : to release from or as if from a cage : free from re-
straint
Boldface Arabic numerals separate the senses of a word
that has more than one sense:
1
gloom . . . vb . . . vi . . . 1 : to look, feel, or act sullen or despondent 2
: to be or become overcast 3 : to loom up dimly
Boldface lowercase letters separate the subsenses of a
word:
1
grand . . . adj . . . 5 a : LAvrsn, sLm1LoLs . . . b : marked by a regal
form and dignity c : fine or imposing in appearance or impression d
: Lor1v, sLnLrmr
Lightface numerals in parentheses indicate a further di-
vision of subsenses:
take out vt 1 a 1 : oroLc1, srAA1r 2 : rxcLLor, omr1 3
: wr1noAw, wr1nnoLo
A lightface colon following a definition and immediately
preceding two or more subsenses indicates that the sub-
senses are subsumed by the preceding definition:
2
crunch n . . . 3 : a tight or critical situation: as a : a critical point in
the buildup of pressure between opposing elements . . . b : a severe
economic squeeze . . . c : sno1Acr
seequoia . . . n . . . : either of two huge coniferous California trees of
the bald cypress family that may reach a height of over 300 feet 90
meters: a : crA1 sroLorA b : rowooo 3a
The word as may or may not follow the lightface colon. Its
presence as at
2
crunch indicates that the following sub-
senses are typical or significant examples. Its absence as
at sequoia indicates that the subsenses which follow are
exhaustive.
The system of separating the various senses of a word by
numerals and letters is a lexical convenience. It reflects
something of their semantic relationship, but it does not
evaluate senses or set up a hierarchy of importance among
them.
Sometimes a particular semantic relationship between
senses is suggested by the use of one of four italic sense di-
viders: esp, specif, also, or broadly.
The sense divider esp for especially is used to introduce
the most common meaning subsumed in the more general
preceding definition:
2
slick adj . . . 3 a : characterized by subtlety or nimble wit : cLrvr
esp : wrLv
The sense divider specif for specifically is used to intro-
duce a common but highly restricted meaning subsumed
in the more general preceding definition:
ponetiff . . . n . . . 2 : nrsno specif, often cap : or 1
The sense divider also is used to introduce a meaning
that is closely related to but may be considered less impor-
tant than the preceding sense:
chiena . . . n . . . 1 : ocrLAr also : vitreous porcelain wares as dish-
es, vases, or ornaments for domestic use
The sense divider broadly is used to introduce an ex-
tended or wider meaning of the preceding definition:
otesam . . . n . . . 1 : floating wreckage of a ship or its cargo broadly
: floating debris
ORDER OF SENSES
The order of senses within an entry is historical: the
sense known to have been first used in English is entered
first. This is not to be taken to mean, however, that each
sense of a multisense word developed from the immediate-
ly preceding sense. It is altogether possible that sense 1 of a
word has given rise to sense 2 and sense 2 to sense 3, but
frequently sense 2 and sense 3 may have arisen indepen-
dently of one another from sense 1.
When a numbered sense is further subdivided into let-
tered subsenses, the inclusion of particular subsenses with-
in a sense is based upon their semantic relationship to one
another, but their order is likewise historical: subsense 1a
is earlier than 1b, 1b is earlier than 1c, and so forth. Divi-
sions of subsenses indicated by lightface numerals in pa-
rentheses are also in historical order with respect to one
another. Subsenses may be out of historical order, howev-
er, with respect to the broader numbered senses:
1
job . . . n . . . ca. 1627 1 a : a piece of work esp : a small miscella-
neous piece of work undertaken on order at a stated rate b : the ob-
ject or material on which work is being done c : something produced
by or as if by work do a better next time d : an example of a
usu. specified type : r1rm a 14,000-square-foot with . . . seven
bedrooms Rick Telander 2 a : something done for private advan-
tage suspected the whole incident was a put-up b : a criminal
enterprise specif : onnrv c : a damaging or destructive bit of
work did a on him 3 a 1 : something that has to be done :
1Asx 2 : an undertaking requiring unusual exertion it was a real
to talk over that noise b : a specific duty, role, or function c : a
regular remunerative position d chiefly Brit : state of affairs usu.
used with bad or good it was a good you didnt hit the old man
E. L. Thomas 4 : plastic surgery for cosmetic purposes a nose

At job the date indicates that the earliest unit of meaning,


sense 1a, was born in the seventeenth century, and it is
readily apparent how the following subsenses are linked to
it and to each other by the idea of work. Even subsense 1d
is so linked, because while it does not apply exclusively to
manufactured items, it often does so, as the illustrative
quotation suggests. Yet 1d did not exist before the 1920s,
while 2a and 3a 1 both belong to the seventeenth centu-
ry, although they are later than 1a. Even subsense 3d is
earlier than 1d, as it is found in the works of Dickens.
Historical order also determines whether transitive or
intransitive senses are given first at verbs which have both
kinds. If the earliest sense is transitive, all the transitive
senses precede all the intransitive senses.
OMISSION OF A SENSE
Occasionally the dictionary user, having turned to an
entry, may not find a particular sense that was expected or
hoped for. This usually means no more than that the edi-
tors judged the sense insufficiently common or otherwise
important to include in a dictionary of this scope. Such a
sense will frequently be found at the appropriate entry in a
dictionary as Websters Third New International Dictio-
20a Explanatory Notes
nary that has room for less common words and meanings.
One special case is worth noting, however.
At times it would be possible to include the definition of
a meaning at more than one entry as at a simple verb and
a verb-adverb collocation or at a verb and an adjective de-
rived from a participle of that verb. To save space for oth-
er information such double coverage is avoided, and the
meaning is generally defined only at the base form. For the
derivative term the meaning is then considered to be es-
sentially self-explanatory and is not defined. For example
cast off has a sense to get rid of in such typical contexts
as cast off all restraint, and so has the simple verb cast in
contexts like cast all restraint to the winds. This meaning
is defined as sense 1e2 of cast and is omitted from the en-
try cast off, where the dictionary user will find a number of
senses that cannot be considered self-explanatory in rela-
tion to the entries for cast and off. Likewise, the entry for
the adjective picked gives only one sense cnorcr,
rmrwhich is not the meaning of picked in such a
context as the picked fruit lay stacked in boxes awaiting
shipment. A definition suitable for this use is not given at
picked because one is given at the first homograph pick,
the verb from which the adjective picked is derived, as
sense 3ato gather by plucking.
INFORMATION AT INDIVIDUAL
SENSES
Information coming between the entry word and the
first definition of a multisense word applies to all senses
and subsenses. Information applicable only to some senses
or subsenses is given between the appropriate boldface nu-
meral or letter and the symbolic colon. A variety of kinds
of information is offered in this way:
2
palm n . . . 3 [L palmus, fr. palma]
2
rally n . . . 4 also ralelye
1
disk or disc . . . n . . . 4 . . . a usu disc
crueciexeion . . . n . . . 1 a cap
1
tile . . . n . . . 1 pl tiles or tile a . . .
deleiecaetesesen . . . n pl . . . 1 . . . 2 sing, pl delicatessens
xeing . . . n . . . 2 pl
2
die . . . n, pl dice . . . or dies . . . 1 pl dice . . . 2 pl dies . . . 3 pl dies
1
folk . . . n, pl folk or folks . . . 5 folks pl
At palm the subetymology indicates that the third sense,
while ultimately derived from the same source Latin
palma as the other senses of the word, has a different im-
mediate etymon Latin palmus, from which it receives its
meaning. At rally one is told that in the fourth sense the
word has a variant spelling not used for other senses and
that this variant is a secondary or less common one. At
disk the italic label of sense 4a indicates that, while the
spelling disk is overall somewhat the more common since
it precedes disc out of alphabetical order at the beginning
of the entry, disc is the usual spelling for this particular
sense. At crucifixion the label cap points out the one mean-
ing of the word in which it is capitalized. At the first ho-
mograph tile no plural is shown at the beginning of the en-
try because the usual plural, tiles, is regular. The subsenses
of sense 1, however, have a zero plural as well as the usual
one, and so both plurals appear in boldface at sense 1. At
delicatessen the situation is different: the entry as a whole
is labeled a plural noun, but sense 2 is used as a singular.
In this sense delicatessen can take the plural ending -s
when needed, a fact that is indicated by the appearance of
the plural in boldface at the sense. At fixing the italic ab-
breviation simply means that when used in this sense the
word is always written in its plural form, fixings. At the
second homograph die the actual distribution of the vari-
ant plurals can be given sense by sense in italic type be-
cause both variants are shown in boldface earlier in the
entry. At the first homograph folk a singular noun is
shown with variant plurals of nearly equal frequency,
when all senses are taken into account. The fifth sense,
however, is unique in being always plural in form and con-
struction. The form of the plural for this sense is folks, as
shown, and the placement of the form before the label in-
stead of after it as at the senses of die means that this
sense is always plural.
When an italicized label or guide phrase follows a bold-
face numeral, the label or phrase applies only to that spe-
cific numbered sense and its subsenses. It does not apply
to any other boldface numbered senses:
1
boot . . . n . . . 1 archaic . . . 2 chiefly dial . . . 3 obs
1
faevor . . . n . . . 2 archaic a . . . b 1 . . . 2 . . . 3
At boot the archaic label applies only to sense 1, the chiefly
dial label only to sense 2, and the obs label only to sense 3.
At favor the archaic label applies to all the subsenses of
sense 2 but not to sense 3.
When an italicized label or guide phrase follows a bold-
face letter, the label or phrase applies only to that specific
lettered sense and its subsenses. It does not apply to any
other boldface lettered senses:
2
stour n . . . 1 a archaic . . . b dial Brit
The archaic label applies to sense 1a but not to sense 1b.
The dial Brit label applies to sense 1b but not to sense 1a.
When an italicized label or guide phrase follows a paren-
thesized numeral, the label or phrase applies only to that
specific numbered sense:
inecarenaetion . . . n . . . 1 a 1 . . . 2 cap
The cap label applies to sense 1a2 and to no other sub-
senses of the word.
EXPANSIONS OF ABBREVIATIONS
Entries for abbreviations lack definitions. Instead such
an entry is given an expansion, which is simply the full
word or phrase from which the abbreviation was originally
created. Because an expansion is not a definition, it is not
introduced by a boldface colon. When more than one ex-
pansion is given for an abbreviation, the expansions are
listed in alphabetical order and are separated by boldface
numerals, except that closely related expansions are
grouped together:
cir abbr 1 circle circular 2 circuit 3 circumference
For an abbreviation that originated in another language,
the foreign expansion is given in an etymology, followed
by an idiomatic English equivalent. When such an expan-
sion is listed along with other expansions in a single entry,
alphabetical order within the entry is based on the foreign
expansion rather than its English equivalent.
pp abbr 1 pages 2 per person 3 [L per procurationem] by proxy 4 pia-
nissimo
Names of Plants, Animals
Microorganisms
The most familiar names of living and formerly living
things are the common, or vernacular, names determined
by popular usage, in which one organism may have several
names as mountain lion, cougar, and painter, different or-
ganisms may have the same name as dolphin, and there
may be variation in meaning or overlapping of the catego-
ries denoted by the names as whale, dolphin, and por-
poise.
In contrast, the scientific names of biological classifica-
tion are governed by four highly prescriptive, internation-
Explanatory Notes 21a
ally recognized codes of nomenclature for botany, zoolo-
gy, bacteriology, and virology. The vocabularies of these
nomenclatures have been developed and used by scientists
for the purpose of identifying and indicating the relation-
ships of plants, animals, and microorganisms. These sys-
tems of names classify each kind of organism into a hierar-
chy of groupstaxawith each kind of organism having
oneand only onecorrect name and belonging to
oneand only onetaxon at each level of classification
in the hierarchy.
The taxonomic names of biological classification are
used in this dictionary at entries that define common
names of plants, animals, and microorganisms, as well as
diseases of or products relating to plants, animals, or mi-
croorganisms that do not themselves have common names
that qualify for entry here. Names from several different
codes of nomenclature may appear in the same definition.
Each is enclosed in parentheses, usually following an ori-
enting noun:
Rocky Mountain spotted fever n . . . : an acute disease . . . that is
caused by a rickettsia Rickettsia rickettsii usu. transmitted by an ixo-
did tick and esp. either the American dog tick or a wood tick Derma-
centor andersoni
sandey fever . . . n . . . : a disease . . . caused by any of several single-
stranded RNA viruses genus Phlebovirus of the family Bunyaviridae
transmitted by the bite of a sand fly esp. Phlebotomus papatasii . . .
Within the parentheses the prescriptive principles of the
relevant nomenclature hold, but as soon as the reader
steps outside the parentheses the rules of general usage
hold. For example, the genus name Apatosaurus for a
group of large herbivorous dinosaurs is now the valid
name in biological classification for the formerly accepted
Brontosaurus. While apatosaurus is available as a common
name, it has been slow in displacing brontosaurus in popu-
lar usage. So the main definition of the dinosaur is placed
at the vocabulary entry for brontosaurus, while only a
cross-reference in small capitals appears at apatosaurus.
However, within the parenthetical identification, the ge-
nus name Apatosaurus appears first, with Brontosaurus list-
ed second as a synonym:
apatoesauerus . . . n . . . :
bronetoesauerus . . . also bronetoesaur . . . n . . . : any of a genus Apa-
tosaurus syn. Brontosaurus of large sauropod dinosaurs of the Jurassic
called also apatosaurus
Taxonomic names are used in definitions in this dictio-
nary to provide precise identifications through which de-
fined terms may be pursued in technical writings. Because
of their specialized nature, taxonomic names as such are
not included as dictionary entries. However, many com-
mon names entered in this dictionary have been derived
directly from genus names and other taxonomic names,
often with little or no modification. In written text it is
particularly important to distinguish between a common
name and the taxonomic name from which it is derived. In
contrast to the styling rules for taxonomic names dis-
cussed below, common names as clostridium, droso-
phila, and enterovirus are not usually capitalized or
italicized, and common names derived from genus names
can have a plural form even though genus names them-
selves are never pluralized.
The entries defining plants, animals, and microorgan-
isms are usually oriented to higher taxa by common, ver-
nacular terms within the definitions as alga at seaweed,
thrush at robin, and picornaviruses at enterovirus or
by technical adjectives as composite at daisy and os-
cine at warbler.
When the vernacular name of a plant or animal is used
to identify the vernacular name of the taxonomic family to
which the plant or animal belongs, that information will
be given in parentheses in the definition of the plant or an-
imal, and definitions for other organisms within that fami-
ly will refer to the vernacular family name:
2
rose . . . n . . . 1 a : any of a genus Rosa of the family Rosaceae, the
rose family of usu. prickly shrubs . . .
apeple . . . n, often attrib . . . 1 : the fleshy usu. rounded red, yellow, or
green edible pome of a usu. cultivated tree genus Malus of the rose
family also : an apple tree
1
squirerel . . . n . . . 1 : any of various small or medium-sized rodents
family Sciuridae, the squirrel family: as . . .
chipemunk . . . n . . . : any of a genus Tamias of small striped No.
American and Asian rodents of the squirrel family
LINNAEAN NOMENCLATURE OF
PLANTS, ANIMALS BACTERIA
The nomenclatural codes for botany, zoology, and bac-
teriology follow the binomial nomenclature of Carolus
Linnaeus, who employed a New Latin vocabulary for the
names of organisms and the names of ranks in the hierar-
chy of classification.
The fundamental taxon is the genus. It includes a group
of closely related kinds of plants as Prunus, which in-
cludes the wild and cultivated cherries, apricots, peaches,
and almonds, a group of closely related kinds of animals
as Canis, which includes domestic dogs, coyotes, jackals,
and wolves, or a group of closely related kinds of bacteria
as Streptococcus, which includes numerous pathogens of
humans and domestic animals. The genus name is an ital-
icized and capitalized singular noun.
The unique name of each kind of organism or species in
the Linnaean systems is the binomial or species name,
which consists of two parts: a genus name and an italicized
lowercase wordthe specific epithetdenoting the spe-
cies. A trinomial is used to name a variety or a subspecies
and consists of a binomial plus an italicized lowercase
word denoting the variety or subspecies. For example, the
cultivated cabbage Brassica oleracea capita, the cauli-
flower Brassica oleracea botrytis, and brussels sprouts
Brassica oleracea gemmifera belong to the same species
Brassica oleracea of cole.
The genus name in a binomial or trinomial may be ab-
breviated to its initial letter if it has previously been
spelled out in full within the same text. In this dictionary, a
genus name is abbreviated only when it is used more than
once in senses not separated by a boldface sense number.
naseturetium . . . n . . . : any of a genus Tropaeolum of the family Tro-
paeolaceae, the nasturtium family . . . esp : either of two widely culti-
vated ornamentals T. majus and T. minus
Names of taxa higher than the genus as family, order,
and class are capitalized plural nouns that are often used
with singular verbs and that are not abbreviated in normal
use. They are not italicized.
1
beeetle . . . n . . . 1 : any of an order Coleoptera of insects . . .
A genus name in good standing cannot be the name of
two different groups of animals, groups of plants, or
groups of bacteria. At least one of the applications must be
invalid. However, since the nomenclatural codes are inde-
pendent, an animal genus and a plant genus, for example,
may validly receive the same name. Thus, a number of
cabbage butterflies as Pieris rapae are placed in a genus
of animals that has the same name as the plant genus to
which the Japanese andromeda Pieris japonica belongs.
Although no two higher taxa of plants or of bacteria are
permitted to have the same name, the rules of zoological
nomenclature do not apply to taxa above the family, and
so, for example, it is possible for widely separated groups
of animals to be placed in families or orders with identical
taxonomic names.
Sometimes two or more different New Latin names can
be found used in current literature for the same organism
or group. This happens when old monographs and field
guides are kept in print after name changes occur, when
there are legitimate differences of opinion about the valid-
ity of the names, and when the rules of priority are not ap-
plied. To help the reader in recognizing an organism or
22a Explanatory Notes
group, some entries in this dictionary give two taxonomic
names connected by syn. for synonym:
waeteremeleon . . . n . . . 1 : a large oblong or roundish fruit with a hard
green or white rind . . . 2 : a widely cultivated African vine Citrullus
lunatus syn. C. vulgaris of the gourd family that bears watermelons
VIRUS NOMENCLATURE
The system of naming viruses evolved in a series of re-
ports by a committee of the International Union of Micro-
biological Societies. The report published in 2000 with the
title Virus Taxonomy: Seventh Report of the International
Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses is the one followed in
this dictionary. The code of nomenclature developed there
is independent of the three Linnaean systems governing
the taxonomy of plants, animals, and bacteria and differs
in the way names are constructed and written.
Except as noted below, the names for species, genera,
and families of viruses used in this dictionary are those
that are recognized by the International Committee on
Taxonomy of Viruses. Such names appear in italics and are
preceded by the name of the taxon species, genus, or
family in roman before the italicized name.
The name of a species consists of an italicized phrase in
which the first word is capitalized, other words are lower-
case unless derived from a proper name, and the last word
is virus.
The name of a genus is usually a single capitalized word
ending in -virus.
The name of a family is a single capitalized word ending
in -viridae.
smallepox . . . n . . . : an acute contagious febrile disease of humans
that is caused by a poxvirus species Variola virus of the genus
Orthopoxvirus, . . .
The name of the family in this case can be found at the en-
try for poxvirus:
poxevierus . . . n . . . : any of a family Poxviridae of brick-shaped or
ovoid double-stranded DNA viruses . . .
Unlike the Linnaean codes, virus nomenclature does not
have in place a protocol for handling synonyms, names
that were once in good standing but have been replaced by
others. Several names as family Myxoviridae and family
Papovaviridae that were in good standing in the Sixth Re-
port of the International Committee on Virus Taxonomy are
not found in any of the indices of the Seventh Report. At
best a word or two of explanation is offered in the taxa re-
placing them. In order to provide continuity, common
names for members of defunct taxa are retained in this
dictionary when those names are still in common use:
paepoevaevierus . . . n : any of a former family Papovaviridae of
double-stranded DNA viruses associated with various neoplasms of
mammals that included the papillomaviruses and polyomaviruses
The names of the two families to which the papovaviruses
are now assigned can be found at the definitions of papillo-
mavirus and polyomavirus.
Cross-Reference
Four different kinds of cross-references are used in this
dictionary: directional, synonymous, cognate, and inflec-
tional. In each instance the cross-reference is readily rec-
ognized by the lightface small capitals in which it is print-
ed.
A cross-reference following a lightface dash and begin-
ning with see or compare is a directional cross-reference. It
directs the dictionary user to look elsewhere for further
information. A compare cross-reference is regularly ap-
pended to a definition a see cross-reference may stand
alone:
weletereweight . . . n . . . compare Lrcn1wrrcn1, mrooLrwrrcn1
1
rieal . . . n . . . see morv table
A cross-reference immediately following a boldface co-
lon is a synonymous cross-reference. It may stand alone as
the only definitional matter for an entry or for a sense or
subsense of an entry it may follow an analytical defini-
tion it may be one of two synonymous cross-references
separated by a comma:
garebanezo . . . n . . . : cnrcxrA
1
neeglect . . . vt . . . 1 : to give little attention or respect to : orsrcAo
2
main adj . . . 1 : cnrrr, rcrAL
A synonymous cross-reference indicates that a definition
at the entry cross-referred to can be substituted as a defini-
tion for the entry or the sense or subsense in which the
cross-reference appears.
A cross-reference following an italic var of is a cognate
cross-reference:
kaftan var of cAr1A
Sometimes a cognate cross-reference has a limiting label
preceding var of as a specific indication that the variant is
not standard English:
hauleier . . . Brit var of nALLr
2
hist . . . dial var of nors1
shereris . . . archaic var of snrv
A cross-reference following an italic label that identifies
an entry as an inflected form of a noun, of an adjective or
adverb, or of a verb is an inflectional cross-reference. In-
flectional cross-references appear only when the inflected
form falls at least a column away from the entry cross
referred to:
calves pl of cALr
3
wound . . . past and past part of wro
When guidance seems needed as to which one of several
homographs or which sense of a multisense word is being
referred to, a superscript numeral may precede the cross
reference or a sense number may follow it or both:
1
toss . . . vt . . . 3 . . . c : mA1cn 5a
Synonyms
Brief paragraphs discriminating words of closely associat-
ed meaning from one another have been placed at a num-
ber of entries. They are signaled by an indented boldface
italic syn. Each paragraph begins with a list of the words to
be discussed in it, followed by a concise statement of the
element of meaning that the words have in common. The
discriminations themselves are amplified with verbal illus-
trations:
cautious . . . adj . . .
syn cAL1roLs, crcLmsrc1, wAv, cnAv mean prudently watch-
ful and discreet in the face of danger or risk. cAL1roLs implies the ex-
ercise of forethought usu. prompted by fear of danger a cautious
driver. crcLmsrc1 suggests less fear and stresses the surveying of
all possible consequences before acting or deciding circumspect in his
business dealings. wAv emphasizes suspiciousness and alertness in
watching for danger and cunning in escaping it keeps a wary eye on
the competition. cnAv implies a cautious reluctance to give, act, or
speak freely chary of signing papers without having read them first.
When a word is included in a synonym paragraph, the
main entry for that word is followed by a run-on syn
see . . . , which refers to the entry where the synonym para-
graph appears:
cirecumespect . . . adj . . . syn see cAL1roLs
Explanatory Notes 23a
When a word is a main entry at which there is a synonym
paragraph and is also included in another paragraph else-
where, the paragraph at the main entry is followed by a
run-on syn see in addition . . . , which refers to the entry
where the other paragraph may be found:
1
nateueral . . . adj . . .
syn A1LAL, rcrLoLs, Arvr, Lsonrs1rcA1ro, A1Lrss
mean free from pretension or calculation . . . syn see in addition rc-
LLA
1
regeuelar . . . adj . . .
syn rcLLA, omAL, 1vrcAL, A1LAL mean being of the sort or
kind that is expected as usual, ordinary, or average . . .
Combining Forms, Prefixes
Suffixes
An entry that begins or ends with a hyphen is a word ele-
ment that forms part of an English compound:
mega- or meg- comb form . . . 1 . . . b . . . megahit
-logy n comb form . . . 1 . . . phraseology
-lyze vb comb form . . . electrolyze
-like adj comb form . . . bell-like ladylike
pre- prefix . . . 1 a 1 . . . prehistoric
1
-ory n suffix . . . 1 . . . observatory
1
-ic adj suffix . . . 2 a . . . aldermanic
2
-ly adv suffix . . . 1 a . . . slowly
-ize vb suffix . . . 2 a . . . crystallize
Combining forms, prefixes, and suffixes are entered in
this dictionary for three reasons: to make easier the writ-
ing of etymologies of words in which these word elements
occur over and over again to make understandable the
meaning of many undefined run-ons which for reasons of
space would be omitted if they had to be given etymolo-
gies and definitions and to make recognizable the mean-
ingful elements of new words that are not well enough es-
tablished in the language to warrant dictionary entry.
Lists of Undefined Words
Lists of undefined words occur after the entries of these
prefixes and combining forms:
anti- multi- re-
co- non- self-
counter- out- sub-
hyper- over- super-
inter- post- ultra-
mis- pre- un-
These words are not defined because they are self
explanatory their meanings are simply the sum of a mean-
ing of the prefix or combining form and a meaning of the
root word. Centered dots are shown to save the dictionary
user the trouble of consulting another entry. The lists are
not exhaustive of all the words that might be, or actually
have been, formed with these prefixes and combining
forms. The dictionary has room for only the most com-
mon or important examples.
24a Explanatory Notes
Thc EnuIish Lanuuauc
in thc Dictionarv
In thc officcs whcrc Mcrriam-Wcbstcr`s CoIIcuiatc Dic-
tionarv, EIcvcnth Edition, was cditcd, scvcraI thousand
Icttcrs and c-maiIs arc rcccivcd cach vcar. Thc topics thcv
articuIatc arc cnormousIv varicd. Somc mcrcIv ask for a
particuIar bit of information about thc EnuIish Ianuuauc
that has bccn souuht but not found in thc dictionarv. A
fcw othcrs arc in hot pursuit of a spcciaI intcrcst. StiII oth-
crs, thcir writcrs havinu comc to think of thc dictionarv as
an aII-purposc rcfcrcncc book, ask qucstions about manv
othcr subIccts bcsidcs words. A surprisinu numbcr of cor-
rcspondcnts, howcvcr, cxprcss considcrabIc curiositv
about how thcir dictionarv-that formidabIv Ionu and
cIoscIv printcd work with its manv spcciaI abbrcviations,
svmboIs, and dcviccs and its muItitudc of uscs-camc to
bc Iust thc book it is.
Thcv mav ask quitc dircctIv such qucstions as how
words makc it into thc dictionarv or what it is that Icxicou-
raphcrs do whcn thcv arc cditinu or rccditinu a dictionarv.
But cvcn qucstions of a vcrv diffcrcnt sort on thc surfacc
mav unwittinuIv rcvcaI much thc samc intcrcst. Whv did
vou faiI to incIudc word x in vour book?" and Whv don`t
vou stiII usc thc svstcm of transcribinu pronunciations
with which I urcw up instcad of thc prcscnt onc with its
'upsidc-down e'?" mav bc in part cxprcssions of annov-
ancc at what is sccn (not aIwavs accuratcIv) as thc dictio-
narv`s faiIurc to do its Iob, but thcv arc Iust as truIv dc-
mands to know how dictionarv cditors makc thc dccision
to cxcIudc somc words from a uivcn dictionarv or to rcvisc
a Ionu-standinu fcaturc of carIicr cditions. What foIIows is
an cffort to prcscnt a bricf ovcrvicw of thc EnuIish Ian-
uuauc and its historv and to providc bricf and ncccssariIv
somcwhat ucncraI answcrs to a fcw of thc qucstions that
uscrs of this dictionarv probabIv havc about it, thc pro-
ccsscs that wcnt into its makinu, and its rcIation to that
fascinatinu and somctimcs maddcninu marvcI which wc
caII thc EnuIish Ianuuauc.
Lanuuauc is thc obIcct of studv of thc acadcmic disci-
pIinc known as Iinuuistics. AIthouuh thc roots of Iinuuistic
scicncc arc found in carIicr ccnturics, it is in most rcspccts
a modcrn crcation, and thc undcrstandinu of Ianuuauc that
it offcrs us diffcrs in a numbcr of fundamcntaI wavs from
thc conccptions of Ianuuauc hcId bv thinkcrs of thc an-
cicnt and mcdicvaI worIds, thc Rcnaissancc, or thc En-
Iiuhtcnmcnt. This undcrstandinu docs not diffcr, howcvcr,
in cvcrv wav. Thc usc of Ianuuauc is stiII sccn bv Iinuuists
as a pccuIiarIv human activitv. Wc oftcn usc thc word lan-
guage to rcfcr to thc Iimitcd stock of movcmcnts or uttcr-
anccs bv which somc animaIs communicatc a Iimitcd
numbcr of mcssaucs, but in doinu so wc rccounizc that wc
arc spcakinu of somcthinu diffcrcnt in kind from our own
Ianuuauc. Morcovcr, modcrn dcfinitions of Ianuuauc arc
Iust as IikcIv as carIicr dcfinitions to cmphasizc its func-
tionaI aspcct: Ianuuauc cnabIcs human bcinus, at Icast
thosc who sharc a particuIar Ianuuauc, to communicatc
with cach othcr bv statinu idcas, cxprcssinu fccIinus, and
cxchanuinu information.
Modcrn dcfinitions of Ianuuauc, thouuh, arc morc IikcIv
than oIdcr oncs to strcss somc othcr aspccts. Onc is thc ar-
bitrarv naturc of thc rcIationship bctwccn thc convcntion-
aI sounds or othcr siuns which scrvc as thc vchicIc of Ian-
uuauc and thc mcaninu bcinu convcvcd bv thcm. A fcw
naivc souIs mav bcIicvc that domcstic swinc arc caIIcd pius
bccausc thcir habits arc so dirtv, but it is cIcar to most that
no inhcrcnt or ncccssarv conncction cxists bctwccn thc sc-
qucncc of sounds \p\ pIus \i\ pIus \u\ and anv of various
stout-bodicd short-Icuucd omnivorous artiodactvI mam-
maIs (famiIv Suidac) with a thick bristIv skin and a Ionu
mobiIc snout." A simiIarIv naivc Frcnchman or Gcrman
couId insist with ncithcr morc nor Icss rcason that cochon
or Schwein is thc word that naturaIIv cxprcsscs thc csscn-
tiaI piuuishncss of thc animaI.
A IinuuisticaIIv oricntcd dcfinition wouId aIso bc IikcIv
to cmphasizc thc svstcmatic naturc of Ianuuauc. Wcrc it
not for hiuhIv oruanizcd svstcms opcratinu within anv nat-
uraI Ianuuauc, it couId hardIv bc thc subtIc and cffcctivc
tooI of communication that it is. Thcsc svstcms arc cnor-
mousIv compIcx both in thcmscIvcs and in thcir mutuaI
intcraction, so compIcx indccd that no Ianuuauc has vct
had its workinus fuIIv dcscribcd; vct, paradoxicaIIv, and
fortunatcIv for thc human racc, anv chiId with a normaI
abiIitv to Icarn can, within a vcrv fcw vcars, mastcr at Icast
thc csscntiaIs of thcsc svstcms for anv onc Ianuuauc with
which it is in daiIv contact (or cvcn two Ianuuaucs if thc
chiId`s cnvironmcnt is biIinuuaI). It is unccrtain whcthcr
this is so bccausc, as somc Iinuuists bcIicvc, at a profound
IcvcI of structurc thc dctaiIs that makc EnuIish so diffcrcnt
from othcr Ianuuaucs arc unimportant and thc svstcms of
aII Ianuuaucs arc IarucIv thc samc, but thc fact that wc
Icarn our nativc Ianuuauc aImost cffortIcssIv up to a ccr-
tain basic IcvcI of controI is hardIv to bc dcnicd.
The Systems of Language
Thc maIor svstcms that makc up thc broad comprchcn-
sivc svstcm of Ianuuauc itscIf arc four in numbcr: Icxicon,
urammar, scmantics, and phonoIouv. Thc onc that dictio-
narv cditors and dictionarv uscrs arc most dircctIv con-
ccrncd with is thc vocabuIarv or lexicon, thc coIIcction of
words and word cIcmcnts which wc put toucthcr in vari-
ous wavs to form Iarucr units of discoursc: phrascs, cIaus-
cs, scntcnccs, parauraphs, and so forth. AII Ianuuaucs havc
a Icxicon, and aII Icxicons arc uovcrncd bv ruIcs that pcr-
mit somc kinds of word formation, makc othcrs dubious,
and rcndcr stiII othcrs cIcarIv impossibIc. In EnuIish wc
miuht sav versatileness without hcsitation if wc nccdcd
such a word and couId not for thc momcnt think of versa-
tility, cvcn thouuh thc formcr is not normaIIv part of our
cvcrvdav workinu vocabuIarv; but versatilize miuht uivc us
pausc, and nessversatile wc wouId simpIv ncvcr uttcr. Thc
sizc of thc Icxicon varics considcrabIv from Ianuuauc to
Ianuuauc. Thc Ianuuauc of an isoIatcd pcopIc, for cxampIc,
mav bc pcrfcctIv adcquatc with a rcIativcIv smaII and fixcd
vocabuIarv, sincc it has no nccd of thc coinaucs attcndant
upon modcrn tcchnoIouv, whiIc EnuIish and othcr maIor
Ianuuaucs havc cnormous stocks of words, to which thcv
add vcar bv vcar at a urcat ratc. Sincc thc dictionarv is
conccntratcd upon thc Icxicon, our discussion of thc othcr
svstcms of Ianuuauc, as it procccds, wiII bc IarucIv con-
ccrncd with how thcv arc rcIatcd to thc Icxicon and thus
arc important within thc dictionarv.
Thc urammaticaI svstcm of Ianuuauc uovcrns thc wav in
which words arc put toucthcr to form thc Iarucr units of
discoursc mcntioncd carIicr. Grammar, of coursc, varics a
urcat dcaI from Ianuuauc to Ianuuauc Iust as thc Icxicon
docs: in EnuIish, word ordcr is a dominant factor in dctcr-
mininu mcaninu, whiIc thc usc of infIcctionaI cndinus to
mark thc urammaticaI function of individuaI words within
a scntcncc pIavs a cIcarIv subordinatc roIc, thouuh impor-
tant in somc wavs (as in indicatinu thc numbcr of a noun,
thc casc of a pcrsonaI pronoun, or thc tcnsc of a vcrb).
Othcr Ianuuaucs show markcdIv diffcrcnt pattcrns, such as
Latin with its cIaboratc sct of paradiums for nouns, vcrbs,
adIcctivcs, and pronouns and its hiuhIv fIcxibIc word or-
dcr. Thc scmantic svstcm of a Ianuuauc has to do with
mcaninus and thus with thc rcIation bctwccn thc convcn-
tionaIizcd svmboIs that constitutc Ianuuauc and thc cxtcr-
naI rcaIitv about which wc nccd to communicatc throuuh
Ianuuauc. Thc phonoIouicaI svstcm of a Ianuuauc is what
aIIows a spcakcr of that Ianuuauc to transform a urammat-
icaI unit cmbodvinu a mcaninu into a fIow of uttcrcd
sounds that can bc hcard and intcrprctcd (accuratcIv, if aII
uocs wcII) bv anothcr spcakcr of thc Ianuuauc. This svstcm
is aIwavs vcrv tiuhtIv oruanizcd. Thc invcntorv of basic
mcaninufuI units of sound within a Ianuuauc (caIIcd pho-
nemes bv Iinuuists) is ncvcr vcrv Iaruc comparcd with thc
numbcr of words and word cIcmcnts in thc Icxicon; most
spcakcrs of EnuIish uct bv with about 40. Phoncmcs arc
idcntificd bv thc fact that in somc pairs of words thcv crc-
atc a contrast that siunaIs a diffcrcncc in mcaninu: wc con-
sidcr thc vowcI sounds of trip and trap to bc diffcrcnt pho-
ncmcs bccausc thc diffcrcncc in vowcI sounds is thc soIc
dctcrminant of thcir bcinu distinct words. Thcir consonant
sounds arc idcnticaI. SimiIarIv, thc initiaI consonant
sounds of pull and bull, tie and die, and come and gum arc
contrastinu phoncmcs. On thc othcr hand, thc sound at thc
bcuinninu of pit and at thc cnd of tip arc phoncticaIIv quitc
diffcrcnt, but as thcv do not contrast mcaninufuIIv wc do
not pcrccivc thcm as distinct phoncmcs. Thc combinations
of thcsc phoncmcs pcrmittcd in a uivcn Ianuuauc arc sc-
vcrcIv rcstrictcd, as arc thc wavs in which spccch sounds
occur in conIunction with othcr siunificant cIcmcnts of thc
phonoIouicaI svstcm such as strcss (forcc or intcnsitv) and
intonation (thc risc and faII in pitch of thc voicc as it
movcs throuuh an uttcrancc). In EnuIish, for cxampIc, it is
possibIc for thc consonants \str\ to occur in succcssion,
but onIv at thc bcuinninu of a word (as in strict) or in thc
middIc (as in monstrous), not at thc cnd, and thc scqucncc
\pur\ cannot occur at cithcr thc bcuinninu or thc cnd of a
word but mav occur in thc middIc (as in upgrade).
Variation and Change in Language
AII of thc svstcms of Ianuuauc arc constantIv in opcra-
tion, and in a uivcn Ianuuauc at a uivcn timc thcv mav
sccm aImost to bc monoIithic or at Icast to havc sufficicnt
idcntitv that it makcs scnsc, for cxampIc, to taIk of the
urammar of EnuIish. And, indccd, how couId it bc othcr-
wisc? Lanuuauc wouId bc a far morc impcrfcct tooI of
communication than it is if thc spcakcrs of a Ianuuauc
wcrc not functioninu within a svstcm sufficicntIv unificd
to pcrmit aImost constant mutuaI intcIIiuibiIitv. Yct thc
imprcssion of unitv which wc rcccivc whcn wc takc a
broad dcscriptivc Iook at a sinuIc Ianuuauc at a particuIar
timc (takinu a synchronic point of vicw, as Iinuuists sav) is
morc than a IittIc misIcadinu bccausc it has faiIcd to takc
account of thc cnormous variation that cxists within thc
Ianuuauc.
Each of us spcaks a distinctivc form of EnuIish that is
not idcnticaI in cvcrv particuIar with thc form spokcn bv
anvonc cIsc; Iinuuists caII this individuaI varictv of a Ian-
uuauc an idiolect. Thosc whosc idioIccts sharc ccrtain fca-
turcs of vocabuIarv, urammar, and phonoIouv that arc dis-
tinctivcIv diffcrcnt from corrcspondinu fcaturcs sharcd bv
othcrs who Iivc in a diffcrcnt ucouraphicaI arca or bcIonu
to a diffcrcnt sociaI uroup or who diffcr in somc othcr wav
that affccts thcir Ianuuauc arc said to spcak a dialect of thc
Ianuuauc. Rcscarchcrs havc idcntificd a numbcr of diffcr-
cnt ucouraphicaI diaIcct arcas within thc Lnitcd Statcs,
rathcr cIcarIv markcd on thc Eastcrn scaboard but pro-
urcssivcIv Icss wcII dcfincd as onc movcs wcst; vct, thc dia-
Iccts of Amcrican EnuIish do not diffcr ovcraII vcrv urcatIv
from onc anothcr; somc diaIccts of Grcat Britain arc morc
strikinuIv divcrucnt in phonoIouv, for cxampIc, than arc
anv two diaIccts within this countrv, and somc diaIccts of
othcr Ianuuaucs approach thc condition of mutuaI unintcI-
IiuibiIitv that is oftcn takcn to dividc scparatc diaIccts
from scparatc Ianuuaucs.
Nor is variation in Ianuuauc bv anv mcans confincd to
mattcrs of idioIcct or diaIcct. Variation mav aIso bc rcIatcd
to thc scvcraI functionaI varictics of a Ianuuauc that pco-
pIc takc up and discard as thcir roIcs and rcIationships
chanuc from momcnt to momcnt throuuhout thc dav.
Such variation can invoIvc vocabuIarv, pronunciation, and
cvcn urammar. A workcr who qucrics onc coIIcauuc con-
ccrninu thc whcrcabouts of anothcr with Sccn 1ohn?"
from which both thc auxiIiarv vcrb have and thc subIcct
you havc bccn dcIctcd mav not put thc qucstion in thc
samc casuaI wav to a supcrior.
If variation is onc of thc most promincnt aspccts of Ian-
uuauc as onc considcrs it todav, thc incscapabIc fact that
cmcrucs from considcrinu Ianuuauc historicaIIv (takinu a
diachronic point of vicw, as Iinuuists sav) is chanuc. No Iiv-
inu Ianuuauc stands stiII, howcvcr much wc miuht wish at
timcs that it wouId. Chanuc ovcr thc short run is most
rcadiIv noticcd in thc Icxicon, as a comparison of succcs-
sivc cditions of anv modcrn dictionarv wiII show; in uram-
mar and phonoIouv thc forccs of chanuc tvpicaIIv opcratc
much morc sIowIv. StiII, thc cumuIativc cffcct of chanucs
that arc impcrccptibIc as thcv occur can bc imprcssivc
whcn mcasurcd across thc ccnturics. Thc EnuIish of onc`s
urcat-urcat-urandfathcr miuht not sound so vcrv diffcrcnt
from onc`s own. Pcrhaps it miuht sccm a bit stiff and for-
maI, a bit oId-fashioncd in its vocabuIarv, but thc diffcr-
cnccs wouId not bc dramatic. If wc couId somchow Iistcn
to an EnuIish-spcakcr of Kinu AIfrcd`s timc, howcvcr, wc
wouId hcar what aII but a fcw schoIars of historicaI En-
uIish wouId takc to bc a forciun tonuuc.
The History of English
Thc historv of EnuIish is convcntionaIIv, if pcrhaps too
ncatIv, dividcd into thrcc pcriods usuaIIv caIIcd OId En-
uIish (or AnuIo-Saxon), MiddIc EnuIish, and Modcrn En-
uIish. Thc carIicst pcriod bcuins with thc miuration of ccr-
tain Gcrmanic tribcs from thc Contincnt to Britain in thc
fifth ccnturv .., thouuh no rccords of thcir Ianuuauc sur-
vivc from bcforc thc scvcnth ccnturv, and it continucs un-
tiI thc cnd of thc cIcvcnth ccnturv or a bit Iatcr. Bv that
timc Latin, OId Norsc (thc Ianuuauc of thc Vikinu invad-
crs), and cspcciaIIv thc AnuIo-Frcnch of thc dominant
cIass aftcr thc Norman Conqucst in 1066 had bcuun to
havc a substantiaI impact on thc Icxicon, and thc wcII-
dcvcIopcd infIcctionaI svstcm that tvpifics thc urammar of
OId EnuIish had bcuun to brcak down. Thc foIIowinu bricf
sampIc of OId EnuIish prosc iIIustratcs scvcraI of thc siu-
nificant wavs in which chanuc has so transformcd EnuIish
that wc must Iook carcfuIIv to find points of rcscmbIancc
bctwccn thc Ianuuauc of thc tcnth ccnturv and our own. It
is takcn from AcIfric`s HomiIv on St. Grcuorv thc Grcat"
and conccrns thc famous storv of how that popc camc to
scnd missionarics to convcrt thc AnuIo-Saxons to Chris-
tianitv aftcr sccinu AnuIo-Saxon bovs for saIc as sIavcs in
Romc:
Eft hc axodc, hu rc codc nama wrc c hi of
comon. Him ws ucandwvrd, t hi AnuIc ucncmnodc
wron. a cw hc, RihtIicc hi sind AnuIc uchatcnc,
for an c hi cnuIa wIitc habba, and swiIcum
ucdafcna t hi on hcofonum cnuIa ucfcran bcon."
A fcw of thcsc words wiII bc rccounizcd as idcnticaI in
spcIIinu with thcir modcrn cquivaIcnts-he, of, him, for,
and, on-and thc rcscmbIancc of a fcw othcrs to famiIiar
words mav bc uucsscd-nama to name, comon to come,
wre to were, ws to was-but onIv thosc who havc madc
a spcciaI studv of OId EnuIish wiII bc abIc to rcad thc pas-
sauc with undcrstandinu. Thc scnsc of it is as foIIows:
Auain hc [St. Grcuorv] askcd what miuht bc thc namc of
thc pcopIc from which thcv camc. It was answcrcd to him
that thcv wcrc namcd AnuIcs. Thcn hc said, 'RiuhtIv arc
thcv caIIcd AnuIcs bccausc thcv havc thc bcautv of anucIs,
and it is fittinu that such as thcv shouId bc anucIs` compan-
ions in hcavcn.' " Somc of thc words in thc oriuinaI havc
26a The English Language
survived in altered form, including axode asked, hu
how, rihtlice rightly, engla angels, habba} have, swil-
cum such, heofonum heaven, and beon be. Others,
however, have vanished from our lexicon, mostly without
leaving a trace, including several that were quite common
words in Old English: eft again, }eode people, nation,
cw} said, spoke, gehatene called, named, wlite ap-
pearance, beauty, and geferan companions. Recogni-
tion of some words is naturally hindered by the presence
of two special characters, , called thorn, and , called
edh, which served in Old English to represent the sounds
now spelled with th.
Other points worth noting include the fact that the pro-
noun system did not yet, in the late tenth century, include
the third person plural forms beginning with th-: hi ap-
pears where we would use they. Several aspects of word or-
der will also strike the reader as oddly unlike ours. Subject
and verb are inverted after an adverba cw} he Then
said hea phenomenon not unknown in Modern English
but now restricted to a few adverbs such as never and re-
quiring the presence of an auxiliary verb like do or have.
In subordinate clauses the main verb must be last, and so
an object or a preposition may precede it in a way no long-
er natural: e hi of comon which they from came, for }an
}e hi engla wlite habba} because they angels beauty
have.
Perhaps the most distinctive difference between Old and
Modern English reflected in Aelfrics sentences is the elab-
orate system of inflections, of which we now have only
remnants. Nouns, adjectives, and even the definite article
are inflected for gender, case, and number: }re }eode
of the people is feminine, genitive, and singular, Angle
Angles is masculine, accusative, and plural, and swilcum
such is masculine, dative, and plural. The system of in-
flections for verbs was also more elaborate than ours: for
example, habba} have ends with the -a} suffix charac-
teristic of plural present indicative verbs. In addition,
there were two imperative forms, four subjunctive forms
two for the present tense and two for the preterit, or past,
tense, and several others which we no longer have. Even
where Modern English retains a particular category of in-
flection, the form has often changed. Old English present
participles ended in -ende not -ing, and past participles
bore a prefix ge- as geandwyrd answered above.
The period of Middle English extends roughly from the
twelfth century through the fifteenth. The influence of
French and Latin, often by way of French upon the lexi-
con continued throughout this period, the loss of some in-
flections and the reduction of others often to a final un-
stressed vowel spelled -e accelerated, and many changes
took place within the phonological and grammatical sys-
tems of the language. A typical prose passage, especially
one from the later part of the period, will not have such a
foreign look to us as Aelfrics prose has but it will not be
mistaken for contemporary writing either. The following
brief passage is drawn from a work of the late fourteenth
century called Mandevilles Travels. It is fiction in the guise
of travel literature, and, though it purports to be from the
pen of an English knight, it was originally written in
French and later translated into Latin and English. In this
extract Mandeville describes the land of Bactria, apparent-
ly not an altogether inviting place, as it is inhabited by
full yuele evil folk and full cruell.
In at lond ben trees at beren wolle, as ogh it were of
scheep whereof men maken clothes, and all ing at
may ben made of wolle. In at contree ben many ipo-
taynes, at dwellen som tyme in the water, and somtyme
on the lond: and ei ben half man and half hors, as I
haue seyd before and ei eten men, whan ei may take
hem. And ere ben ryueres and watres at ben fulle byt-
tere, ree sithes more an is the water of the see. In at
contr ben many griffounes, more plentee an in ony
other contree. Sum men seyn at ei han the body vp-
ward as an egle, and benethe as a lyoun: and treuly ei
seyn soth at ei ben of at schapp. But o griffoun hath
the body more gret, and is more strong, anne eight ly-
ouns, of suche lyouns as ben o this half and more gret
and strongere an an hundred egles, suche as we han
amonges vs. For o griffoun ere wil bere fleynge to his
nest a gret hors, Fif he may fynde him at the poynt, or
two oxen Foked togidere, as ei gon at the plowgh.
The spelling is often peculiar by modern standards and
even inconsistent within these few sentences contr and
contree, o griffoun and a gret hors, anne and an, for
example. Moreover, there is in addition to thorn another
old character F, yogh, to make difficulty. It can repre-
sent several sounds but here may be thought of as equiva-
lent to y. Even the older spellings including those where u
stands for v or vice versa are recognizable, however, and
there are only a few words like ipotaynes hippopotamus-
es and sithes times that have dropped out of the lan-
guage altogether. We may notice a few words and phrases
that have meanings no longer common such as byttere
salty, o this half on this side of the world, and at the
poynt to hand, and the effect of the centuries-long dom-
inance of French on the vocabulary is evident in many fa-
miliar words which could not have occurred in Aelfrics
writing even if his subject had allowed them, words like
contree, ryueres, plentee, egle, and lyoun.
In general word order is now very close to that of our
time, though we notice constructions like hath the body
more gret and three sithes more an is the water of the see.
We also notice that present tense verbs still receive a plural
inflection as in beren, dwellen, han, and ben and that while
nominative ei has replaced Aelfrics hi in the third person
plural, the form for objects is still hem. All the same, the
number of inflections for nouns, adjectives, and verbs has
been greatly reduced, and in most respects Mandeville is
closer to Modern than to Old English.
The period of Modern English extends from the six-
teenth century to our own day. The early part of this peri-
od saw the completion of a revolution in the phonology of
English that had begun in late Middle English and that ef-
fectively redistributed the occurrence of the vowel pho-
nemes to something approximating their present pattern.
Mandevilles English would have sounded even less famil-
iar to us than it looks. Other important early develop-
ments include the stabilizing effect on spelling of the print-
ing press and the beginning of the direct influence of Latin
and, to a lesser extent, Greek on the lexicon. Later, as En-
glish came into contact with other cultures around the
world and distinctive dialects of English developed in the
many areas which Britain had colonized, numerous other
languages made small but interesting contributions to our
word-stock.
The historical aspect of English really encompasses
more than the three stages of development just under con-
sideration. English has what might be called a prehistory
as well. As we have seen, our language did not simply
spring into existence it was brought from the Continent
by Germanic tribes who had no form of writing and hence
left no records. Philologists know that they must have spo-
ken a dialect of a language that can be called West Ger-
manic and that other dialects of this unknown language
must have included the ancestors of such languages as
German, Dutch, Low German, and Frisian. They know
this because of certain systematic similarities which these
languages share with each other but do not share with, say,
Danish. However, they have had somehow to reconstruct
what that language was like in its lexicon, phonology,
grammar, and semantics as best they can through sophisti-
cated techniques of comparison developed chiefly during
the nineteenth century. Similarly, because ancient and
modern languages like Old Norse and Gothic or Icelandic
and Norwegian have points in common with Old English
and Old High German or Dutch and English that they do
not share with French or Russian, it is clear that there was
an earlier unrecorded language that can be called simply
Germanic and that must be reconstructed in the same
way. Still earlier, Germanic was just a dialect the ances-
tors of Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit were three other such
dialects of a language conventionally designated Indo-
European, and thus English is just one relatively young
member of an ancient family of languages whose descen-
The English Language 27a
dants cover a fair portion of the globe. For more detail on
the Indo-European languages and their relationships, see
the table having that title in the dictionary.
The Dictionary and the Systems
of English
By far the largest part of this volume is called A Dictio-
nary of the English Language and so is naturally con-
cerned with the systems of English that we have cursorily
surveyed in their synchronic and diachronic aspects. In
fact, information related to all four systems is given at
most entries in the dictionary, as well as information relat-
ed to what could reasonably be considered a fifth system
of English and many other though not all languages
writing. The writing system provides an alternative to
speech that permits long-distance transmission and visual
reception of a communication and also enables a record to
be kept for much longer than human memory can keep it.
The writing system of Modern English allows for consider-
able variation, as is shown by the persistence of variant
spellings like veranda and verandah or judgment and judge-
ment and by the fact that many compound words have
open, hyphenated, and solid stylings all in common use
concurrently as decision maker, decision-maker, and deci-
sionmaker. At the same time, however, it tends to be a
force for standardization and unification because record-
ed language creates a precedent for future language use
and provides a basis on which language use can be taught
to the younger members of a community. This conserva-
tive effect is one reason why spelling reformers have so far
met with only modest success in their efforts.
We may now begin to look at the ways in which the spe-
cific systems of our language are treated in the dictionary
and at the processes of lexicography which produce the in-
formation about these systems that the dictionary user en-
counters. A dictionary is necessarily and obviously con-
cerned with the lexicon above all, and the information it
can convey about the language systems is confined to the
level of the word or short phrase. The result is that no dic-
tionary of English, however good it may be, can provide
all of the information about the English language that one
might wish to have at one time or another. Thus, for exam-
ple, details about such important aspects of phonology as
the patterns of sentence stress and sentence intonation
cannot be accommodated in a work of reference orga-
nized in terms of words, nor can grammatical topics such
as word order in subordinate clauses or the structural rela-
tion of interrogative to declarative sentences.
The History of English in the Dictionary
A similar limitation applies to the treatment of the his-
torical aspect of English yet, Merriam-Websters Colle-
giate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition, is able to offer a good
deal of historical information about words. What we earli-
er called the prehistory of English is encountered in the et-
ymologies that appear in square brackets ahead of the def-
initional material at many entries. An etymology tells us
what is known of an English word before it became the
word we enter in the dictionary that is, if the word was
created in English the etymology shows, to whatever ex-
tent is not already obvious from the shape of the word,
what materials were used to form it, and if the word was
borrowed into English the etymology traces the steps of
the borrowing process backward from the point at which
the word entered English to the earliest recorded ancestral
language. Where it is most relevant, note is made of one or
several words from other languages that are related
akin to the entry word but are not in the direct line of
borrowing. Thus, a word like Aelfrics heofon ignoring for
the moment the dative plural inflection -um that it bears in
the passage we looked at earlier appears as part of this
dictionarys etymology for the modern word heaven: ME
heven, fr. OE heofon akin to OHG himil heaven. Since
heaven is a native English word, it has only two recorded
ancestors, Middle English heven and Old English heofon.
Beyond those forms lie only the hypothetical, reconstruct-
ed forms of West Germanic, Germanic, and Indo-
European. In this case one related West Germanic word is
shown, Old High German himil, which is the parent of
Modern German Himmel but only a second cousin of our
English word. Similarly Mandevilles contree appears as
the first element in the etymology of its modern descen-
dant country: ME contree, fr. AF cuntree, contr, fr. ML
contrata, fr. L contra against, on the opposite side. Here
we see that our word can be traced back through three
nouns of Middle English, Anglo-French, and Medieval
Latin all of which had the same basic meaning as the
Modern English noun and so are not glossed to a Latin
preposition which has a different meaning and so is
glossed. The two etymological patterns are, as we would
expect from what we know of the history of the English
vocabulary, among the most common and are repeated
with differing details at entry after entry throughout the
book. Of course, borrowings that have occurred within
the Modern English period are more various, and we find
such exotic language names as Nahuatl at chocolate,
Taino at
2
barbecue, Tagalog at boondocks, Malay at
1
amok, and Kimbundu at banjo as well as the more fa-
miliar Russian at troika, Italian at
1
ballot, Arabic at
mullah, Spanish at
1
macho, and Japanese at tycoon.
An etymologist must know a good deal about the history
of English and also about the relationships of sound and
meaning and their changes over time that underlie the re-
construction of the Indo-European family, but even that
considerable learning is not enough to do all that must be
done to provide etymologies of English words in a dictio-
nary such as this. A knowledge is also needed of the vari-
ous processes by which words are created within Modern
English: among the most important processes are shorten-
ing, or clipping see
1
prom, functional shift as the noun
commute from the verb commute, back-formation see
grid, combination of initial letters see radar, transfer of
personal or place names see silhouette and denim, imita-
tion of sounds see
1
whiz, folk etymology see Jerusalem
artichoke, and blending of two words see motel. Also
available to one who feels the need for a new word to
name a new thing or express a new idea is the very consid-
erable store of prefixes, suffixes, and combining forms
that already exist in English. Some of these are native and
others are borrowed from French, but the largest number
have been taken directly from Latin or Greek, and they
have been combined in many different ways often without
any special regard for matching two elements from the
same original language. The combination of these word el-
ements has produced many scientific and technical terms
of Modern English. Once in a while a word is created spon-
taneously out of the creative play of sheer imagination.
For examples of the latter sort of creation see the etymol-
ogies of boondoggle and googol in the dictionary. Such in-
vention is common, as Merriam-Webster editors know
from their mail, which frequently includes requests from
coiners that their brand-new words be entered in the dic-
tionary. Very few coinages of this kind ever come into
common enough use to justify dictionary entry, however.
An etymologist working on a new edition of the Colle-
giate Dictionary must review the etymologies at existing
main entries and prepare such etymologies as are required
for the main entries being added to the new edition. In the
course of the former activity adjustments must sometimes
be made either to incorporate a useful piece of informa-
tion that has previously been overlooked or to revise the
account of the words origin in the light of new evidence.
Such evidence may be unearthed by the etymologist or
may be the product of published research by scholars of
historical linguistics and others. In writing new etymolo-
gies this editor must, of course, be alive to the possible lan-
guages from which a new term may have been borrowed
and to the possible ways in which one may have been cre-
ated. New scientific and technical terms sometimes pose
special difficulties. While they are most often formed from
familiar word elements, occasionally a case like methotrex-
28a The English Language
ate prcscnts itscIf in which onc part (hcrc -trexate) rcsists
idcntification.
Whcn aII attcmpts to providc a satisfactorv ctvmoIouv
havc faiIcd, thc cditor has rccoursc to thc formuIa oriuin
unknown." This formuIa scIdom mcans that thc cditor is
unawarc of various spccuIations about thc oriuin of thc
tcrm but instcad usuaIIv mcans that no sinuIc thcorv con-
ccivcd bv thc ctvmoIouist or proposcd bv othcrs is wcII
cnouuh backcd bv cvidcncc to incIudc in a scrious work of
rcfcrcncc, cvcn whcn quaIificd bv probabIv" or pcr-
haps." Thus, our cditors frcqucntIv havc to cxpIain to cor-
rcspondcnts that thc dictionarv faiIs to statc that thc oriuin
of posh is in thc initiaI Icttcrs of thc phrasc port out, star-
board homc"-supposcdIv a shippinu tcrm for thc cooIcr
accommodations on stcamships pIvinu bctwccn Britain
and India from thc mid-ninctccnth ccnturv on-not bc-
causc thc storv is unknown to us but bccausc no cvidcncc
to support it has vct bccn produccd. Somc cvidcncc cxists
that casts stronu doubt on it; thc word is not known carIicr
than 1918 (in a sourcc unrcIatcd to shippinu), and thc ac-
ronvmic cxpIanation docs not appcar untiI 1935. It thcrc-
forc sccms rcasonabIc to considcr thc acronvmic cxpIana-
tion a modcrn invcntion and assiun posh thc ctvmoIouv
[oriuin unknown]. Thc ctvmoIouist must sift such thcorics,
oftcn scvcraI confIictinu thcorics of urcatcr or Icsscr IikcIi-
hood, and trv to cvaIuatc thc cvidcncc conscrvativcIv but
fairIv in arrivinu at thc soundcst possibIc ctvmoIouv that
thc avaiIabIc information pcrmits. OccasionaIIv timc wiII
provc thc rcsuIt to bc somcwhat (or cvcn quitc) mistakcn,
and thc ctvmoIouv wiII nccd to bc rcpIaccd bv somcthinu
bcttcr. This can happcn cvcn whcn thc ctvmoIouist fcIt
quitc ccrtain of thc oriuinaI ctvmoIouv, and it is Iust onc
rcason whv dictionarics must bc rccditcd from timc to
timc if thcv arc to rcmain rcIiabIc.
HistoricaI information about words is aIso providcd bv
thc datc appcarinu in parcnthcscs Iust bcforc thc first or
onIv dcfinition at most main cntrics. Thc datc uivcn is for
thc carIicst rccordcd usc known to our cditors of thc first
cntcrcd scnsc of that cntrv. In most cascs thc datc is aIso,
in cffcct, for thc carIicst usc of thc word itscIf that wc
know of. Somc words, howcvcr, had carIv scnscs that Iatcr
passcd from common usc without uaininu spcciaI Iitcrarv
importancc, and thcsc scnscs arc omittcd from this dictio-
narv. Bccausc it wouId bc misIcadinu to uivc a datc for a
scnsc that thc dictionarv docs not show, thc datc is aIwavs
for thc first scnsc actuaIIv dcfincd at thc cntrv. Bccausc
thc scnscs of anv word havinu morc than onc arc aIwavs
prcscntcd in historicaI ordcr, with thc onc known to havc
bccn uscd first uivcn first, thc datc scrvcs as a Iink bctwccn
thc prchistorv of thc word shown in thc ctvmoIouv and its
Iatcr rccordcd historv of scmantic dcvcIopmcnt within thc
Ianuuauc as rcfIcctcd in thc ordcr of dcfinitions.
Evidcncc for thc datcs has comc from a numbcr of
sourccs. EspcciaIIv for words that havc bccn a part of thc
Ianuuauc sincc bcforc thc twcnticth ccnturv, thc most im-
portant sourccs havc bccn thc maIor historicaI dictionarics
of EnuIish. Thcsc works incIudc for cach scnsc datcd cx-
ampIcs of usc from onc or scvcraI authors incIudinu thc
carIicst onc avaiIabIc to thc cditors. Chicf amonu thcsc dic-
tionarics is thc maIcstic twcntv-voIumc Oxford EnuIish
Dictionarv, Sccond Edition, now aIso avaiIabIc as OED
OnIinc in a form that pcrmits cIcctronic scarchcs of thc
fuII tcxt and that incIudcs draft cntrics toward a Third Edi-
tion. AIso of urcat importancc havc bccn thc MiddIc En-
uIish Dictionarv, A Dictionarv of Amcrican EnuIish, A
Dictionarv of Amcricanisms, Thc Scottish NationaI Dic-
tionarv, and A Dictionarv of thc OIdcr Scottish Tonuuc.
Othcr dictionarics and studics that incIudc datcd quota-
tions and havc provcd hcIpfuI in particuIar cascs incIudc
Hobson-1obson (a uIossarv of AnuIo-Indian tcrms), Thc
Stanford Dictionarv of AnuIiciscd Words and Phrascs,
BaiIcv`s EarIv Modcrn EnuIish, Schfcr`s EarIv Modcrn
EnuIish Lcxicouraphv, Wriuht`s EnuIish DiaIcct Dictio-
narv, Cassidv and Lc Pauc`s Dictionarv of 1amaican En-
uIish, Branford`s Dictionarv of South African EnuIish,
Avis`s Dictionarv of Canadianisms on HistoricaI Princi-
pIcs, Cassidv and HaII`s Dictionarv of Amcrican RcuionaI
EnuIish, Wcntworth`s Amcrican DiaIcct Dictionarv, Liuht-
cr's Random Housc HistoricaI Dictionarv of Amcrican
SIanu, and thc scvcraI cditions of Thc Barnhart Dictionarv
of Ncw EnuIish. Thc Ccnturv Dictionarv and CvcIopcdia
and thc succcssivc cditions of Mcrriam-Wcbstcr`s un-
abriducd dictionarics and thcir suppIcmcnts of ncw words
havc aIso providcd much assistancc, for whiIc thcsc dictio-
narics do not incorporatc datcd quotations, an cntrv in
onc or anothcr of thcm is somctimcs carIicr than anv cx-
ampIc of thc word from runninu tcxt that wc havc bccn
abIc to find.
In rcccnt vcars Iaruc, scarchabIc tcxt databascs havc
comc into usc. Thcir primarv purposcs ucncraIIv havc
nothinu to do with thc carIicst occurrcncc of particuIar
words. NoncthcIcss, scvcraI of thcm havc bccn of urcat as-
sistancc to thc cditors of this work in thc datinu of cntrics.
EarIicr wc mcntioncd OED OnIinc, which frcqucntIv pcr-
mits thc findinu of an carIicr usc Ivinu so far undiscovcrcd
amonu thc quotations at somc cntrv othcr than thc onc for
thc word bcinu datcd. In addition, wc havc madc impor-
tant usc of NEXIS, an immcnsc coIIcction of IournaIistic
matcriaIs from 1975 forward; Litcraturc OnIinc, contain-
inu hundrcds of thousands of pocms, pIavs, and prosc
works in EnuIish; AcccssibIc Archivcs, which fcaturcs
ciuhtccnth- and ninctccnth-ccnturv Amcrican pcriodicaIs;
and Makinu of Amcrica, covcrinu ninctccnth- and carIv
twcnticth-ccnturv ucncraI-intcrcst and tcchnicaI pcriodi-
caIs and books.
Thc othcr maIor sourcc of datcs, cspcciaIIv for thc pcri-
od from 1890 to thc prcscnt, is thc Mcrriam-Wcbstcr fiIc of
cxampIcs of words uscd in contcxt, which arc caIIcd cita-
tions. Morc wiII bc said of this coIIcction Iatcr. Hcrc it
nccd onIv bc notcd that amonu thc morc than 15,700,000
sIips which thc fiIc contains frcqucntIv appcar onc or morc
cxampIcs of a uivcn word that arc carIicr than anv quotcd
in othcr sourccs. And, of coursc, our citations havc bccn
csscntiaI to thc datinu of a considcrabIc numbcr of cntrics
not incIudcd in anv of thc dictionarics mcntioncd abovc.
Thc datc of 1949 at classical conditioning is a casc of thc
first sort, thc carIicst cxampIc in a rcfcrcncc sourcc bcinu
from 1964, whiIc thc datc of 1928 at working papers is of
thc sccond sort. Somc of thc oIdcr books in our cditoriaI Ii-
brarv and in othcr Iibrarics to which our cditors havc ac-
ccss havc occasionaIIv suppIcmcntcd thc rcsourccs of thc
citation fiIc in suppIvinu datcs.
AImost from thc appcarancc of thc first voIumc of Thc
Oxford EnuIish Dictionarv, schoIars havc bccn discovcrinu
carIicr datcs for particuIar words and scnscs bv cxamininu
works not scarchcd for cxampIcs bv thc dictionarv`s rcad-
crs or bv rcadinu somc works a sccond timc and pubIish-
inu thc rcsuIts of thcir findinus in various IournaIs. Manv
hundrcds of cntrics in this dictionarv incIudc a datc dc-
rivcd from onc of thcsc articIcs, and whiIc far too manv
schoIars and othcr intcrcstcd studcnts havc participatcd in
this work for a Iistinu hcrc to bc practicaI, somc coIIcctivc
acknowIcdumcnt of our dcbt to thcm is ncccssarv. Thc
datc of 1676 at menagerie mav bc citcd as an cxampIc of
onc dcrivcd from a sourcc of this kind; thc quotation dis-
covcrcd bv this schoIar is 36 vcars oIdcr than thc carIicst
cxampIc that had prcviousIv bccn found.
Thc stvIc of thc datc is dctcrmincd bv thc pcriod of En-
uIish to which thc scnsc bcinu datcd bcIonus: for cntrics
from OId EnuIish wc indicatc simpIv that thc cxampIc is
from thc pcriod bcforc thc twcIfth ccnturv (bcf. 12c); for
thosc from MiddIc EnuIish wc indicatc thcir ccnturv, as
(14c); for thosc from Modcrn EnuIish wc uivc a sinuIc vcar,
as (1742).
Somc caution nccds to bc cxcrciscd in intcrprctinu thc
siunificancc of a datc. It is ncvcr mcant to indicatc thc cx-
act point at which a word cntcrcd thc Ianuuauc. For onc
thinu, words havc oftcn bccn in spokcn usc for manv vcars
bcforc thcv comc to bc writtcn down. For anothcr, manv
tcxts from thc carIicr pcriods in which thcv miuht havc
bccn writtcn down havc not survivcd. Thcn, too, not aII
survivinu tcxts, cvcn for thc carIicr pcriods, havc bccn
rcad to coIIcct cxampIcs for anv historicaI dictionarv, and
obviousIv for thc modcrn cra onIv a vcrv smaII sampIc of
aII pubIishcd matcriaI has bccn cxamincd in that wav. Onc
can pcrhaps with somc Iustification think of thc datc as in-
The English Language 29a
dicatinu a timc bv which onc can bc surc that thc word
was in usc, but it wiII bc safcst simpIv to rcmcmbcr that
thc datc actuaIIv bcIonus to thc carIicst occurrcncc known
to thc cditors of this dictionarv of thc first cntcrcd scnsc of
thc word.
Lcavinu thc historicaI aspcct of EnuIish asidc now, wc
mav considcr how information about thc svstcms of En-
uIish as thcv prcscntIv cxist is rccordcd in this dictionarv.
Thc phonoIouicaI svstcm nccds IittIc morc than a mcntion
hcrc. Its roIc in this dictionarv is discusscd in somc dctaiI
in thc Guidc to Pronunciation," which immcdiatcIv foI-
Iows this scction, as is thc wav in which thc pronunciations
shown in thc dictionarv havc bccn dctcrmincd.
Semantics in the Dictionary
In turninu to considcr thc covcrauc of thc scmantic svs-
tcm in thc dictionarv, wc facc scvcraI difficuIt probIcms. If
onc function of a dictionarv is morc important than its
manv othcrs, surcIv that function is to dcfinc thc mcaninu
of words. But whiIc dcfinition is ccntraI to thc dictionarv
and quitc obviousIv is invoIvcd with scmantics, for thc
most part it dcaIs with individuaI words in isoIation from
othcr words and thus iunorcs, to a considcrabIc cxtcnt, thc
svstcmatic, rcIationaI sidc of EnuIish scmantics. Anothcr
probIcm is that aIthouuh wc know quitc a Iot about thc
svstcm of EnuIish phonoIouv and a uood dcaI (thouuh Icss)
about thc urammaticaI svstcm, our undcrstandinu of thc
scmantic svstcm is vcrv impcrfcct, and much of what wc
do know about it docs not comc vcrv obviousIv into pIav
in a dictionarv. StiII, wc wiII havc a uIimpsc of this svstcm
whcn wc considcr thc dictionarv trcatmcnt of svnonvms,
and in thc mcantimc thcrc is much to bc said about thc dc-
fininu of words. Pcrhaps thc first thinu that wc nccd to rc-
mind ourscIvcs of is that whcn wc spcak of thc mcaninu of
a word wc arc cmpIovinu an artificiaI, if hiuhIv uscfuI, con-
vcntion. Mcaninu docs not truIv rcsidc within thc word
but in thc minds of thosc who hcar or rcad it. This fact
aIonc uuarantccs that mcaninu wiII bc to a urcat dcurcc
amorphous; no two pcopIc havc had cxactIv thc samc cx-
pcricncc with what a word rcfcrs to and so thc mcaninu of
thc word wiII bc sIiuhtIv or urcatIv diffcrcnt for cach of us.
It is obvious, thcn, that a dictionarv which sct itscIf thc
task of dcfininu thc mcaninus of words in thcir cntirctv
wouId bc a fooIhardv cntcrprisc. So dictionarv cditors in-
vokc thc traditionaI distinction bctwccn denotation-thc
dircct and spccific part of mcaninu which is somctimcs in-
dicatcd as thc totaI of aII thc rcfcrcnts of a word and is
sharcd bv aII or most pcopIc who usc thc word-and
connotation-thc morc pcrsonaI associations and shadcs
of mcaninu that uathcr about a word as a rcsuIt of individ-
uaI cxpcricncc and which mav not bc widcIv sharcd. Thc
dictionarv conccrns itscIf csscntiaIIv with thc dcnotations
of words.
For thc cditors of this dictionarv thc dcfininu proccss
bcuan Ionu bcforc thcv actuaIIv sat down to cxaminc criti-
caIIv thc dcfinitions of thc Iast cdition and to formuIatc tri-
aI dcfinitions. It bcuan with an activitv that is caIIcd in our
officcs rcadinu and markinu." OrdinariIv cach cditor
spcnds a portion of thc workinu dav rcadinu a varictv of
ncwspapcrs, mauazincs, and books, Iookinu for anvthinu
that miuht bc uscfuI to a dcfincr of EnuIish words. Bccausc
both timc and staff arc Iimitcd and thc scopc of EnuIish
sccms ncarIv unIimitcd, chanucs in subIcct mattcr, uco-
uraphicaI arca covcrcd, and individuaI pubIications must
bc madc from timc to timc in a wav carcfuIIv caIcuIatcd to
cnsurc thc brcadth and dcpth as wcII as thc continuitv of
our covcrauc of thc vocabuIarv of EnuIish. An cditor who
is rcadinu and markinu wiII, of coursc, bc Iookinu for cx-
ampIcs of ncw words and for unusuaI appIications of fa-
miIiar words that suuucst thc possibIc cmcrucncc of a ncw
mcaninu but wiII aIso bc conccrncd to providc cvidcncc of
thc currcnt status of variant spcIIinus, infIcctcd forms, and
thc stvIinus of compound words, to coIIcct cxampIcs that
mav bc quotabIc as iIIustrations of tvpicaI usc in thc dic-
tionarv, and to rccord manv othcr uscfuI kinds of informa-
tion. In cach instancc thc rcadcr wiII undcrIinc thc word or
phrasc that is of intcrcst and mark off as much contcxt as
is considcrcd hcIpfuI in cIarifvinu thc mcaninu. This cxam-
pIc of a word uscd in contcxt is caIIcd a citation of thc
word. IdcaIIv thc cditor wouId Iikc aII citations to iIIumi-
natc thc mcaninu of thc word, but somc passaucs wiII rc-
main obscurc no mattcr how far thcv cxtcnd, and somc-
timcs onc must mark a citation simpIv for thc occurrcncc
of thc word or mcaninu (cspcciaIIv whcn it is ncw), trust-
inu that thc rcadinu-and-markinu proccss wiII vicId morc
hcIpfuI cxampIcs in thc Ionu run. In thc casc of cphcmcraI
words, of coursc, this mav ncvcr happcn, but truIv cphcm-
craI words wiII not nccd to bc dcfincd for a dictionarv. At
this carIv stauc of thc dictionarv-makinu proccss, cditors
do not makc Iudumcnts about thc IikcIihood of a word`s
cstabIishinu itscIf in thc Ianuuauc. If a possibIc citation has
cvcn thc barcst potcntiaI to bc uscfuI at a Iatcr timc, it is
markcd.
Thcsc sampIcs of words in brackctcd contcxt arc put
onto 3 5 sIips of papcr, and thc citation sIips arc pIaccd
in aIphabcticaI ordcr in rows of fiIinu cabincts. (In rcccnt
vcars ncw citations havc aIso bccn prcscrvcd in machinc-
rcadabIc form.) Thc sIips wiII bc uscd, as nccdcd, bv thc
cditors in thcir roIcs as writcrs of dcfinitions and ccrtain
othcr parts of dictionarv cntrics. Thc cditors cnuaucd in
this cIcvcnth cdition of thc CoIIcuiatc rcvicwcd cvcrv onc
of thc morc than a miIIion citations that had bccn uathcrcd
sincc thc tcnth cdition was prcparcd in thc carIv 1990s.
Whcn ncccssarv, thcv aIso drcw upon thc additionaI rc-
sourccs of what arc caIIcd thc consoIidatcd" fiIcs, thosc
that contain aII thc citations (ovcr fourtccn miIIion) that
had bccn accumuIatcd in our officcs sincc thc Iatc ninc-
tccnth ccnturv and had bccn uscd in thc cditinu of thc
manv dictionarics this companv pubIishcd bcforc thc
prcscnt onc.
Thc actuaI dcfininu proccss oftcn bcuins with a numbcr
of spcciaI assiunmcnts caIIcd uroup dcfininu proIccts,"
which mav ranuc from a smaII sct of words Iikc thosc for
thc davs of thc wcck or thc Icttcrs of thc EnuIish aIphabct
(for which paraIIcI, formuIaic dcfinitions arc rcquircd) to
thc vocabuIarv of a Iaruc subIcct arca such as music or an-
thropoIouv. Whcn thcsc assiunmcnts havc bccn compIctcd,
dcfininu procccds aIphabcticaIIv, with thc cditors rcspon-
sibIc for thc tcrminoIouv of thc Iifc scicnccs or thc phvsicaI
scicnccs and rcIatcd tcchnoIouics workinu indcpcndcntIv
of thc cditors rcsponsibIc for dcfininu thc ucncraI vocabu-
Iarv.
If vou wcrc a dcfincr, vou wouId tvpicaIIv bc workinu at
a uivcn momcnt with a uroup of citations covcrinu a rcIa-
tivcIv short scumcnt of thc aIphabct, gri- to gro-, for cxam-
pIc, and with thc cntrics of thc dictionarv bcinu rccditcd
that faII within thc samc scumcnt. Your Iob wouId bc to dc-
tcrminc, undcr thc uuidancc of thc citations, which cxist-
inu cntrics couId rcmain in thc ncw cdition csscntiaIIv un-
chanucd bccausc thcir usauc showcd no siunificant
aItcration, which cntrics nccdcd to bc rcviscd cithcr bv
modification of cxistinu dcfinitions or bv thc addition of
ncw oncs, which oId cntrics wcrc cxpcndabIc for thc ncw
cdition, and what ncw cntrics shouId bc addcd to kccp
covcrauc of thc Icxicon up-to-datc. You wouId bcuin bv
rcadinu and sortinu out thc citation sIips, first bv uram-
maticaI function, in thc casc of a word Iikc groom that is
both noun and vcrb, and thcn bv mcaninu within cach part
of spccch. For cach uroup of citations that was covcrcd bv
an adcquatc cxistinu dcfinition, vou wouId nccd onIv to in-
dicatc that vou had cxamincd thcm and wouId do nothinu
to thc dcfinition. For dcfinitions nccdinu adIustmcnt, vou
wouId indicatc thc chanuc to bc madc. In manv cascs, vou
wouId havc somc citations Icft ovcr that wcrc not covcrcd
bv an cxistinu dcfinition, and it wouId thcn bc vour Iob to
dctcrminc whcthcr that scumcnt of mcaninu was pcrhaps
rcIativcIv uncommon and not backcd bv a sufficicnt ranuc
and numbcr of citations and so not nccdcd for thc dictio-
narv or whcthcr in fact it was a scnsc that dictionarv uscrs
arc cntitIcd to find suitabIv dcfincd whcn thcv comc Iook-
inu for it. In thc formcr casc vou wouId rcIcct thc cita-
tions, and cvcntuaIIv thcv wouId find thcir wav back to thc
fiIcs to await rcvicw for anothcr dictionarv (bv which timc
pcrhaps thc citationaI backinu wouId bc stronucr and a
30a The English Language
definition needed. In the latter case the responsibility to
frame the kind of definition that will adequately convey
that particular segment of meaning to the dictionary user
would be yours.
In writing that definition, you could follow any of a
number of paths marked out by the instructions given to
each definer. These include both the general policies and
practices that govern all Merriam-Webster dictionaries
and the more specific directions and prohibitions con-
tained in the style file, as it is called, for this particular
dictionary.
The kind of definition that you would write in most cas-
es is called an analytical definition. It consists in its purest
form of the statement of a class to which the term being
defined is assigned and a number of characteristics which
differentiate the individual from other members of the
class. For example, the first sense of grove is defined in this
Collegiate as a small wood without underbrush, assign-
ing a grove to the more general class of woods and using
small and without underbrush to indicate in what
ways a grove is unlike other kinds of woods. Another pos-
sibility would be for you to define a synonym, as is done at
the sixth sense of the noun grip, where the definition is
. Defining by synonym tends to be inexact
because even true synonyms do not have exactly the same
meaning and is perhaps most useful in cases like the one
just mentioned where one kind of referent has two or
more names, a situation that occurs frequently with the
common names of plants and animals. For this reason we
link any synonym definition to an analytical definition by
making the synonym a cross-reference in small capital
letters to another entry where an analytical definition
suitable for both words is given: at stagehand is the defini-
tion a stage worker who handles scenery, properties, or
lights, which is also a good definition of the sixth sense of
grip.
Within these basic defining patterns many variations are
permitted. Some analytical definitions may justifiably be
truncated by the use of a related word within the defini-
tion in order to save precious space for more entries. For
example, gross domestic product can be defined as the
gross national product excluding the value of net income
earned abroad because the meaning of gross national
product is given as the total value of the goods and servic-
es produced by the residents of a nation during a specified
period as a year, and so the definition of gross domestic
product need not give that information a second time.
It is also possible to add a synonymous cross-reference
to an analytical definition and thereby incorporate at little
cost of space a second version of the meaning that looks at
it from a slightly different aspect. It is possible to add a
parenthetical element that specifies one or several of the
typical referents of the word or that indicates the sole or a
typical object of a transitive verb. One may begin an adjec-
tive definition with one of a wide variety of formulas but
others are forbidden. It is clear already that definers in-
structions are elaborately detailed, and it would be tedious
to rehearse them here. Their purpose is to assist in devel-
oping the definers native talent so that the definitions that
he or she writes are consistently good ones. What is a good
definition Many qualities could be mentioned, and prob-
ably different definers would rank the relative importance
of those on any list differently but all definers want their
definitions to be objective in reflecting what the word
means as it is actually used rather than what the definer or
someone else thinks it ought to mean, and they want their
definitions to be accurate, clear, informative, and concise.
In short, they want their definitions to have the qualities
that users have in mind when they call a dictionary they
admire authoritative.
In the course of your defining, you would have an op-
portunity fairly often to make another kind of decision:
whether to include or omit a new candidate for main en-
try. Let us take as an example the word bioterrorism,
which is one of many entries new to this edition of the Col-
legiate Dictionary. If you had been the definer who han-
dled that word, you would have been faced with a group of
about three dozen citations to read covering a span of
twelve years, with the greatest concentration in the years
from 1996 to the present. They would include extracts
from such publications as The Nation, Business Week, USA
Today, Newsweek, The Ottawa Citizen, The Atlantic Month-
ly, The New York Times, The New Republic, The Journal of
the American Medical Association, Commonweal, and Pub-
lishers Weekly. In reading the citations, you would notice
that while they varied in many details of context, they
seem to be describing a straightforward and simple not to
say chilling concept represented by the two elements that
make up the word: bio- and terrorism. You might then have
produced the following definition or one like it: terrorism
involving the use of biological weapons. Terrorism is, of
course, entered and defined at its own alphabetical place
in the dictionary.
The number and time span of the citations and the vari-
ety of the sources would already have told you that this
was a very strong, and perhaps even an essential, candidate
for entry in the new edition. There is no magic number of
citations that guarantees entry and no particular span of
years that must be reached. To a great extent the judgment
made here must rest on your insight and experience as a
definer who has seen the citational backing for many
words, who has most likely defined words for other
Merriam-Webster dictionaries in the past, and who thus
has some sense of the relative importance and degree of
establishment of new entries within the lexicon and of
their likely staying power.
You would have noticed that in addition to the evidence
for the noun bioterrorism, there were also fourteen cita-
tions for a word bioterrorist, some showing it used as a
noun in the usual ways but several others showing it mod-
ifying another noun as in a bioterrorist plot. Seeing
both that these uses were less important than bioterrorism
though also well backed by citations and that their
meanings were easily inferred from the meaning of the
main entry word, you would add them to your new main
entry as an undefined run-on with a double functional la-
bel adj or n. You would also notice ten citations for a
noun bioterror with exactly the same meaning as bioterror-
ism. Our rules do not allow this word to be run on since its
meaning is not easily inferred from the meaning of the
main entry, but you might well make a separate main en-
try for it, defining it by synonymous cross-reference to
bioterrorism.
To take one further example of a somewhat different
kind, if you had been the life-sciences definer responsible
for handling the term genomics, you would have read over
40 citations. Many of these would have been from sources
such as Science, Nature, and BioWorld Today, likely to be
seen chiefly by people with specialized interests but you
would also have seen examples from The Wall Street Jour-
nal, Time, Wired, and The New Yorker. In other words, the
term is likely to be encountered by people with general in-
terests and, given its nature, will probably be looked up in
a dictionary fairly often. Such considerations would have
led you to propose entry for the term and with a much
higher priority than if the citational backing had been
nearly all technical.
It is worth noting briefly that in the course of your work
as a definer you would have been concerned with what the
citations reveal about a word in addition to its meaning.
The definer is initially responsible for most of the frame-
work of the entry including not only spelling variants and
run-ons but also inflected forms, usage notes, verbal illus-
trations, and temporal, regional, stylistic, and subject la-
bels.
The other important part of these entries that is con-
cerned with English semantics is the synonym paragraph.
These paragraphs are not written by each individual defin-
er as particular entries are encountered but are rather the
special assignment of usually one editor, who decides
which words will be included in a single paragraph and at
which entry the paragraph will be placed. The synonym
editor has a number of responsibilities in addition to the
actual writing or revising of the synonym paragraph. Each
entry for a term discussed in a paragraph must be checked
to ensure that the definition of a given sense is fully conso-
The English Language 31a
nant with its treatment in the paragraph, and the editor
has the authority to make small adjustments of definitions
so that no discrepancies which might puzzle a user remain.
Like the definer, this editor must read citations very
carefully to see that the opening statement of the core
meaning shared by the synonyms includes neither too
much nor too little, that each discrimination of one word
from the others is accurate, and that typical examples are
chosen as a basis on which to frame verbal illustrations. It
is particularly in these paragraphs that the dictionary user
comes into contact with the systematic side of English se-
mantics because here the concern is with the relationship
of meanings instead of the meanings themselves as discrete
entities. For example, the synonym paragraph at splendid
in this dictionary states that splendid, resplendent, gor-
geous, glorious, sublime, and superb mean extraordinarily
or transcendently impressive. This statement of meaning
is at once too broad and too narrow to be a good definition
for any of the words it trims away the particular elements
of meaning that make each word distinctive the most im-
portant of which are stated in the following discussion. It
does, however, give us an accurate notion of the point at
which these words come into a precise semantic relation-
ship with each other.
Grammar and Usage in the Dictionary
The last of the four systems of English whose reflection
we may see, at least briefly and occasionally, in the dictio-
nary is the grammatical system. As we saw earlier, this sys-
tem involves chiefly the relationship between words as
they form more complex units rather than individual
words themselves. A descriptive grammar of English is a
very different kind of book from a dictionary. Neverthe-
less, virtually every entry in this dictionary contains at
least one piece of information about its grammatical na-
ture and the kinds of relationships it can enter into, name-
ly, the functional label which typically indicates the part
of speech of the entry or, in the case of terminal word ele-
ments, the part of speech of the words that they form. If an
entry is labeled adv, we know that it can describe the ac-
tion of a verb but cannot itself be the main verb of a sen-
tence, while an entry labeled n cannot link the subject of a
sentence with a predicate adjective but can be the subject.
Other parts of the entry also give us information that is
grammatical in nature. One sort of information is offered
by the boldface inflected forms that are shown at every en-
try for which they are irregular exceptions to the ordinary
patterns of English inflection or may present some other
sort of problem to the dictionary user. Another is offered
by the undefined run-on entries. They illustrate the com-
plex patterns by which one word or a number of words
can be derived from a single base by means of affixation or
functional shift. Certain kinds of usage notes following or
standing in place of definitions also present grammatical
information. Typical of the former kind of usage note is
the one given at sense 2 of
1
joke, often used in negative
constructions, and the one given at sense 2b of the verb
4
conk, usu. used with off or out. Typical of the latter are
the several usage notes at the entry for the preposition for,
used as a function word to indicate duration of time or
extent of space at sense 9, for example, and the note given
at sense 3c of boy, used interjectionally to express intensi-
ty of feeling.
Usage is a concept that embraces many aspects of and
attitudes toward language. Grammar is certainly only a
small part of what goes to make up usage, though some
people use one term for the other, as when they label what
is really a controversial point of usage a grammatical er-
ror. Usage guidance is offered in this dictionary in many
ways it would be little exaggeration to say that any infor-
mation a user seeks and finds in this book can offer some
guidance as to usage. But usage information is chiefly con-
veyed through three devices: usage notes temporal, re-
gional, and stylistic labels and usage paragraphs. The first
two are developed by definers from their examination of
citations, including sometimes and particularly in the
case of the labels citations found in historical, dialect, and
slang dictionaries as well as those in Merriam-Websters ci-
tation file. The usage paragraphs like the synonym para-
graphs are the result of a special project chiefly in the
hands of one editor with assistance from several others.
The editors attempted to select particular problems of
confused or disputed usage that would be of broad general
interest and could be treated at individual entries in the
dictionary. The great majority of them involve words that
have traditionally been points of dispute a few of these
are now probably more traditional than truly the subjects
of heated dispute, but some are relatively new items for
this kind of consideration. Several paragraphs deal with
pronunciation, a subject rarely treated in books about us-
age.
The editors who wrote the paragraphs used several
kinds of material: books describing one or another aspect
of the history of usage as a problem in English books and
articles ruling on particular points of usage, whether the
product of one person or a group historical and other dic-
tionaries and above all citations of usage itself from our
file. In digesting this mass of information and presenting it
in a very brief compass, the editors have typically com-
bined information on the history of the controversy, the
current state of expressed opinion, illustrations of both old
and modern use often quoted, and practical advice.
These paragraphs have profited greatly from the extensive
research in the same materials that was carried out in the
course of work on Merriam-Websters Dictionary of En-
glish Usage.
It has been close to 250 years since Dr. Johnson pub-
lished his great dictionary and 175 years since Noah Web-
sters American Dictionary of the English Language ap-
peared. Even the more modest Collegiate series has passed
its hundredth birthday. It seems clear that the long tradi-
tion of English dictionaries is not likely to wither and die.
Indeed, dictionaries are likely to become, if anything, even
more important to the general public in the future, at least
as long as the vocabulary of English continues the rapid
growth which began early in the twentieth century and
which seems now to intensify year by year. As long as they
are edited with a proper regard for the right of the dictio-
nary user to have accurate information about what En-
glish words actually mean and how they are actually used,
those dictionaries will continue to serve a useful purpose
and to be needed. Though they are incomplete as descrip-
tions of the systems of English and are edited by fallible
humans whose best intentions sometimes fall short of the
mark, such dictionaries will continue to form, as the best
dictionaries have always done, a helpful bridge between
what we know about language and how we use it. Move-
ment across such a bridge is, of course, in both directions:
our use of language furnishes the basis for our knowledge
of it, but our knowledge of it also helps us to use it more
effectively.
32a The English Language
Guidc to Pronunciation
Pronunciation is not an intrinsic componcnt of thc dic-
tionarv. For somc Ianuuaucs, such as Spanish, SwahiIi, and
Finnish, thc corrcspondcncc bctwccn orthouraphv and
pronunciation is so cIosc that a dictionarv nccd onIv spcII
a word corrcctIv to indicatc its pronunciation. Modcrn
EnuIish, howcvcr, dispIavs no such consistcncv in sound
and spcIIinu, and so a dictionarv of EnuIish must dcvotc
considcrabIc attcntion to thc pronunciation of thc Ian-
uuauc. Thc EnuIish Icxicon contains numcrous cvc rhvmcs
such as love, move, and rove, words which do not sound
aIikc dcspitc thcir simiIar spcIIinus. On thc othcr hand, it
aIso contains rhvminu words such as breeze, cheese, ease,
frieze, and sleaze whosc rhvmcs arc aII spcIIcd diffcrcntIv.
This urand mismatch bctwccn words that Iook aIikc and
words that sound aIikc docs at Icast scrvc to rccord somc-
thinu of thc historv of thc EnuIish-spcakinu pcopIcs and
thcir Ianuuauc. SpcIIinu oftcn indicatcs whcthcr a word
comcs down from thc nativc AnuIo-Saxon word stock or
was adoptcd in succcssivc aucs from thc spccch of a mis-
sionarv monk chantinu Latin, a scafarinu Vikinu dickcrinu
in OId Norsc, a Norman nobIcman uivinu ordcrs in
Frcnch, or a vounu immiurant to turn-of-thc-ccnturv
Amcrica. For cxampIc, thc sound \sh\ is spcIIcd as sh in
nativc EnuIish shore, as ch in thc Frcnch Ioan champagne,
as sk in onc pronunciation of thc Norwcuian Ioan ski, as si
in thc Rcnaissancc Latin Ioan emulsion, and as sch in thc
rcccnt Yiddish Ioan schlep. EnuIish vowcIs prcscnt diffcr-
cnt compIcxitics of sound and spcIIinu, duc in Iaruc part to
thc fact that WiIIiam Caxton introduccd printinu to En-
uIand in A.D. 1476, manv dccadcs bcforc thc sound chanuc
known as thc Grcat VowcI Shift had run its coursc. With
thc risc of printinu camc an incrcasinuIv fixcd sct of spcII-
inu convcntions, but thc convcntionaIizcd spcIIinus soon
Iost thcir conncction to pronunciation as thc vowcI shift
continucd. Thc strcsscd vowcIs of sane and sanity arc
thcrcforc idcnticaI in spcIIinu thouuh now quitc diffcrcnt
in quaIitv. For thc traincd obscrvcr thc vauarics of EnuIish
orthouraphv contain a wcaIth of Iinuuistic historv; for
most othcrs, howcvcr, this disparitv bctwccn sound and
spcIIinu is Iust a continuaI nuisancc at schooI or work.
Rcadcrs oftcn turn to thc dictionarv wantinu to Icarn
thc cxact pronunciation of a word, onIv to discovcr that
thc word mav havc scvcraI pronunciations, as is thc casc
for deity, economic, envelope, and greasy, amonu manv oth-
crs. Thc incIusion of variant pronunciations disappoints
thosc who want thcir dictionarv to Iist onc corrcct" pro-
nunciation. In truth, thouuh, thcrc can bc no obIcctivc
standard for corrcct pronunciation othcr than thc usauc of
thouuhtfuI and, in particuIar, cducatcd spcakcrs of En-
uIish. Amonu such spcakcrs onc hcars much variation in
pronunciation.
Dictionarics of EnuIish bcforc thc modcrn cra usuaIIv
iunorcd pronunciation variants, instcad indicatinu a sinuIc
pronunciation bv markinu thc cntrv word with diacritics
to indicatc strcss and Icttcr vaIucs. Thcsc svstcms wcrc
cumbcrsomc, howcvcr, and rcfIcctcd thc diaIcctaI biascs
of thc cditors morc than thc facts about how a word was
actuaIIv spokcn. Lcxicouraphcrs camc cvcntuaIIv to rccou-
nizc thc nccd for scparatc rcspcIIinus which couId rccord
thc cntirc ranuc of acccptcd variants aIonu with appropri-
atc notcs about diaIcctaI distribution or usauc.
This dictionarv rccords manv tvpcs of variation in pro-
nunciation. Distinctions bctwccn British and Amcrican
spccch arc frcqucntIv notcd, as arc diffcrcnccs amonu thc
thrcc maIor diaIcct arcas of thc L.S.-Northcrn, South-
crn, and MidIand. Words that havc distinctivc pronuncia-
tions in Canada, such as decal and khaki, havc thosc pro-
nunciations duIv notcd. Pronunciations pccuIiar to ccrtain
sphcrcs of activitv arc aIso rcprcscntcd, as for cxampIc thc
variants of athwart and tackle hcard in nauticaI usc. FinaI-
Iv, a widc ranuc of unprcdictabIc variations arc incIudcd,
such as thc pronunciation of economic with cithcr \c\ or
\c\. LnprcdictabIc variations frcqucntIv cut across thc
boundarics of ucouraphicaI diaIccts, somctimcs runninu
aIonu thc Iincs of sociaI cIass, cthnicitv, or ucndcr instcad.
In finc, this dictionarv attcmpts to incIudc-cithcr cxpIic-
itIv or bv impIication-aII pronunciation variants of a
word that arc uscd bv cducatcd spcakcrs of thc EnuIish
Ianuuauc.
Thc pronunciations in this dictionarv arc informcd
chicfIv bv thc Mcrriam-Wcbstcr pronunciation fiIc. This
fiIc contains citations that arc transcriptions of words uscd
bv nativc spcakcrs of EnuIish in thc coursc of uttcranccs
hcard in spccchcs, intcrvicws, and convcrsations. In this
cxtcnsivc coIIcction of 3 5 sIips of papcr, onc finds thc
pronunciations of a host of pcopIc: poIiticians, profcssors,
curators, artists, musicians, doctors, cnuinccrs, prcachcrs,
activists, IournaIists, and manv othcrs. Thc Mcrriam-
Wcbstcr pronunciation cditors havc bccn coIIcctinu thcsc
citations from Iivc spccch and from radio, tcIcvision, and
shortwavc broadcasts sincc thc 1930s. It is primariIv on thc
basis of this Iaruc and urowinu fiIc that qucstions of usauc
and acccptabiIitv in pronunciation arc answcrcd. AII of
thc pronunciations rccordcd in this book can bc docu-
mcntcd as faIIinu within thc ranuc of ucncraIIv acccptabIc
variation, unIcss thcv arc accompanicd bv a rcstrictinu us-
auc notc or svmboI or a rcuionaI IabcI.
No svstcm of indicatinu pronunciation is scIf-
cxpIanatorv. Thc foIIowinu discussion scts out thc siunifi-
cation and usc of thc pronunciation svmboIs in this book,
with spcciaI attcntion to thosc arcas whcrc cxpcricncc has
shown that dictionarv uscrs mav havc qucstions. Morc dc-
taiIcd information can bc found in thc Guidc to Pronunci-
ation in Wcbstcr`s Third Ncw IntcrnationaI Dictionarv.
Thc ordcr of svmboIs discusscd bcIow is thc samc as thc
ordcr on thc pauc of Pronunciation SvmboIs, with thc cx-
ccption that thc svmboIs which arc not Icttcr charactcrs
arc hcrc Iistcd first. Thosc charactcrs which havc corrc-
spondinu svmboIs in thc IntcrnationaI Phonctic AIphabct
(IPA) arc shown with thcir IPA cquivaIcnts.
\ \
AII pronunciation information is printcd bctwccn
rcvcrscd viruuIcs. Pronunciation svmboIs arc
printcd in roman tvpc and aII othcr information, such as
IabcIs and notcs, is printcd in itaIics.
\ ', \
A hiuh-sct strcss mark prcccdcs a svIIabIc with
primarv (stronucst) strcss; a Iow-sct mark prc-
ccdcs a svIIabIc with sccondarv (mcdium) strcss; a third
IcvcI of wcak strcss rcquircs no mark at aII: \'pcn-mn-
,ship\.
Sincc thc ninctccnth ccnturv thc IntcrnationaI Phonct-
ics Association has rccommcndcd that strcss marks prc-
ccdc thc strcsscd svIIabIc, and Iinuuists worIdwidc havc
adoptcd this practicc on thc basic principIc that bcforc a
svIIabIc can bc uttcrcd thc spcakcr must know what dc-
urcc of strcss to uivc it.
\ - \
Hvphcns arc uscd to scparatc svIIabIcs in pro-
nunciation transcriptions. In actuaI spccch, of
coursc, thcrc is no pausc bctwccn thc svIIabIcs of a word.
Thc pIaccmcnt of hvphcns is bascd on phonctic principIcs,
such as vowcI Icnuth, nasaIization, variation duc to thc po-
sition of a consonant in a svIIabIc, and othcr nuanccs of
thc spokcn word. Thc svIIabIc brcaks shown in this book
rcfIcct thc carcfuI pronunciation of a sinuIc word out of
contcxt. SvIIabication tcnds to chanuc in rapid or runninu
spccch: a consonant at thc cnd of a svIIabIc mav shift into
a foIIowinu svIIabIc, and unstrcsscd vowcIs mav bc cIidcd.
Thc numcrous variations in pronunciation that a word
mav havc in runninu spccch arc of intcrcst to phoncticians
but arc wcII outsidc thc scopc of a dictionarv of ucncraI
EnuIish.
Thc ccntcrcd dots in boIdfacc cntrv words indicatc po-
tcntiaI cnd-of-Iinc division points and not svIIabication.
Thcsc division points arc dctcrmincd bv considcrations of
both morphoIouv and pronunciation, amonu othcrs. Fur-
thcr discussion of cnd-of-Iinc division is containcd in thc
scction of that namc within thc ExpIanatorv Notcs. In this
book a consistcnt approach has bccn pursucd, both to-
ward word division bascd on traditionaI formuIas and to-
ward svIIabication bascd on phonctic principIcs. As a rc-
suIt, thc hvphcns indicatinu svIIabIc brcaks and thc
ccntcrcd dots indicatinu cnd-of-Iinc division oftcn do not
faII in thc samc pIaccs.
\
( )
\
Parcnthcscs arc uscd in pronunciations to indi-
catc that whatcvcr is svmboIizcd bctwccn thcm
is prcscnt in somc uttcranccs but not in othcrs; thus facto-
ry \'fak-t(-)rc\ is pronounccd both \'fak-t-rc\ and \'fak-
trc\, industry \'in-(,)ds-trc\ is pronounccd both \'in-ds-
trc\ and \'in-,ds-trc\. In somc phonctic cnvironmcnts, as
in fence \'fcn(t)s\ and boil \'boi(-)I\, it mav bc difficuIt to
dctcrminc whcthcr thc sound shown in parcnthcscs is or is
not prcscnt in a uivcn uttcrancc; cvcn thc usauc of a sinuIc
spcakcr mav varv considcrabIv.
\ , ; \
Variant pronunciations arc scparatcd bv com-
mas; uroups of variants arc scparatcd bv scmi-
coIons. Thc ordcr of variants docs not mcan that thc first
is in anv wav prcfcrabIc to or morc acccptabIc than thc
othcrs. AII of thc variants in this book, cxccpt thosc rc-
strictcd bv a rcuionaI or usauc IabcI, arc widcIv uscd in ac-
ccptabIc cducatcd spccch. If cvidcncc rcvcaIs that a partic-
uIar variant is uscd morc frcqucntIv than anothcr, thc
formcr wiII bc uivcn first. This shouId not, howcvcr, prcIu-
dicc anvonc auainst thc sccond or subscqucnt variants. In
manv cascs thc numcricaI distribution of variants is cquaI,
but onc of thcm, of coursc, must bc printcd first.
\\
Thc obcIus, or division siun, is pIaccd bcforc a
pronunciation variant that occurs in cducatcd
spccch but that is considcrcd bv somc to bc qucstionabIc
or unacccptabIc. This svmboI is uscd sparinuIv and prima-
riIv for variants that havc bccn obIcctcd to ovcr a pcriod
of timc in print bv commcntators on usauc, in schooIs bv
tcachcrs, or in corrcspondcncc that has comc to thc
Mcrriam-Wcbstcr cditoriaI dcpartmcnt. In most cascs thc
obIcction is bascd on orthouraphic or ctvmoIouicaI aruu-
mcnts. For instancc, thc sccond variant of cupola \'kv-
p-I, -,Io\, thouuh uscd frcqucntIv in spccch, is obIcctcd
to bccausc a is vcrv rarcIv pronounccd \o\ in EnuIish. Thc
pronunciation \'I-,bcr-c\ is simiIarIv markcd at thc cntrv
for library bccausc somc pcopIc insist that both r`s shouId
bc pronounccd.
\ \
in unstrcsscd svIIabIcs as in banana, coIIidc, abut
(IPA []). This ncutraI vowcI, caIIcd schwa, mav
bc rcprcscntcd orthouraphicaIIv bv anv of thc Icttcrs a, e, i,
o, u, y, and bv manv combinations of Icttcrs. In runninu
spccch unstrcsscd vowcIs arc rcuuIarIv pronounccd as \\
in Amcrican and British spccch.
Spcakcrs of r-droppinu diaIccts wiII oftcn inscrt an \r\
aftcr \\ whcn \\ prcccdcs anothcr vowcI. (Scc thc scction
on \r\.)
\', ,\
in strcsscd svIIabIcs as in humdrum, abut.
(IPA [$]).
Somc spcakcrs pronouncc \'\ and \o\ idcnticaIIv bcforc
\I\, with thc rcsuIt that word pairs Iikc gull and goal arc ho-
mophoncs. Thc sound produccd in such cascs is usuaIIv
thc samc sound that othcr spcakcrs usc for \o\.
\ \
immcdiatcIv prcccdinu \I\, \n\, \m\, \\, as in bat-
tle, cotton, and onc pronunciation of open \'o-
pm\ and of and \\ as in onc pronunciation of thc phrasc
lock and key \,Ik--'kc\. Thc svmboI \\ prcccdinu thcsc
consonants docs not itscIf rcprcscnt a sound. It siunifics in-
stcad that thc foIIowinu consonant is svIIabic; that is, thc
consonant itscIf forms thc nucIcus of a svIIabIc that docs
not contain a vowcI.
In thc pronunciation of somc Frcnch or Frcnch-dcrivcd
words \\ is pIaccd immcdiatcIv aftcr \I\, \m\, \r\ to indi-
catc onc nonsvIIabic pronunciation of thcsc consonants, as
in thc Frcnch words table tabIc," prisme prism," and ti-
tre titIc," cach of which in isoIation and in somc contcxts
is a onc-svIIabIc word.
\ r\
as in further, meruer, bird (IPA [*, V]). (Scc thc
scction on \r\.) ActuaIIv, this is usuaIIv a sinuIc
sound, not a scqucncc of \\ foIIowcd bv \r\. Spcakcrs of
r-droppinu diaIccts wiII pronouncc \r\ without r-coIor
(IPA [5I, I] whcn strcsscd, [] whcn unstrcsscd) whcn it
prcccdcs a consonant or pausc, but wiII inscrt a foIIowinu
\r\ whcn \r\ prcccdcs anothcr vowcI.
\ 'r-, '-r\
as in two diffcrcnt pronunciations
of hurry. Most L.S. spcakcrs pro-
nouncc \'hr-c\ with thc \r\ rcprcscntinu thc samc sounds
as in bird \'brd\. LsuaIIv in mctropoIitan Ncw York and
southcrn EnuIand and frcqucntIv in Ncw EnuIand and thc
southcastcrn L.S. thc vowcI is much thc samc as thc vowcI
of hum foIIowcd bv a svIIabIc-initiaI varictv of \r\. This
pronunciation of hurry is rcprcscntcd as \'h-rc\ in this
book. Both tvpcs of pronunciation arc shown for words
composcd of a sinuIc mcaninufuI unit (or morpheme) as in
current, hurry, and worry. In words such as furry, stirring,
and purring in which a vowcI or vowcI-initiaI suffix is add-
cd to a word cndinu in r or rr (as fur, stir, and purr), thc scc-
ond tvpc of pronunciation outIincd abovc is hcard onIv oc-
casionaIIv and is not shown in this dictionarv.
\ a \
as in mat, map, mad, uau, snap, patch (IPA []).
Somc variation in this vowcI is occasioncd bv thc
consonant that foIIows it; thus, for somc spcakcrs map,
mad, and gag havc noticcabIv diffcrcnt vowcI sounds.
Thcrc is a vcrv smaII numbcr of words othcrwisc idcnticaI
in pronunciation that thcsc spcakcrs mav distinuuish soIc-
Iv bv variation of this vowcI, as in thc two words can (put
into cans; bc abIc) in thc scntcncc Lct`s can what wc can."
Howcvcr, this distinction is sufficicntIv infrcqucnt that thc
traditionaI practicc of usinu a sinuIc svmboI is foIIowcd in
this book.
Manv varictics of EnuIish do not aIIow \a\ to bc foI-
Iowcd bv an \r\ which bcuins thc foIIowinu svIIabIc. In
such a casc, thc scqucncc of \a-r\ is rcpIaccd bv \cr\, and
word pairs Iikc arrow and aero arc homophoncs. This is
not aIwavs indicatcd in transcription. Thc rcadcr shouId
assumc that anv scqucnccs of \a-r\ wiII bc \cr\ for such
spcakcrs.
Whcn it prcccdcs \\, \a\ is oftcn foIIowcd bv a \v\
sound. Thc rcsuItinu vowcI sounds much Iikc \\ for manv
spcakcrs.
\ a \
as in dav, fadc, datc, aorta, drapc, capc (IPA [c,
c, ci]). In most EnuIish spccch this is actuaIIv a
diphthonu. In IowIand South CaroIina, in coastaI Gcoruia
and FIorida, and occasionaIIv cIscwhcrc \\ is pronounccd
as a monophthonu. As a diphthonu \\ has a first cIcmcnt
\c\ or monophthonuaI \\ and a sccond cIcmcnt \i\.
Bcforc \I\, spcakcrs mav Iosc thc sccond cIcmcnt \i\ and
inscrt \\. Thus, a word Iikc ale wouId bc IPA [cI]. AItcr-
34a Guide to Pronunciation
natcIv, manv spcakcrs wiII kccp thc sccond cIcmcnt \i\ and
add a foIIowinu \\ which crcatcs a ncw svIIabIc. Thus, thc
word trail wiII bc \'tr-I\, rhvminu with betrayal.
\ \
as in bothcr, cot (IPA ["]). Thc svmboI \\ rcprc-
scnts thc vowcI of cot, cod, and thc strcsscd vow-
cI of collar in thc spccch of thosc who pronouncc this vow-
cI diffcrcntIv from thc vowcI in caught, cawed, and caller,
rcprcscntcd bv \o\. In L.S. spccch \\ is pronounccd with
IittIc or no roundinu of thc Iips, and it is fairIv Ionu in du-
ration, cspcciaIIv bcforc voiccd consonants. In southcrn
EnuIand \\ is usuaIIv accompanicd bv somc Iip roundinu
and is rcIativcIv short in duration. Thc vowcI \o\ ucncraIIv
has apprcciabIc Iip roundinu. Manv L.S. spcakcrs do not
distinuuish bctwccn cot-caught, cod-cawed, and
collar-caller, usuaIIv bccausc thcv Iack or havc Icss Iip
roundinu in thc words transcribcd with \o\. Thouuh thc
svmboIs \\ and \o\ arc uscd throuuhout this book to dis-
tinuuish thc mcmbcrs of thc abovc pairs and simiIar
words, thc spcakcrs who rhvmc thcsc pairs wiII automati-
caIIv rcproducc a sound that is consistcnt with thcir own
spccch.
In transcription of forciun words, thc svmboI \\ is aIso
uscd to rcprcscnt IPA [a], a vowcI which is ucncraIIv pro-
nounccd farthcr forward in thc mouth than \\ but not as
far forward as \a\. Somc spcakcrs mav aIso havc such a
vowcI in words Iikc balm which contrasts with thc vowcI
in words Iikc bomb. Such a contrast is rarc, howcvcr, and
it is not rcprcscntcd in this dictionarv.
Spcakcrs of r-droppinu diaIccts wiII usuaIIv inscrt an \r\
aftcr \\ whcn \\ prcccdcs anothcr vowcI. (Scc thc scction
on \r\.)
\ r \
as in car, heart, aardvark, bazaar, bizarre (IPA
["V, aV, #V]). Thc initiaI cIcmcnt of this diph-
thonu mav varv from \\ to a vowcI pronounccd farthcr
forward in thc mouth than \\, or it mav bc a vowcI with
somc Iip roundinu rcscmbIinu \o\. Spcakcrs of r-droppinu
diaIccts wiII pronouncc \r\ as a Ionu vowcI (IPA ["I, aI])
whcn it prcccdcs a consonant or pausc, and mav distin-
uuish \r\ in cart from \\ in cot bv thc Icnuth and quaIitv
of thc vowcI, not bv thc prcscncc of \r\. Howcvcr, spcakcrs
of r-droppinu diaIccts wiII usuaIIv inscrt an \r\ aftcr \r\
whcn it prcccdcs a vowcI. (Scc thc scction on \r\.)
\ au \
as in now, Ioud, out (IPA [aC, au]). Thc initiaI
cIcmcnt of this diphthonu mav varv from \a\
to \\, thc first bcinu morc common in Southcrn and south
MidIand spccch than cIscwhcrc. In coastaI arcas of thc
southcrn L.S. and in parts of Canada this diphthonu is of-
tcn rcaIizcd as \u\ whcn immcdiatcIv prcccdinu a voicc-
Icss consonant, as in thc noun house and in out.
Manv varictics of EnuIish do not aIIow \au\ to bc foI-
Iowcd bv \I\ in thc samc svIIabIc. Spcakcrs of such varic-
tics wiII inscrt a foIIowinu \\ which crcatcs a ncw svIIabIc.
This is indicatcd bv thc transcription \au(-)I\. For such
spcakcrs, owl wiII rhvmc with avowal. AIso, manv varictics
of EnuIish do not aIIow \au\ to bc foIIowcd bv \r\ in thc
samc svIIabIc. Spcakcrs of such varictics wiII transform thc
foIIowinu \r\ into \r\, thus crcatinu a ncw svIIabIc. This is
indicatcd bv thc transcription \au(-)r\. For such spcakcrs,
scour wiII rhvmc with plower.
\ b \ as in babv, rib (IPA [b]).
\ ch\
as in chin, naturc \'n-chr\ (IPA [A]). ActuaI-
Iv, this sound is \t\ + \sh\. Thc distinction bc-
twccn thc phrascs why choose and white shoes is main-
taincd bv a diffcrcncc in thc svIIabication of thc \t\ and thc
\sh\ in cach casc and thc conscqucnt usc of diffcrcnt vari-
ctics (or allophones) of \t\.
\ d \
as in did, addcr (IPA [d]). (Scc thc scction on \t\
bcIow for a discussion of thc fIap aIIophonc of
\d\.) Manv spcakcrs pronouncc \d\ Iikc \I\ whcn it occurs
bcforc \r\ in thc samc svIIabIc.
\ c \
as in bet, bed, peck (IPA [)]). In Southcrn and
MidIand diaIccts this vowcI bcforc nasaI conso-
nants oftcn has a raiscd articuIation that approximatcs \i\,
so that pen has ncarIv thc pronunciation \'pin\.
Manv varictics of EnuIish do not aIIow \c\ to bc foI-
Iowcd bv an \r\ which bcuins thc foIIowinu svIIabIc. In
such a casc, thc scqucncc of \c-r\ is rcpIaccd bv \cr\, and
word pairs Iikc very and vary arc homophoncs. This is not
aIwavs indicatcd in transcription. Thc rcadcr shouId as-
sumc that anv scqucnccs of \c-r\ wiII bc \cr\ for such
spcakcrs.
\ cr \
as in bare, fair, wear, derriere, miIIionaire
(IPA [cV, )V]). Thc initiaI cIcmcnt of this diph-
thonu mav varv from \c\ to \\. Spcakcrs of r-droppinu di-
aIccts wiII pronouncc \cr\ without anv r-coIor on thc scc-
ond cIcmcnt (IPA [c, )]) whcn it prcccdcs a consonant or
pausc, but wiII usuaIIv inscrt an \r\ aftcr \cr\ whcn it prc-
ccdcs a vowcI. (Scc thc scction on \r\.)
\ 'c , ,c \
in strcsscd svIIabIcs as in beat, nosc-
bIeed, evcnIv, easv (IPA [i]).
Manv spcakcrs wiII inscrt \\ aftcr \c\ whcn it prcccdcs
\I\. AdditionaIIv, somc spcakcrs pronouncc \c\ and \i\
idcnticaIIv bcforc \I\, with thc rcsuIt that word pairs Iikc
heel and hill arc homophoncs. Thc sound pronounccd in
such cascs mav bc cithcr \c\ or \i\ as pronounccd bv thosc
who distinuuish thc two.
\ c \
in unstrcsscd svIIabIcs, as in casy, mcaIy (IPA [i,
, 2]). Thouuh thc fact is not shown in this book,
somc diaIccts such as southcrn British and southcrn L.S.
oftcn, if not usuaIIv, pronouncc \i\ instcad of unstrcsscd
\c\.
\ f \ as in fiftv, cuff (IPA [f]).
\ u \ as in go, big, gift (IPA [u]).
\ h \ as in hat, ahcad (IPA [h]).
\hw\
as in whaIc as pronounccd bv thosc who do not
havc thc samc pronunciation for both whale
and wail. Somc L.S. spcakcrs distinuuish thcsc two words
as \'hwI\ and \'wI\ rcspcctivcIv, thouuh frcqucntIv in thc
L.S. and usuaIIv in southcrn EnuIand \'wI\ is uscd for
both. Somc Iinuuists considcr \hw\ to bc a sinuIc sound, a
voiccIcss \w\ (IPA [{]).
\ i \
as in tip, banish, activc (IPA []).
Somc spcakcrs pronouncc \c\ and \i\ idcnticaI-
Iv bcforc \I\, with thc rcsuIt that word pairs Iikc heel and
hill arc homophoncs. Thc sound pronounccd in such cascs
mav bc cithcr \c\ or \i\ as pronounccd bv thosc who distin-
uuish thc two.
Whcn it prcccdcs \\, \i\ is oftcn foIIowcd bv a \v\
sound. Thc rcsuItinu sound oftcn urcatIv rcscmbIcs \c\.
\ ir \
as in near, deer, mere, pier, souvcnir (IPA [iV,
V]). Thc initiaI cIcmcnt of this diphthonu mav
varv from \c to \i\. Spcakcrs of r-droppinu diaIccts wiII
pronouncc \ir\ without anv r-coIor on thc sccond cIcmcnt
(IPA [i, ]) whcn it prcccdcs a consonant or pausc, but
wiII usuaIIv inscrt an \r\ aftcr \ir\ whcn it prcccdcs a vow-
cI. (Scc thc scction on \r\.)
\ \
as in sitc, sidc, buy, tripc (IPA [a, ai, ", "i]). Ac-
tuaIIv, this sound is a diphthonu, usuaIIv com-
poscd of \\ + \i\. In Southcrn spccch, cspcciaIIv bcforc a
Guide to Pronunciation 35a
pausc or voiccd consonant, as in shy and five, thc sccond
cIcmcnt \i\ mav not bc pronounccd (IPA [aI]). ChicfIv in
castcrn Viruinia, coastaI South CaroIina, and parts of Can-
ada thc diphthonu is approximatcIv \'\ + \i\ bcforc voicc-
Icss consonants, as in nice and write (IPA [$]).
Manv varictics of EnuIish do not aIIow \\ to bc foIIowcd
bv \I\ in thc samc svIIabIc. Spcakcrs of such varictics wiII
inscrt a foIIowinu \\ which crcatcs a ncw svIIabIc. This is
indicatcd bv thc transcription \(-)I\. For such spcakcrs,
file wiII rhvmc with denial. AIso, manv varictics of EnuIish
do not aIIow \\ to bc foIIowcd bv \r\ in thc samc svIIabIc.
Spcakcrs of such varictics wiII transform thc foIIowinu \r\
into \r\, thus crcatinu a ncw svIIabIc. This is indicatcd bv
thc transcription \(-)r\. For such spcakcrs, fire wiII
rhvmc with higher.
\ I \
as in job, gcm, cdgc, join, judgc. ActuaIIv, this
sound is \d\ + \zh\ (IPA [&]). Assuminu thc anuIi-
cization of Jeanne dArc as \zhn-'drk\, thc distinction bc-
twccn thc scntcnccs They betray John Dark and They be-
trayed Jeanne dArc is maintaincd bv a diffcrcncc in thc
svIIabication of thc \d\ and thc \zh\ in cach casc and thc
conscqucnt usc of diffcrcnt varictics (or allophones) of \d\.
\ k \ as in kin, cook, ache (IPA [k]).
\ k \
as in Gcrman ich I," Buch book," and onc pro-
nunciation of EnuIish Ioch. ActuaIIv, thcrc arc
two distinct sounds in Gcrman; thc \k\ in ich (IPA [c]) is
pronounccd toward thc front of thc mouth and thc \k\ in
Buch is pronounccd toward thc back (IPA [x]). In EnuIish,
howcvcr, no two words othcrwisc idcnticaI arc distin-
uuishcd bv thcsc two varictics of \k\, and thcrcforc onIv a
sinuIc svmboI is ncccssarv.
\ I \
as in lilv, pool (IPA [I, 4]). In words such as battle
and fiddle thc \I\ is a svIIabic consonant (IPA [6]).
(Scc thc scction on \\ abovc.)
\m\
as in murmur, dim, nvmph (IPA [m]). In pronun-
ciation variants of somc words, such as open and
happen, \m\ is a svIIabic consonant (IPA [7]). (Scc thc scc-
tion on \\ abovc.)
\ n\
as in no, own (IPA [n]). In words such as cotton
and sudden, thc \n\ is a svIIabic consonant (IPA
[8]). (Scc thc scction on \\ abovc.)
\ " \
indicatcs that a prcccdinu vowcI or diphthonu is
pronounccd with thc nasaI passaucs opcn, as in
Frcnch un bon vin blanc \o"-bo"-va"-bI"\ a uood whitc
winc."
\ \
as in sing \'si\, singcr \'si-r\, finucr \'fi-ur\,
ink \'ik\ (IPA []). In somc rarc contcxts \\
mav bc a svIIabic consonant (IPA [9]). (Scc thc scction on
\\ abovc.)
\ o \
as in bonc, know, beau (IPA [o, oC, ou]). Espc-
ciaIIv in positions of cmphasis, such as whcn it
occurs at thc cnd of a word or has primarv strcss, \o\ tcnds
to bccomc diphthonuaI, movinu from \o\ toward a sccond
cIcmcnt \u\. In southcrn EnuIand and in somc L.S. spccch,
particuIarIv in thc PhiIadcIphia arca and in thc
PcnnsvIvania-Ohio-Wcst Viruinia bordcr arca, thc first cIc-
mcnt is oftcn approximatcIv \\. In coastaI South CaroIina,
Gcoruia, and FIorida strcsscd \o\ is oftcn monophthonuaI
whcn finaI, but whcn a consonant foIIows it is oftcn a
diphthonu movinu from \o\ to \\. In this book thc svmboI
\o\ rcprcscnts aII of thc abovc variants. As an unstrcsscd
vowcI bcforc anothcr vowcI, \o\ is oftcn pronounccd as a
schwa with sIiuht Iip roundinu that is scparatcd from thc
foIIowinu vowcI bv thc uIidc \w\, as in following \f-I-
wi\. This rcduccd variant is not usuaIIv shown at individ-
uaI cntrics.
\ o \
as in saw, aII, unaw, caught (IPA [<]). (Scc thc
scction on \\.)
Spcakcrs of r-droppinu diaIccts wiII usuaIIv inscrt an \r\
aftcr \o\ whcn \o\ prcccdcs anothcr vowcI. (Scc thc scc-
tion on \r\.)
\ o\
as in Frcnch boeuf bccf," Gcrman HIIc hcII"
(IPA [o]). This vowcI, which occurs onIv in
forciun-dcrivcd tcrms and namcs, can bc approximatcd bv
attcmptinu to pronouncc thc vowcI \c\ with thc Iips mod-
cratcIv roundcd as for thc vowcI \u\. This vowcI is oftcn
anuIicizcd as thc \r\ of bird bv thosc who do not drop
thcir r`s" or as thc corrcspondinu vowcI of bird uscd bv
thosc who do (scc thc scction on \r\).
This svmboI is aIso uscd to rcprcscnt thc vowcI in
Frcnch feu firc," Gcrman HhIc hoIc" (IPA [o]). This
vowcI, which occurs primariIv in forciun-dcrivcd tcrms
and namcs, can bc approximatcd bv attcmptinu to pro-
nouncc a monophthonuaI vowcI \\ with thc Iips fuIIv
roundcd as for thc vowcI \\. This vowcI aIso occurs in
Scots and thus is uscd in thc pronunciation of guidwillie,
mainIv rcstrictcd to ScotIand.
\ o \
as in coin, dcstroy (IPA [<, <i, o, oi]). In somc
Southcrn spccch, cspcciaIIv bcforc a consonant
in thc samc word, thc sccond cIcmcnt mav disappcar or bc
rcpIaccd bv \\. Somc uttcranccs of drawing and sawing
havc a scqucncc of vowcI sounds idcnticaI to that in coin,
but bccausc drawing and sawing arc anaIvzcd bv manv as
two-svIIabIc words thcv arc transcribcd with a parcnthc-
sizcd hvphcn: \'dro(-)i\, \'so(-)i\.
Manv varictics of EnuIish do not aIIow \oi\ to bc foI-
Iowcd bv \I\ in thc samc svIIabIc. Spcakcrs of such varic-
tics wiII inscrt a foIIowinu \\ which crcatcs a ncw svIIabIc.
This is indicatcd bv thc transcription \oi(-)I\. For such
spcakcrs, oil wiII rhvmc with loyal.
\ o r\
as in boar, port, door, shore (IPA [oV, <V]). Thc
initiaI cIcmcnt of this diphthonu mav varv
from \o\ to \o\. Spcakcrs of r-droppinu diaIccts wiII usuaI-
Iv pronouncc \or\ thc samc as \o\. (Scc thc scction on \r\.)
HistoricaIIv, thcrc has bccn a contrast bctwccn thc vowcI
in words Iikc ore, bore, porch, sport, and hoarse on onc
hand and thc vowcI in words Iikc or, for, torch, short, and
horse on thc othcr hand. Thc vowcI in thc formcr sct of
words has bccn much Iikc \o\, and thc vowcI in thc Iattcr
sct Iikc \o\. Howcvcr, thc numbcr of spcakcrs that makc
such a distinction is currcntIv vcrv smaII, and wc havc not
rcprcscntcd thc distinction in this dictionarv.
\ p \ as in pcppcr, Iip (IPA [p]).
\ r \
as in rcd, raritv. What is transcribcd hcrc as \r\
in rcaIitv rcprcscnts scvcraI distinct sounds. Bc-
forc a strcsscd vowcI \r\ dcnotcs a continuant produccd
with thc tonuuc tip sIiuhtIv bchind thc tccthriduc (IPA [>]).
This sound is usuaIIv voiccIcss whcn it foIIows a voiccIcss
stop, as in pray, tree, and cram.
In Rcccivcd Pronunciation \r\ is somctimcs pronounccd
as a fIap (IPA [=]) in thc samc contcxts in which \t\ and \d\
occur as fIaps in Amcrican EnuIish. (Scc thc scction on \t\
bcIow.) OccasionaIIv thc fIap mav bc hcard aftcr conso-
nants, as in bright and grow. In othcr diaIccts of British En-
uIish, particuIarIv Scots, \r\ mav bc pronounccd as an aIvc-
oIar triII (IPA [r]) or as a uvuIar triII (IPA []).
In somc diaIccts, cspcciaIIv thosc of thc southcastcrn
L.S., castcrn Ncw EnuIand, Ncw York Citv, and southcrn
EnuIand, \r\ is not pronounccd or is pronounccd as \\ af-
tcr a vowcI in thc samc svIIabIc. Such diaIccts arc oftcn rc-
fcrrcd to as r-droppinu diaIccts. This tcrm is somcwhat
misIcadinu, sincc spcakcrs of such diaIccts wiII oftcn pro-
nouncc an \r\ in ccrtain situations whcrc spcakcrs of non-
36a Guide to Pronunciation
r-droppinu diaIccts wiII not havc an \r\. This mattcr is dis-
cusscd in somc of thc othcr scctions of this Guidc.
\ s \ as in source, Icss (IPA [s]).
\ sh\
as in shv, mission, machinc, spcciaI (IPA [@]).
ActuaIIv, this is a sinuIc sound, not two. Whcn
thc two sounds \s\ and \h\ occur in scqucncc, thcv arc scp-
aratcd bv a hvphcn in this book, as in grasshopper \'uras-
,h-pr\.
\ t \
as in tic, attack, Iate, Iatcr, Iattcr (IPA [t]). In
somc contcxts, as whcn a strcsscd or unstrcsscd
vowcI prcccdcs and an unstrcsscd vowcI or \I\ foIIows, thc
sound rcprcscntcd bv t or tt is pronounccd in most Amcri-
can spccch as a voiccd fIap produccd bv thc tonuuc tip
tappinu thc tccthriduc (IPA [=]). In simiIar contcxts thc
sound rcprcscntcd bv d or dd has thc samc pronunciation.
Thus, thc pairs ladder and latter, leader and liter, parody
and parity arc oftcn homophoncs. At thc cnd of a svIIabIc
\t\ oftcn has an incompIctc articuIation with no rcIcasc, or
it is accompanicd or rcpIaccd bv a uIottaI cIosurc. Whcn
\t\ occurs bcforc thc svIIabic consonant \n\ as in button
\'b-tn\, thc uIottaI aIIophonc is oftcn hcard. This mav rc-
fIcct a svIIabication of \t\ with thc prcccdinu strcsscd svIIa-
bIc (i.c., \'bt-n\).
Manv spcakcrs pronouncc \t\ Iikc \ch\ whcn it occurs
bcforc \r\ in thc samc svIIabIc.
\ th\
as in thin, cthcr (IPA [B]). ActuaIIv, this is a sin-
uIc sound, not two. Whcn thc two sounds \t\
and \h\ occur in scqucncc thcv arc scparatcd bv a hvphcn
in this book, as in knighthood \'nt-,hud\. In somc diaIccts
of Amcrican EnuIish, \th\ is rcuuIarIv rcpIaccd bv \f\.
\ \
as in thcn, cithcr, this (IPA []). ActuaIIv, this is
a sinuIc sound, not two. Thc diffcrcncc bctwccn
\th\ and \\ is that thc formcr is pronounccd without and
thc Iattcr with vibration of thc vocaI cords.
\ u \
as in ruIc, vouth, union \'vn-vn\, fcw \'fv\
(IPA [u]). As an unstrcsscd vowcI bcforc anothcr
vowcI, \\ is oftcn pronounccd as a schwa with sIiuht Iip
roundinu that is scparatcd from thc foIIowinu vowcI bv thc
uIidc \w\, as in valuing \'vaI-v-wi\. This rcduccd variant
is not usuaIIv shown at individuaI cntrics. Younucr spcak-
crs of Amcrican EnuIish oftcn usc a morc ccntraIizcd and
Icss roundcd pronunciation of \\ in ccrtain words (as
news and musician), both in strcsscd and cspcciaIIv in un-
strcsscd svIIabIcs.
Somc spcakcrs pronouncc \\ and \u\ idcnticaIIv bcforc
\I\, with thc rcsuIt that word pairs Iikc pool and pull arc
homophoncs. Thc sound pronounccd in such cascs mav bc
cithcr \\ or \u\ as pronounccd bv thosc who distinuuish
thc two.
\ u \
as in puII, wood, book (IPA [C]). Somc spcakcrs
pronouncc \\ and \u\ idcnticaIIv bcforc \I\,
with thc rcsuIt that word pairs Iikc pool and pull arc homo-
phoncs. Thc sound pronounccd in such cascs mav bc ci-
thcr \\ or \u\ as pronounccd bv thosc who distinuuish thc
two.
\u\
as in Gcrman fIIcn to fiII," hbsch hand-
somc" (IPA [E]). This vowcI, which occurs onIv
in forciun-dcrivcd tcrms and namcs, can bc approximatcd
bv attcmptinu to pronouncc thc vowcI \i\ with thc Iips
modcratcIv roundcd as for thc vowcI \u\.
This svmboI is aIso uscd to rcprcscnt thc vowcI in
Frcnch rue strcct," Gcrman fhIcn to fccI" (IPA [v]).
This vowcI, which occurs onIv in forciun-dcrivcd tcrms
and namcs, can bc approximatcd bv attcmptinu to pro-
nouncc thc vowcI \c\ with thc Iips fuIIv roundcd as for thc
vowcI \\.
\ ur\
as in poor, tour, insure (IPA [uV, CV]). Thc ini-
tiaI cIcmcnt of this diphthonu mav varv from
\u\ to \\. Spcakcrs of r-droppinu diaIccts wiII pronouncc
\ur\ without anv r-coIor on thc sccond cIcmcnt (IPA [u,
C]) whcn it prcccdcs a consonant or pausc, but wiII usuaI-
Iv inscrt an \r\ aftcr \ur\ whcn it prcccdcs a vowcI. (Scc thc
scction on \r\.) Manv spcakcrs do not havc thc dipththonu
\ur\ and havc mcrucd it with cithcr \r\ (whcn it foIIows
paIataI consonants such as \sh\, \ch\, or \v\ in words Iikc
sure, mature, or obscure) or \or\ (in othcr cnvironmcnts).
SimiIarIv, manv spcakcrs of r-droppinu diaIccts havc
mcrucd \ur\ with \r\ and \o\ in thc samc rcspcctivc cnvi-
ronmcnts.
\ v \ as in vivid, invitc (IPA [v]).
\ w\ as in wc, awav (IPA [w]).
\ v \
as in yard, younu, cuc \'kv\, curabIc \'kvur--
bI\, fcw \'fv\, furv \'fvur-c\, union \'vn-vn\
(IPA [I]). Thc scqucnccs \Iv\, \sv\, and \zv\ in thc samc
svIIabIc, as in lewd, suit, and presume, arc common in
southcrn British spccch but arc rarc in Amcrican spccch
and onIv \I\, \s\, and \z\ arc shown in this dictionarv.
A scqucncc of \h\ and \v\ as in hue and huge is pro-
nounccd bv somc spcakcrs as a \k\ articuIatcd toward thc
front of thc mouth (IPA [c]).
\
v
\
indicatcs that durinu thc articuIation of thc prc-
ccdinu consonant thc tonuuc has substantiaIIv
thc position it has for thc articuIation of thc \v\ of yard, as
in Frcnch digne \dcn"\ worthv." Thus \"\ docs not itscIf
rcprcscnt a sound but rathcr modifics thc prcccdinu svm-
boI.
\ z \ as in zonc, raise (IPA [z]).
\ zh\
as in vision, azurc \'a-zhr\ (IPA [F]). ActuaIIv,
this is a sinuIc sound, not two. Whcn thc two
sounds \z\ and \h\ occur in scqucncc, thcv arc scparatcd
bv a hvphcn in this book, as in hogshead \'houz-,hcd,
'huz-\.
Guide to Pronunciation 37a
Abbreviations in This Work
Additional abbreviations are entered in the main vocabulary of this dictionary.
A.&M. Agricultural and
Mechanical
ab about
abbr abbreviation
abl ablative
Acad Academy
acc accusative
act active
A.D. anno Domini
adj adjective
adv adverb
AF Anglo-French
AFB Air Force Base
Afr African
Afrik Afrikaans
Agric Agriculture
Alb Albanian
alter alteration
Am America, American
Amer American
AmerF American French
AmerInd American Indian
AmerSp American Spanish
anc ancient, anciently
ant antonym
anthropol anthropologist,
anthropology
aor aorist
Ar Arabic
Arab Arabian
Aram Aramaic
archaeol archaeologist
Arm Armenian
art article
astron astronomer, astronomy
attrib attributive, attributively
atty attorney
aug augmentative
Austral Australian
Av Avestan
AV Authorized Version
b born
bacteriol bacteriologist
B.C. before Christ, British
Columbia
bef before
Belg Belgian
Beng Bengali
bet between
bib biblical
biochem biochemist
biol biologist
Braz Brazilian
BrazPg Brazilian Portuguese
Bret Breton
Brit Britain, British
bro brother
Bulg Bulgarian
c century
C centigrade, College
ca circa
Canad Canadian
CanF Canadian French
cap capital, capitalized
Catal Catalan
caus causative
Celt Celtic
cen central
cent century
chem chemist
Chin Chinese
comb combining
Comm Community
compar comparative
Confed Confederate
conj conjugation, conjunction
constr construction
contr contraction
Copt Coptic
Corn Cornish
criminol criminologist
d died
D Dutch
Dan Daniel, Danish
dat dative
dau daughter
def definite
dial dialect
dim diminutive
disc discovered
Dor Doric
dram dramatist
Du Dutch
DV Douay Version
e eastern
E east, eastern, English
econ economist
Ed Education
educ educator
EGmc East Germanic
Egypt Egyptian
emp emperor
Eng England, English
equiv equivalent
esp especially
est estimated
ethnol ethnologist
exc except
F Fahrenheit, French
fem feminine
Finn Finnish
flourished
Flem Flemish
fr from
Fr France, French
freq frequentative
Fris Frisian
ft feet
fut future
G German
Gael Gaelic
gen general, genitive
Ger German
Gk Greek
Gmc Germanic
Goth Gothic
gov governor
govt government
Gr Brit Great Britain
Heb Hebrew
hist historian
Hitt Hittite
Hung Hungarian
Icel Icelandic
IE Indo-European
imit imitative
imper imperative
incho inchoative
indef indefinite
indic indicative
inn infinitive
Inst Institute
instr instrumental
intens intensive
interj interjection
interrog interrogative
Ir Irish
irreg irregular
Is island
ISV International Scientific
Vocabulary
It, Ital Italian
ital italic
Jav Javanese
Jp Japanese
L Latin
LaF Louisiana French
lat latitude
Lat Latin
LG Low German
LGk Late Greek
LHeb Late Hebrew
lit literally, literary
Lith Lithuanian
LL Late Latin
long longitude
m meters
manuf manufacturer
masc masculine
math mathematician
MBret Middle Breton
MD Middle Dutch
ME Middle English
Mech Mechanical
Med Medical
Mex Mexican, Mexico
MexSp Mexican Spanish
MF Middle French
MGk Middle Greek
MHG Middle High German
mi miles
mil military
min minister
MIr Middle Irish
ML Medieval Latin
MLG Middle Low German
ModE Modern English
ModGk Modern Greek
ModHeb Modern Hebrew
modif modification
MPers Middle Persian
MS manuscript
mt mountain
Mt Mount
MW Middle Welsh
n northern, noun
N north, northern
naut nautical
NE northeast
neut neuter
NewEng New England
NewZeal New Zealand
Nd.&Lab. Newfoundland and
Labrador
NGk New Greek
NL New Latin
No North
nom nominative
nonstand nonstandard
Norw Norwegian
nov novelist
n pl noun plural
NZ New Zealand
obs obsolete
occas occasionally
OCS Old Church Slavic
ODan Old Danish
OE Old English
OF Old French
OFris Old Frisian
OHG Old High German
OIr Old Irish
OIt Old Italian
OL Old Latin
ON Old Norse
OPers Old Persian
OPg Old Portuguese
OProv Old Provenal
OPruss Old Prussian
orig original, originally
ORuss Old Russian
OS Old Saxon
OSp Old Spanish
OSw Old Swedish
OW Old Welsh
PaG Pennsylvania German
part participle
pass passive
Pers Persian
perf perfect
perh perhaps
pers person
Pg Portuguese
philos philosopher
PhilSp Philippine Spanish
physiol physiologist
pl plural
Pol Polish
polit political, politician
pop population
Port Portuguese
pp past participle
prec preceding
prep preposition
pres present, president
prob probably
pron pronoun, pronunciation
pronunc pronunciation
prp present participle
Pruss Prussian
pseud pseudonym
psychol psychologist
R.C. Roman Catholic
REB Revised English Bible
redupl reduplication
re reflexive
rel relative
resp respectively
rev revolution
Rom Roman, Romanian
RSV Revised Standard Version
Russ Russian
S south, southern
Sc Scottish, Scots
Scand Scandinavian
ScGael Scottish Gaelic
Sch School
Scot Scotland, Scottish
secy secretary
Sem Seminary, Semitic
Shak Shakespeare
sing singular
Skt Sanskrit
Slav Slavic
So South
SoAfr South Africa, South
African
sociol sociologist
Sp, Span Spanish
specif specifically
spp species
St Saint
Ste Sainte
subj subjunctive
subsp subspecies
substand substandard
superl superlative
Sw, Swed Swedish
syn synonym, synonymy
Syr Syriac
Tag Tagalog
Tech Technology
theol theologian
Theol Theological
Toch Tocharian
trans translation
treas treasury
Turk Turkish
U University
ultim ultimately
usu usually
var variant, variety
v, vb verb
vi verb intransitive
VL Vulgar Latin
voc vocative
vt verb transitive
W Welsh, west, western
WGmc West Germanic
zool zoologist
Abbreviations in This Work 39a
Pronunciation SvmboIs
For morc information scc thc Guidc to Pronunciation.
.... banana, coIIidc, abut
', , .... humdrum, abut
.... immcdiatcIv prcccdinu \I\, \n\, \m\, \\, as
in battle, mitten, caten, and somctimcs open
\'o-pm\, Iock and kcv \--\; immcdiatcIv
foIIowinu \I\, \m\, \r\, as oftcn in Frcnch ta-
ble, prisme, titre
r .... further, meruer, bird
'r-
}
'-r
.... as in two diffcrcnt pronunciations of hurrv
\'hr-c, 'h-rc\
a .... mat, map, mad, uau, snap, patch
.... day, fadc, datc, aorta, drapc, capc
.... bothcr, cot
r .... car, heart, bazaar, bizarre
au .... now, Ioud, out
b .... babv, rib
ch .... chin, naturc \'n-chr\
d .... did, addcr
c .... bet, bed, peck
cr .... bare, fair, wear, miIIionaire
'c, ,c .... beat, noscbIeed, evcnIv, easv
c .... casy, mcaIy
f .... fiftv, cuff
u .... go, big, gift
h .... hat, ahcad
hw .... whaIc as pronounccd bv thosc who do not
havc thc samc pronunciation for both whale
and wail
i .... tip, banish, activc
ir .... near, deer, mere, pier
.... sitc, sidc, buy, tripc
I .... job, gcm, cdge, join, judge
k .... kin, cook, ache
k .... Gcrman ich, Buch; onc pronunciation of
Ioch
I .... lilv, pool
m .... murmur, dim, nvmph
n .... no, own
" .... indicatcs that a prcccdinu vowcI or diph-
thonu is pronounccd with thc nasaI passaucs
opcn, as in Frcnch un bon vin blanc \o"-bo"-
va"-bI"\
.... sing \'si\, singcr \'si-r\, finucr \'fi-ur\,
ink \'ik\
o .... bonc, know, beau
o .... saw, aII, unaw, caught
o .... Frcnch boeuf, feu, Gcrman HIIc, HhIc
oi .... coin, dcstroy
or .... boar, port, door, shore
p .... pcppcr, Iip
r .... rcd, raritv
s .... source, Icss
sh .... as in shv, mission, machinc, spcciaI (actuaI-
Iv, this is a sinuIc sound, not two); with a hv-
phcn bctwccn, two sounds as in grasshopper
\'uras-,h-pr\
t .... tic, attack, Iate, Iatcr, Iattcr
th .... as in thin, cthcr (actuaIIv, this is a sinuIc
sound, not two); with a hvphcn bctwccn,
two sounds as in knighthood \'nt-,hud\
.... thcn, cithcr, this (actuaIIv, this is a sinuIc
sound, not two)
.... ruIc, vouth, union \'vn-vn\, fcw \'fv\
u .... puII, wood, book
u .... Gcrman fIIcn, hbsch, fhIcn, Frcnch rue
ur .... boor, tour, insure
v .... vivid, uive
w .... wc, awav
v .... yard, younu, cuc \'kv\, mutc \'mvt\,
union \'vn-vn\
" .... indicatcs that durinu thc articuIation of thc
sound rcprcscntcd bv thc prcccdinu charac-
tcr, thc front of thc tonuuc has substantiaIIv
thc position it has for thc articuIation of thc
first sound of yard, as in Frcnch digne
\dcn"\
z .... zonc, raise
zh .... as in vision, azurc \'a-zhr\ (actuaIIv, this is
a sinuIc sound, not two); with hvphcn bc-
twccn, two sounds as in hogshead \'houz-
,hcd, 'huz-\
\ .... rcvcrscd viruuIc uscd in pairs to mark thc
bcuinninu and cnd of a transcription: \'pcn\
' .... mark prcccdinu a svIIabIc with primarv
(stronucst) strcss: \'pcn-mn-,ship\
, .... mark prcccdinu a svIIabIc with sccondarv
(mcdium) strcss: \'pcn-mn-,ship\
- .... mark of svIIabIc division
( ) .... indicatc that what is svmboIizcd bctwccn is
prcscnt in somc uttcranccs but not in oth-
crs: factory \'fak-t(-)rc\
.... indicatcs that manv rcuard as unacccptabIc
thc pronunciation variant immcdiatcIv foI-
Iowinu: nuclear \'n-kIc-r, 'nv-, -kv-Ir\
40a

S-ar putea să vă placă și