A DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, CONTAINING THE PRONUNCIATION, ETYMOLOGY, AND EXPLANATION OF ALL WORDS AUTHORIZED BY EMINENT WRITERS: ODLE WHICH ARE ADDED A VOCABULARY OR THE ROOTS OF ENGLISH WORDS, AND AN ACCENTED LIST OF GREEK, LATIN, AND SCRIPTURE PROPER NAMES. BY ALEXANDER REID, A. M.; RECTOR OF THE CIRCUS-PLACE SCHOOL, EDINBURGH; AUTHOR OF EDINBURGH: OLIVER & BOYD, TWEEDDALE COURT. LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO. 1844. PREFACE. THE following Work was undertaken, several years ago, at the suggestion of the Publishers, whose design was that it should be a School Dictionary, containing all English words in common use, arranged in the usual alphabetical order, with the etymology of such as are derived from the Greek and the Latin. But the Compiler had not proceeded far in his labours, when certain difficulties in the way of executing them in a manner satisfactory to himself, led him to reconsider the plan originally proposed, and subsequently to lay down the following rules for his future guidance :-First, To insert no word which has not been sanctioned by the use of some eminent author, or which has become obsolete; secondly, To give the Spelling and Pronunciation which are supported by the greatest number of competent authorities; thirdly, To denote what appears to be the Root of every word; and, fourthly, To define and explain the words as they are generally employed by the standard writers of the English language. The number of words in the English language has been computed to amount to about eighty thousand. Of these some, which are found in the earlier authors, have become obsolete; others in common colloquial use have not been authorized by classical writers; a few are entirely technical, that is to say, are employed only in connexion with some particular art; and many are mere inflections or compounds. As the Compiler could not insert all the words in the language in so small a Work, he has rejected almost all belonging to these four classes :-those belonging to the first class, because they by sufficient authority; to the third, because they are not used in general speech or writing; and to the fourth, because they do not differ in derivation, meaning, or pronunciation, from the words from which they are formed. After all these deductions and omissions, there still remain nearly forty thousand words, which are contained in the present Work, and for which quoted authority will be found in the larger Dictionaries. In the spelling of words, the Compiler has taken as his guide the prevailing usage of the principal lexicographers. A more uniform system might have been introduced by adopting certain general rules, according to which particular classes of words might have been spelled. But every such rule would have led to greater changes in the usual practice than the Compiler felt himself authorized to make. Instead of aiming at uniformity, therefore, he has preferred that mode of spelling each word which he found to be supported by the greatest number of authorities. He has pursued a similar plan in the pronunciation of words. Generally, the system of Walker has been adopted, as being most in accordance with the usage of the educated portion of society; but the Compiler has not hesitated to depart from it, whenever he found it at variance either with the majority of authorities, or with general practice. In the mode of indicating pronunciation, however, the present Work differs, in various respects, from that of Walker. In the first place, marks have been preferred to figures, as being equally precise and less perplexing. In the second place, the pronunciation is indicated only by the marks and the ordinary sounds of the letters, no attempt being made to render the pronunciation more plain by a different mode of spelling; except in peculiar words, and in such as are pronounced in two different ways, one of which ways is generally indicated by marks, and the other by spelling the word as it is pronounced. In the third place, marks are placed only above the vowels in syllables which have the primary or secondary accent, most of the others being pronounced so obscurely that the sound cannot be exactly indicated. At the foot of each page is a key to the notation, and appended to this Preface is a table of the sounds indicated by marks, or by syllabication; by the help of which there will be no difficulty in ascertaining, with all necessary precision, the pronuncia The most satisfactory way of giving the derivation of words, would have been to have taken the most remote root, and traced it, through all its changes, into English. But this was not practicable in a work of limited extent like the present; and, for want of space, the Compiler was forced to adopt a mode of derivation which, while it is sufficient to show the origin of words, at the same time saves all avoidable repetition, both of the roots and of their signification. Instead of giving its root after each English word, he has collected into families or groups all words which are derived from the same root, and which begin with the same syllable and have affinity in signification as well as in etymology, placing first, in large letters, what may be called the head of the family or group, and arranging under it, in smaller type, the other derivatives, in alphabetical order. In like manner, instead of explaining each root as it occurs in the body of the Work, he has collected the principal roots into a Vocabulary, in which he has given their signification, and, as examples of their derivatives, the head or first word of every group in the Dictionary. These arrangements are attended by several disadvantages:-occasionally there is a slight departure from the strict alphabetical order of the words; sometimes the most remote root is given, without the intermediate derivatives through which the word passes into English; and frequently it may be necessary to consult the Dictionary for the English word, and the Vocabulary for the meaning of its root. But, on the other hand, the Compiler did not see how he could, in any other way, comprise the explanation and derivation of what may be termed the classical words of the English language within the limits of a school-book; the absence of its signification after each root will not be felt as an inconvenience by those who are acquainted with the learned languages, or have made some progress in the study of etymology; and, when the Work is used as a textbook for teaching derivation, a most useful exercise for advanced pupils will be to make them find out the intermediate derivatives, through which any foreign word, whether ancient or modern, has been transferred into the English language. In this exercise, as well as in the study of etymology generally, considerable help will be obtained from one of the annexed tables, in which are detailed the principal changes which letters undergo in derivation. On this division of the Work, it may be necessary to explain, that |