THE LADIES' LEXICON, AND PARLOUR COMPANION, CONTAINING NEARLY EVERY WORD IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, AND PARTICIPLES OF VERBS; BEING ALSO PARTICULARLY ADAPTED TO THE USE OF ACADEMIES AND SCHOOLS. BY WILLIAM GRIMSHAW, Author of a History of the United States, England, &c. &c. Philadelphia: PUBLISHED BY JOHN GRIGG, No. 9, N. FOURTH-ST. Stereotyped by J. Howe. Eastern District of Pennsylvania, to wit: ****** BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty-fourth day of * * * *L. S.* April, in the fifty-third year of the independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1829, JOHN GRIGG, of the said district, has deposited in this office the title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words following, to wit: "The Ladies Lexicon, and Parlour Companion, containing nearly every word in the English Language, and exhibiting the plurals of nouns and the participles of verbs; being also particularly adapted to the use of Academies and Schools. By William Grimshaw, Author of a History of the United States, England, &c. &c." In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned." And also to the Act entitled, "An Act supplementary to an Act, entitled An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned,' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching, historical and other Prints." D. CALDWELL, Clerk of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. PREFACE. IN offering this dictionary to the public, some explanation seems required, in relation to the plan, and the improvements which it professes to contain. It differs from every preceding work of the kind, principally in this :that it exhibits the plurals of all nouns, which are not formed by the mere addition of the letter s; and also the participles of every verb that is now generally used These additions will perhaps be pronounced, by some, to be innovations; but they are innovations of a very useful character, and such as should have been made, centuries ago, not only in a dictionary of our own tongue, but in that of every other language, ancient or modern. Fifty years from the present time, a dictionary which does not exhibit the plurals of nouns, as well as the participles of verbs, will be viewed as a curiosity; and considered as an example of that irrational pertinacity, with which men cling to ancient forms, for ages after their impropriety and insufficiency have been fully discovered and acknowledged. A dictionary which does not contain the plurals and the participles, contains not more than half the language. Every verb, except those that are defective, has at least two participles-the present and the past-both of which have been excluded from every vocabulary that has yet been published. Thus, the verb to advise, has advising and advised; differ has differing and differed; confer has conferring and conferred. Whether the final e is to be retained or not, in the present participle, is a question involving some difficulty, even to persons who have received a good common education; and why the final r should remain single in the word differing, and be doubled in conferring, is a question not easily solved, by writers of considerable experience in composition. Nor is the like |