Grattis Noah!

 

" DICTIONARY, n. A malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic. This dictionary, however, is a most useful work. 

                                                                            Ambrise Bierce

Noah Webster Jr. 

16 oktober 1758 – 28 maj 1843

dictionary (n.) A book containing either all or the principal words of a language, or words of one or more specified classes, arranged in a stated order, usually alphabetical, with definitions or explanations of their meanings and other information concerning them, expressed either in the same or in another language; a word-book; a lexicon; a vocabulary .... [Century Dictionary] 

1520s, from Medieval Latin dictionarium "collection of words and phrases," probably a shortening of dictionarius (liber) "(book) of words," from Latin dictionarius "of words," from dictio "a saying, expression," in Late Latin "a word," noun of action from past-participle stem of dicere "speak, tell, say," from PIE root *deik- "to show," also "pronounce solemnly.

" The Medieval Latin word is said to have been first used by Johannes de Garlandia (John of Garland) as the title of a Latin vocabulary published c. 1220. Probably first English use in title of a book was in Sir Thomas Elyot's "Latin Dictionary" (1538).

För 262 år sedan kom Noah till världen — och nog är det värt att fira, eftersom han ägnade 22 år av sitt liv att sammanställa den första engelskspråkiga ordboken. Under de 22 åren hann han lära sig 26 språk — hur väl kan jag inte yttra mig om.

Till minne av denna bragd har hans födelsedag utsetts till "World Dictionary Day". Följer du länken kan du lära dig ett antal fakta om bokens tillkomst.