Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary

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Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary
More than 11,000,000 hardcover copies of the Eighth Edition of Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary were sold in the ten years it was in print. Now with the Ninth Edition, Merriam-Webster brings you the very latest in this best-selling tradition. And with It come two important new features.
DATING: How old is earthling? (almost 400 years) When did brat first enter the language? (1505) This kind of question is often asked, and now, uniquely in Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary you will find the answers. Answers available in no other American dictionary.
For the first time, the dictionary is not only functional; it invites browsing. The knowledge that finalize was being used in 1922 may have a bearing on your view of its acceptability today That knowledge may also stimulate your interest in when other -ize words, such as energize, entered the language. (1752)
This unique feature is made possible... Tovább

Fülszöveg

JV
': I
I' ! ¦ r ' .
I ¦
II
Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary
More than 11,000,000 hardcover copies of the Eighth Edition of Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary were sold in the ten years it was in print. Now with the Ninth Edition, Merriam-Webster brings you the very latest in this best-selling tradition. And with It come two important new features.
DATING: How old is earthling? (almost 400 years) When did brat first enter the language? (1505) This kind of question is often asked, and now, uniquely in Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary you will find the answers. Answers available in no other American dictionary.
For the first time, the dictionary is not only functional; it invites browsing. The knowledge that finalize was being used in 1922 may have a bearing on your view of its acceptability today That knowledge may also stimulate your interest in when other -ize words, such as energize, entered the language. (1752)
This unique feature is made possible through the incomparable Merriam-Webster archives. This resource, undoubtedly the world's largest, now includes over 13,000,000 citations of words in action, together with the surrounding text. Original evidence of actual usage available only to Merriam-Webster editors.
It is important to note that in all Merriam-Webster® dictionaries, senses of multisense words are shown in historical order; thus, the first entered sense is the oldest entered sense. Since the user would only be misled by a date unconnected to a meaning, it is the first entered sense that is dated. An unentered sense, even if older, is ignored. The word nice. for example, came into the language atx)ut 700 years ago meaning "silly." That sense has not been in use for over 400 years, and to show a date for a sense that does not itself qualify for entry in the book would be, at the very least, unhelpful.
(continued on back flap)
The editors are, of course, always trying to uncover evidence of an earlier usage, and if any of our readers can provide us with written evidence to that effect we will be appreciative. (No reward, just our thanks.)
Both the scholar and the curious layman will find this exclusive feature of the Ninth Edition a valuable and unusually interesting new dimension to the dictionary.
USAGE: The second major departure from past practice relates to a matter of great concern to many people—good usage.
Until now, dictionary editors have generally been content to limit their involvement in this area to usage labels (obs., lit), brief usage notes (usually taken to be offensive), or ambiguous opinion polls (52% of the panel would not use it in writing).
In this new work, the editors have for the first time provided the dictionary user with an authoritative discussion of the usage ¦problem. Not at every entry, of course. Usage labels and notes still sérve an important function. But at entries that frequently present problems of confused or disputed usage, you will find the kind of guidance that heretofore has been offered in only the most complete usage books. Here too, the very special value of our unparalleled citational evidence is apparent. The entry at prove serves as an example.
usage The past participle proven, orig. the past participle of preve, a Middle English variant oiprove that survived in Scotland, has gradually worked its way into standard English over the past three and a half centuries. It seems to have first become established in legal use, and to have come only slowly into literary use. Tennyson was one of its earliest frequent users, prob. for metrical reasons. It was disapproved by I9th century grammarians, one of whom included it in a list of "words that are not words." Surveys made some 30 to 40 years ago indicated that proved was about four times as frequent as proven. But our evidence from the last 10 or 15 years shows this no longer to be the case. As a past participle proven is now about as frequent as proved in all contexts. As an attributive adjective (proved or proven gas reserves) proven is much more common than proved.
These useful and dramatically new features combine with a completely revised and updated vocabulary of almost 160,000 entries, with a handbook of style, and with the many other traditional features of a Merriam-Webster® dictionary to become the most authoritative and informative desk dictionary In the English language.
MERRIAM-WEBSTER INC.
Springfield, MA 01102

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