A small book with tiny print,
Noah Webster’s A Compendious
Dictionary of the English Language
contained 37,000 entries, including thousands of
words that were in daily use in America but not
listed in any other dictionary (including a host
of terms from medicine, law, chemistry, botany,
geology, agriculture, and other sciences, as
well as Native American loan words).
LAW
- advocate
- verb:
to defend,
plead in favor of
- appellate
-
adjective:
belonging to
appeals
- decedent
- noun:
one dead
- lot
- noun:
a share or
division of land, a field
|
MISCELLANEOUS
- Americanize
- verb:
to render
American
- caddy
- noun:
a small box
for tea
- checkers
- noun
pl.:
a game
- chore
- noun:
a small job,
domestic work
- demoralize
- verb:
to corrupt,
undermine or destroy moral
principles
- emphasize
- verb:
to pronounce
with a stress of voice
- energize
- verb:
to give
strength or vigor
- flytrap
- noun:
a trap to
catch flies
- hydrant
- noun:
a pipe to
conduct and deliver water
- immigrant
- noun:
one who
removes into a country
- inapproachable
-
adjective:
not to be
approached
- inexact
-
adjective:
not exact or
precise
- insubordination
- noun:
disobedience
or want of submission to
authority
- leanto
- noun:
the part of a
building that appears to lean
upon another
- notice
- verb:
to see,
regard, observe, attend
- orthoepy
- noun:
the art of
just pronunciation
- penmanship
- noun:
the act, art,
or use of writing
- pry
- verb:
to look into
with close inspection, to raise
with a lever
- publicity
- noun:
a public
state, notoriety
- sectarian
-
adjective:
pertaining to
a sect
- skittles
- noun:
a game like
ninepins
- slang
- noun:
vulgar
language, cant phrases [low]
- slat
- noun:
a thin
piece of timber connecting
larger ones
- slatternly
-
adjective:
negligent in
dress, sluttish
- snowshoe
- noun:
a light frame
to walk with on snow
- spry
-
adjective:
nimble, brisk,
quick in action
- surf
- noun:
waves or swell
of the sea breaking on shore
- velveteen
- noun:
a cloth made
of cotton and linen
|
SCIENCE
and MATHEMATICS
- aeriform
- adjective:
having the form of
air, as gas
- caloric
- adjective:
pertaining to the
matter of heat
- decahedron
- noun:
a figure of ten
sides
- deliquesce
- verb:
to dissolve or
soften in air
- electrician
- noun:
one versed in
electricity
- foliar
- adjective:
pertaining to or
growing from a leaf
- galvanism
- noun:
the name given to
effects resembling electricity,
produced by metallic substances
- ignescent
- adjective:
yielding fire or
sparks
- lignify
- verb:
to become or
convert into wood
- nutrient
- noun:
that which feeds
or nourishes
- psychology
- noun:
the doctrines
of spirit or mind
- sebaceous
- adjective:
fat, pertaining to
fat
- vaccine
- noun:
the cow pox, kine-pox
- vaccinate
- verb:
to inoculate with
the virus of the cow pox
- vaporize
- verb:
to convert into
vapor by heat
|
GOVERNMENT
- amendatory
- adjective:
containing an
amendment
- caucus
- noun:
cant name of
secret meetings for electioneering
purposes
- census
- noun:
an enumeration of
inhabitants, a register of people,
etc.
- constitutionality
- noun:
the state of being
agreeable to the constitution, or of
affecting the constitution
- presidential
- adjective:
pertaining to a
president
- selectman
- noun:
a town official in
New England
|
PLANTS and ANIMALS
- accipiters
- noun:
an order of fowls
with hooked bills
- butternut
- noun:
an American tree
with an oblong nut, also the nut
- cervine
- adjective:
pertaining to the
deer
- conchology
- noun:
the science of
shellfish
- cordiform
- adjective:
in form of a heart
- dendroid
- adjective:
resembling a shrub
- hickory
- noun:
a tree, a species
of walnut
- opossum
- noun:
a quadruped which
carries her young in a bag under her
belly
- porcine
- adjective:
pertaining to
swine
- scarious
- adjective:
dry and rough to
the touch
- skunk
- noun:
a quadruped
remarkable for its smell
- winterkill
- verb:
to kill by means
of winter, as grain
|
AGRICULTURE and INDUSTRY
- flume
- noun:
a channel or
passage for water
- folder
- noun:
a flat instrument
to fold sheets of paper
- gin
- verb:
to clean cotton of
its seeds by a gin
- unmalleable
- adjective:
not capable of
being hammered into a plate
|
BUSINESS
- debit
- noun:
a debt, the debtor
side of an account
- deliverable
- adjective:
that may or ought
to be delivered
- unmarketable
- adjective:
not saleable or
fit for the market
|
FOOD and DRINK
- chowder
- noun:
a dish of fish
boiled with biscuit, etc.
- hommony
- noun:
food made of maiz
broken but coarse and boiled
- succotash
- noun:
a mixture of new
soft maiz and beans boiled
- whiskey
- noun:
a spirit distilled
from grain
|
