Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary

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Preface Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary is a completely new volume in the Merriam-Webster series of dictionaries. It is a generál dictionary edited for use in school or college, in the office, and in the home-in short, wherever information about English words is likely to be sought. The average user should rarely have occasion to look for information about the vocabulary of present-day English that is not available within these pages. The first Merriam-Webster Collegiate appeared in 1898 and quickly won the esteem of student and generál reader. A second edition was published in 1910, and subsequent editions came out in 1916, 1931, 1936, 1949, and 1963. This eighth in the series incorporates the best of the time-tested features of its predecessors and introduces new features designed to add to its usefulness. Its more than 1500 pages make it the most comprehensive Merriam-Webster Collegiate ever published. The heart of Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary is the more than 1300 pages given over to the A-Z vocabulary. The information there set down derives not only from the 10,000,000 citations which were available to the editors of Webster's Third New International Dictionary and the 1963 Collegiate but alsó from the considerably more than 1,000,000 citations collected since the publication of these books. Thus each entry is based on a constantly updated file of actual English usage. Those entries known to be trademarks or service marks are so labeled and are treated in accordance with a formula approved by the United States Trademark Association. No entry in this dictionary, however, should be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark. A noteworthy feature of the vocabulary section is the nearly 900 pictorial illustrations, many of which were drawn especially for this book. These illustrations were selected not simply for their decorative function but particularly for their value in clarifying definitions. The front matter-those pages preceding the A-Z vocabulary-contains two important sections. The Explanatory Notes should be read by every user of the dictionary since a thorough understanding of the information contained in them will contribute markedly to the value of this book. And all users of the dictionary are urged to read the lucid essay on the English language which was written for this Collegiate by Professor W. Nelson Francis of Brown University. The back matter-those pages following the A-Z vocabulary-contains several sections that dictionary users have long found helpful. These include more than five hundred Foreign Words and Phrases that occur frequently in English texts but that have not become part of the English vocabulary; several thousand proper names that are entered under the separate headings Biographical Names and Geographical Names; and a list of the Colleges and Universities of the United States and Canada. There is alsó a Handbook of Style in which various stylistic conventions (as of punctuation and capitalization) are concisely summarized. Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary has been edited by the trained staff of the G. & C. Merriam Co. It is the result of a collaborative effort, and it would be invidious to single out particular editors for special mention. At the same time, it would be ungracious to observe the anonymity which is often the lot of the present-day lexicographer, and so a list of those who contributed substantially to the completion of this book is printed below. Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary is the product of a company that has been publishing dictionaries for more than 125 years. It is offered to the user with the conviction that it will serve him well. Henry Bosley Woolf Editor in Chief Vissza