 First alphabetical page of the 1911 edition | |
| Edited by | William Dwight Whitney Benjamin Eli Smith |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | The Century Company |
| Published | 1889–1891 (first edition, volumes 1–6) 1895 (volumes 1–10) 1906 (volumes 1–12) |
| No. of books | 12 |
| Followed by | The New Century Dictionary |
The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia is one of the largestencyclopedic dictionaries of the English language. It was compared favorably with theOxford English Dictionary, and frequently consulted for more factual information than would normally be the case for a dictionary.
TheCentury Dictionary is based onThe Imperial Dictionary of the English Language, edited by Rev.John Ogilvie (1797–1867) and published byW. G. Blackie and Co. of Scotland, 1847–1850, which in turn is an expansion of the 1841 second edition ofNoah Webster'sAmerican Dictionary.[1] In 1882The Century Company of New York bought the American rights toThe Imperial Dictionary from Blackie and Son.[2]
The first edition of theCentury Dictionary was published from 1889 to 1891 by The Century Company,[3] and was described as "six volumes in twenty four". The first edition runs to 7,046 pages and features some 10,000 wood-engraved illustrations. It was edited by Sanskrit scholar and linguistWilliam Dwight Whitney, withBenjamin Eli Smith's assistance.[4]
In 1895 a 10-volume edition was published, with the first eight volumes containing the dictionary proper, and the last two containing abiographical dictionary and aworld atlas. Editions in either the 10- or 8-volume format were published in 1899, 1901, 1902, 1903 and 1904. In 1901 the title and subtitle changed slightly fromThe Century Dictionary; an encyclopedic lexicon of the English language toThe Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia; a work of universal reference in all departments of knowledge, with a new atlas of the world. Further editions were published in 1906, 1909 and 1911, this time in 12 volumes each.[5]
After Whitney's death in 1894, supplementary volumes were published under Smith's supervision, includingThe CenturyCyclopedia of Names (1894) andThe Century Atlas (1897).[6] A two-volumeSupplement of new vocabulary, published in 1909, completed the dictionary. A reformatted edition,The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, was published in 1911 in twelvequarto volumes: ten of vocabulary, plus the volume of names and the atlas. This set went through several printings, the last in 1914. The same year, the ten vocabulary volumes were published as one giant volume, about 8,500 pages in a very thin paper. The now much covetedIndia paper edition also appeared around this time, usually in five double volumes (rarely, in 10 single volumes) plus one additional for the Cyclopedia.
The completed dictionary contained over 500,000 entries, more thanWebster's New International orFunk and Wagnalls New Standard, the largest other dictionaries of the period. Each form of a word was treated separately, and liberal numbers of quotations and additional information were included to support the definitions. In itsetymologies,Greek words were nottransliterated.
Although no revised edition of the dictionary was ever again published, an abridged edition with new words and other features,The New Century Dictionary (edited by H.G. Emery and K.G. Brewster; revision editor, Catherine B. Avery,) was published byAppleton-Century-Crofts of New York in 1927, and reprinted in various forms for over thirty-five years. TheNew Century became the basis for theAmerican College Dictionary, the firstRandom House Dictionary, in 1947. The three-volumeNew Century Cyclopedia of Names, an expansion of the 1894 volume, was published in 1954, edited byClarence Barnhart.
TheCentury Dictionary was admired for the quality of its entries, the craftsmanship in its design,typography, andbinding, and its excellent illustrations. It has been used as an information source for the makers of many later dictionaries, including editors of theOxford English Dictionary, who cited it over 2,000 times in the first edition. In 1913, a Ph.D. dissertation on "American Dictionaries" concluded its 14-page chapter on theCentury Dictionary with the assessment that the work "far surpasses anything in American lexicography".[7]
TheCentury Dictionary was typeset and printed byTheodore Low De Vinne, who gave it a typographic aesthetic that foreshadowed a norm of 20th century book printing.[8] Prefigured in De Vinne's work on theCentury Magazine from its origins asScribner's Monthly in 1870, the printer eschewed the thin hairlines and reduced legibility of the "modern" serif typefaces that were predominantly used in the mid-eighteen-hundreds, favouringCaslon as a sturdier and more legible "old style" face instead.[9] Due to the complexity of typesetting a large dictionary, De Vinne also devised an elaborate composition stand that gave compositors access to more than seven hundred boxes of type and special sorts within easy reach.[10]
The works are out of copyright, and efforts have been made to digitize the volumes.
1889–91
| Volume | Part | Coverage | Digitized editions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vol 1. | 1 | A – Appet. | 1889–91 |
| 2 | Appet. – Bice | 1889–91 | |
| 3 | Bice – Carboy | 1889–91 | |
| 4 | Carboy – Cono. | 1889–91 | |
| Vol 2. | 5 | Cono. – Deflect | 1889–91,1889–91 |
| 6 | Deflect – Drool | 1889–91 | |
| 7 | Droop – Expirant | 1889–91 | |
| 8 | Expirant – Fz | 1889–91 | |
| Vol 3. | 9 | G – Halve | 1889–91,1889–91,1889–91 |
| 10 | Halve – Iguvine | 1889–91,1889–91 | |
| 11 | Ihleite – Juno | 1889–91 | |
| 12 | Juno – Lyverey | 1889–91 | |
| Vol 4. | 13 | M – Mormon | 1889–91,1889–91,1889–91 |
| 14 | Mormon – Optic | 1889–91 | |
| 15 | Optic – Pilar | 1889–91 | |
| 16 | Pilar – Pyx-veil | 1889–91 | |
| Vol 5. | 17 | Q – Ring | 1889–91 |
| 18 | Ring – Sea-gull | 1889–91 | |
| 19 | Sea-gull – Smash | 1889–91 | |
| 20 | Smash – Stro. | 1889–91 | |
| Vol 6. | 21 | Stru. – Term | 1889–911889–91 |
| 22 | Term – Trust | 1889–91 | |
| 23 | Trust – Vysar | 1889–91 | |
| 24 | W – Z | 1889–91 |
| Volume | Coverage | Editions digitized | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vol 1 | A. B. Celt | 1895,1897,1901,1904,1906 | |
| Vol 2 | Celt. – Drool | 1895,1897,1901,1901,1904,1904,1906 | |
| Vol 3 | Droop. E. F. G. | 1895,1897,1897,1904 | |
| Vol 4 | H. I. J. K. L. | 1895,1897,1901,1901,1904,1904 | |
| Vol 5 | M. N. O. Phar. | 1895,1897,1901,1904 | |
| Vol 6 | Phar. Q. R. Salse. | 1895,1897,1901,1901,1904 | |
| Vol 7 | Salsi. – Tech. | 1895,1897,1901,1901,1904,1904 | |
| Vol 8 | Tech. U. V. W. X. Y. Z | 1895,1897,1901,1901,1904 | |
| Vol 9 | Proper Names | 1897,1904 Separately:1894,1895 (Vol 1),1895 (Vol 1),1895 (Vol 2),1914,1918,1954 (New Century, Vol 1 of 3) | |
| Vol 10 | Atlas | 1897,1901 | |
| Vol 11 | Dictionary Supplement A–L | 1909,1910,1910,1910 | |
| Vol 12 | Dictionary Supplement M–Z | 1910 |
