Posted in The Principle Approach: A Summary

Tools of Christian Scholarship

American Dictionary of the English Language

Noah Webster, 1828

            The 1828 Dictionary is the only dictionary where words are defined using the Bible, and Scripture is referenced throughout.  As America separated from England, elements of their language became unique.  Noah Webster put together the first American dictionary.  Of course, the Webster dictionary of today is nothing like the 1828 dictionary.  The below is an example of how the 1828 Dictionary defines the word “child”…  I’ve placed in bold biblical references and especially take note of the reference, “One who is born again, spiritually renewed and adopted; as a child of God.”  Can you imagine that in today’s dictionary?

CHILD, n.

1. A son or a daughter; a male or female descendant, in the first degree; the immediate progeny of parents; applied to the human race, and chiefly to a person when young. The term is applied to infants from their birth; but the time when they cease ordinarily to be so called, is not defined by custom. In strictness, a child is the shoot, issue or produce of the parents, and a person of any age, in respect to the parents, is a child.

An infant.

Hagar cast the child under one of the shrubs. Gen. 21.

It signifies also a person of more advanced years.

Jephthas daughter was his only child. Judges 11.

The child shall behave himself proudly. Is. 3.

A curse will be on those who corrupt the morals of their children.

The application of child to a female in opposition to a male, as in Shakspeare, is not legitimate.

2. One weak in knowledge, experience, judgment or attainments; as, he is a mere child.

Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child. Jer. 1.

3. One young in grace. 1 John 2.

One who is unfixed in principles. Eph. 4.

4. One who is born again, spiritually renewed and adopted; as a child of God.

5. One who is the product of another; or whose principles and morals are the product of another.

Thou child of the devil. Acts 13.

That which is the product or effect of something else.

This noble passion, child of integrity.

6. In the plural, the descendants of a man however remote; as the children of Israel; the children of Edom.

7. The inhabitants of a country; as the children of Seir. 2 Chron. 25.

To be with child, to be pregnant. Gen. 16:11, Gen. 29:36.

 Other aspects of the 1828 Dictionary are as follows:

¨      Etymology—for each word, the root from the original language

¨      Comprehensive definitions

¨      Quotes from classic literature and the Bible

¨      Biography of Noah Webster by Rosalie June Slater

¨      English Grammar by Noah Webster 

Note:  The importance here is to understand the words that we are using.  Sometimes when we look a word up, it doesn’t necessarily shed a lot of light because we had a good handle on the word.  But you’d be amazed at how often defining the word sheds a great deal of light on a word in ways that we wouldn’t have guessed.  The bottom line is we need to understand the full meaning of words we are using in scholarship; which includes a Biblical scope.

I prefer to first look up Websters 1828 definition of any word so that I can get the full meaning of the word before our dictionaries were stripped of everything godly.  However, having said that, I do use another dictionary for an updated more technical breakdown of a word...namely, Websters New World College Dictionary, 4th Edition.  Not necessary, but I have recently gotten my hands on The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, the Origins of American English Words by Robert K. Barnheart for when my kids are a little older.

*****************************************************

 Staying faithful,

Karen