Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-09-22

great river Webster was the favorite.
"hile scholars in both sections recog-
nlzed webster as preferable in respect
TO definitions and Worcester as correct
When the decision affected any ortho-
graphical point. At that time the Cen
fury dictionary appeared, which, retain
ing the best points Of Worcester, carried
the theories of Webster further than
they had been before, and a year or two
later Funk and Wagnalls published the
dictionary. in which the Web
sterian theory Is carried to it's farthest
practical INIT.
we have now three dictionaries in AM
erica, all of which are of sufficient auth
GRITTY to be quoted in all condolences: the
Century, the Standard, and the Web
ster's International. The difference be-
tween these IS mainly in the number Of
words and In the ease of consultation.
The International contains 1875, 900 words.
the Century has 225, 900. while the Stand
ard lists more than 800, 900. The Stand
ara IS more up-to-date in respect to the
arrangement of the various definitions
OF a word. the most common meaning
always being given first: the arrange
ment IN the Century and the Interna-
tlonal being less convenient for the busy
man, though advantageous to the student
who cares for the history Of a word. On
the other hand, the derivation of words
is given so briefly in the Standard die
tionary as to be quite unsatisfactory to
the student who cares for that branch
of Information. Taken all in all, the
Standard gives the briefest mention, with
sufficient clearness, of the greatest num-
Der Of words, and is the most satisfac-
tory as a dictionary in the ordinary ac-
ceptation of the term, while the Century
contains a great deal of cyclopedic in
formation that appeals to many stu
dents, though the combination of die
tionary and cyclopedia is not entirely
happy.
It is worthy of note that neither of the
American authorities receives any con-
siderable favor in England, where the
two standard popular dictionaries are
Ogilvie's n Stormouth's. These are
both excellent works, but rather heavy
for our use. 1t should be also mentioned
that the University of Oxford has been
for years engaged In issuing a dictionary
which will be more complete than any
work Of the kline now finished. This
monumental work will be a delight to
the scholar. but will hardly attain to
any considerable popular appreciation.
The most common uses of a dictionary
are to fix a standard for the spelling,
pronunciation and meaning of the words
in a language. as well as to illustrate the
use of such words by information re-
speeding their derivation and by illustra-
tive quotations. But these uses are only
the beginning of the things that may be
found in dictionaries. The pictorial illu-
strations are valuable for helping the, yn
Outstanding of the words. synonyms
and antonyms are carefully discrimin-
ated.
The applications of propositions are
clearly outlined. Dictionaries may be
used for the purpose of finding the source
of popular quotations. Indeed there is
no special dictionary of quotations in the
English language that contains as many
quotations as does the Century or the
| Standard dictionary.
Besides these features of the main part
of the dictionary. every good work of the
kind contains aluable Information in
the appendices. u as essays on the
distinctive points of different languages.
lists of personal or of geographical
names, tables of foreign words and
phrases in common or uncommon use,
lists Of authorizations and contractions,
astronomical, mathematical and other
signs and symbols. and other miscella-
neous information.