From:  Ross Clark <benlizro@ihug.co.nz>
Date:  20 Oct 2024 07:49:29 Hong Kong Time
Newsgroup:  news.alt119.net/sci.lang
Subject:  

Re: National Dictionary Day (16 October)

NNTP-Posting-Host:  null

On 20/10/2024 9:18 a.m., Christian Weisgerber wrote:
> On 2024-10-16, Ross Clark  wrote:
> 
>> "National" here is American. And the day is the birthday of Noah Webster
>> (16/10/1758-28/5/1843). Author of the "National Dictionary".
>> Actually called The American Dictionary of the English Language.
> 
> I'm positive I've seen a Webster's Dictionary of the American (!)
> Language somewhere.  I thought Noah Webster himself started this,
> but apparently I was mistaken.
> 
> ... Okay, it's _Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language_
> and Wikipedia informs me that this is an independent work, wholly
> unrelated to that of Webster himself.  Sorry, Noah.
> 

I remember being told this long ago, that Webster was unable to 
trademark his name, or the right lapsed after his death or some such, so 
that 20th century dictionaries with "Webster" in the title might have no 
connection whatsoever to Noah's work. That some people continued this 
deceptive practice is an indication of how much NW had been identified 
with the idea of a "definitive dictionary".