Websters Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary

ISBN: 9780877795087

³ö°æÉç: Merriam-webster+ Inc

³ö°æÄê: 1983-10

¶¨¼Û: USD 16.95

×°Ö¡: Hardcover

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Webster s Ninth New Colleglale Dicflonary is the latest in A number of entries for words posing special problems el
the Cogcgiate line of Merriam-Websterr ~dictionaries which confused or disputed usage include for the first time brief ar-
began in 1898. Ever) entry and feature of the last edition has tides that provide the dieflonary user with suitable guidance
been reexamined so that this Collegiate offers the dictionary on the usage in question. The guidance offered is never based
user much thai is new and useful while preserving the best merely on received opinion??? though opinions are often noted???
features of preceding edilions. This dictionary is meant to but typically on both a review of the historical background
and a careful evaluation of what citations reveal about actual
serve the general public as its chief source of information contemporary practice. These articles should prove a helpful
about lbe words of our language. The school or college s~u-
dent??? the office worker??? the home user all ??? ??? ill find this complement to Ihe usage information offered through the
traditional devices of the usage label and the usage note.
Collegiate a reliable guide to understanding the English of The fronl matter of this book attempts to establish a con-
our day and communicating in it. text for understanding what this dictionary is and how it
While Webster s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary holds came to be??? as well as how it may be used most effectively
no more pag~ than did the last edition??? a change in the di- The Explanatory Notes address themselves to the latter top-
mentions of the page and a different design of some elements ic. They answer tile user s questions about the conventions???
on that page have allowed the editors to add thousands of devices??? and techniques by which the editors have been able
new words and senses as well as to introduce several signifl- to compress mountains of information about English words
cant new features and other improvements??? into fewer than 1400 pages. All users of the dictionary are
The treatment of words in the A-Z vocabulary section is urged to read this section through and Ihen consult it for
as nearly exhaustive as the compass of an abridged work per- special informaflon as they need to. The brief essay on our
mits. /ks in all Merriam-Webster~dietionaries??? the informa- language as it is recorded in Merdam-Webster ~ dictionaries???
lion given is based on the unparalleled collection of citations and this Collegiate in particular??? is meant to satisfy an inter-
maintained in the offices of this company. These citations eat in lexicography often expressed in the correspondence
show words used in a wide range of printed sources??? and the which our editors receive. The Guide to Pronunciation serve~
eoUeeflon is constantly augmented through the efforts of the both to show how the pronunciations recorded in this book
editorial staff. Thus??? the user of the dictionary may be confi- are arrived al and to explain the mechanics of the respelling
dent that entries in the Collegiate are based on current as system in which they are set down.
well as older material. The citation files hold 3???000???000 more The back matter retains all six sections from the last edi-
examples than were available to the editors of Webster*s lion of the Collegiate. These are Foreign Words and Phrases
Third New International Dieflonary??? published in 1961??? the that occur frequently in English texts but have not become
total now being 13???000???000. part of the English vocabulary; thousands of proper names
Those entries known to be trademarks or service marks are gathered under the separate headings Biographical Names
so labeled and are treated in accordance wilh a formula ap- and Geographical Names; a lisl of the degree-granting??? two:
proved by the United States Trademark Association. No ca- year and four-year Colleges and Universities of the United
try in this dictionary??? however??? should be regarded as States and Canada; a gathering of important Signs and Sym-
affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark. bols that cannot readily be alphabetized; and a Handbook of
Style in which various stylistic conventions (as of punctua-
Several feature~ of the vocabulary seeti0n are worth special lion and capitalization) are summarized and exemplified. All
notice. The treatment of synonymy has been completely re-
vised for this edition so that all the synonym articles now these sections are expanded with new material in this edition
discriminate from one another words of closely associated One seCtion has been added: Abbreviations and Symbols for
meaning. Many of the articles are enriched with typical ex- Chemical Elements??? which were in the main vocabulary of
amples of usage based on--or sometimes quoted from--ci- the 1973 Collegiate??? are now in the back matter.
lations in our files. Webster s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary is the result of
Pictorial illustrations have been prominent in Collegiate much patient labor by the trained staff of Merriam-Webster
dictionaries from the beginning. In this edition??? as before??? Incorporated??? working in collaboration with each other and???
they have been selected chiefly for their ability to inform by in a sense??? with the editors of earlier Collegiates and lnterna-
supplementing and clarifying deflldtions. In many instances fionals??? who have left numberless??? often indiscernible traces
Ihis function has be.en enhanced for this edition by increasing of their thought??? insight??? and care upon the pages of this dic-
the size of the illustration so that significant details are more tionary. There is unfortunately no space to acknowledge for-
readily apparent??? met editors individually??? but all the staff members who made
In Webstcr s Nin;h New Collegiate Dictionary two fen- substantial contributions to this edition are listed on the fac-
lurc~ make their first appearance in any Merdam-Web- ing page. Many demonstrated their versatilily by working in
ster~ dictionary. Before the first entered sense of each entry several widely separated parts of the book and ill very differ-
for a gencric ~ord??? the user of this Collegiate will find a date cut roles
thai indicates when the earliest example known to us of tile Webster s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary is offered to
use of thai sense ~xas ~dtten or printed. This date serves as a the user in the same spirit as were earlier editions: it is die
link. in the ~se of entdc~ with several senses??? between the el- product of a company with a sustained tradition of excel-
3m???~log~ preceding it and the ilistoricafiy ordered senses fol- loner in the making of dictionaries??? and we are confident that
h???~ ???il~g i~ We believe that tile date will ohen be a point of whoever comes to know it and use it carehilly will be well
c??????f~siderat??? lc- inlcrc~t in its ow~i right us well. served by it.