In 1890 dictionaries, while somewhat less common than today, served the same purpose. They established a "correct" spelling of each word, or at least a short list of alternatives, they gave definitions, and most included etymologies, or histories of the origins of each word. Isaac Funk created a dictionary that had all these things, like Noah Webster he was an advocate of simplified American spelling (e.g. center rather than centre). But in the interest of more readily teaching the language to students, Funk listed the definitions in declining order of importance in contemporary usage. When a word had six definitions, burying the most valuable one in the fourth or fifth position because it was a more recent usage did not help in the classroom. As something of a dictionary junkie (I have 18 linguistic dictionaries within a few steps of my desk) I appreciate his contribution.
One reader complained yesterday that the holiday listed, the commemoration of the Martyrs of Memphis, wasn't really a holiday. I will admit that there isn't any place where you get to stay home for it. In my defense I plead desperation. Finding a holiday about which anything interesting can be said is tough. It's no problem finding lists of holidays for any given day on the calendar, but coming up with any background is another matter - I could use a little help. Look ahead a little way on your calendar and see if there isn't a holiday coming up that I might not have heard of, then drop me a note with the details.
The bombing of Oregon by a Japanese floatplane yesterday was not the only aerial bombardment of the war, but it was the only one involving an airplane. I should have remembered the balloon bombs of Project FUGO, fortunately several readers did. My father told me of watching for them with binoculars, probably because it's best to not give the Van Horn boys too much time to get into trouble. The only fatalities from the program took place in May of 1945, and I've entered it in the database for next year.
1608 - John Smith, previously excluded from any governmental role due to his conspiracy to mutiny on the way to Virginia and subsequently saved by Pocahontas from execution by the Algonquins, was elected president of Jamestown Colony. His self confidence and European military experience had made him the de facto leader of the settlement during the previous winter.
1718 - The Collegiate School at New Haven, Connecticut changed its name to Yale College. The school, originally organized in response to religious liberalism at Harvard, had recently moved from Saybrook and was desperate for building funds. Cotton Mather approached the wealthy Welshman Elihu Yale and arranged a gift of cloth (which was sold) and books (which were kept) in exchange for the change of name.
1846 - Elias Howe was granted US Patent No. 4,750 for a sewing machine. It didn't catch on, and Howe was nearly destitute for some years, offering the patent to Isaac Singer for $2,000 in 1851 when Howe learned that Singer was making machines infringing on Howe's patent. Singer threatened to throw Howe down the stairs, but after many legal battles paid dearly. Howe eventually collected over $2 million from other manufacturers, including $25 per machine from Singer.
1869 - The first rickshaw was used on the streets of Yokahama, Japan. It was created by an American Baptist minister, Reverend Jonathan Scobie, to carry his invalid wife through the city streets.
1915 - Activist William Sanger was convicted under the Comstock Act for mailing a birth control pamphlet written by his wife Margaret titled "Family Limitation." The 1873 law defined information on birth control as pornography, a section which stood until 1971. Sanger refused to pay the $150 fine and served 30 days.
1982 - SARSAT, a Search and Rescue Satellite location system developed by the US, Canada, and France, was responsible for locating a downed aircraft for the first time. As of 28 August 2000 the system had assisted in rescuing 4,094 persons in the US, 11,354 worldwide.
St. George's Cay Day, Belize - Commemorates a victory for the indigenous Miskito Indians and British settlers over a superior Spanish force on an expedition to drive the British mahogany loggers out of the area.
1839 - Isaac Kauffman Funk, US journalist, editor - Born at Clifton, Ohio, graduated from Wittenberg College in Springfield, Ohio, went on to Wittenberg Theological Seminary and graduated in 1860, ordained a Lutheran minister the following year and served several small churches. Left the ministry in 1872, traveled in Europe and the Middle East, became an editor at the Christian Radical on his return. Founded I. K. Funk & Co. in New York City in 1875, publishing books and periodicals for the clergy, starting with a sermon-aid called the Metropolitan Pulpit. Joined by his classmate Adam Willis Wagnalls in 1877, the firm was renamed Funk and Wagnalls in 1890. Launched the "Standard" series of reference works with "A Standard Dictionary of the English Language" in 1894 which Funk edited. Funk's dictionary was the first to list definitions in order of importance, previous dictionaries listed oldest usage first. He continued to write books for the clergy, chairman of the editorial board of the 1-volume The Jewish Encyclopedia from 1901 to 1906. Died at Montclair, New Jersey on 4 April 1912, the same year the first edition of the Funk and Wagnalls Encyclopedia was released.
The word impossible is not in my dictionary.
- Napoleon Bonaparte
Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary,
how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows
how to combine them.
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
Always remember that striving and struggle precede success, even in the
dictionary.
- Sarah Ban Breathnach
If a word in the dictionary were mispelled, how would we know?
- Steven Wright
The probability of life originating from accident is comparable to the
probability of the unabridged dictionary resulting from an explosion in
a printing shop.
- Edwin Conklin
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