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Thursday, August 18, 2011

Ten of the 37,000 Entries That Appeared in the First Edition of Noah Webster’s A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language in 1806


1. deliquesce verb: to dissolve or soften in air
2. electrician noun: one versed in electricity
3. flytrap noun: a trap to catch flies
4. hommony noun: food made of maiz broken but coarse and boiled
5. selectman noun: a town official in New England
6. skunk noun: a quadruped remarkable for its smell
7. slatternly adjective: negligent in dress, sluttish
8. unmalleable adjective: not capable of being hammered into a plate
9. vaccine noun: the cow pox, kine-pox
10. winterkill verb: to kill by means of winter, as grain

* With thanks/apologies to Merriam-Webster