Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The New National Dictionary, Encyclopædia and Atlas, Vol. 1: Revised to Date a New, Original and Exhaustive Lexicon of the English Language, Exhibiting the Origin, Development, Orthography, Pronunciation, Meaning, and Legitimate or Customary Use of Its 250, 000 Words
The encyclopedic dictionary contains in round. Numbers some words or headings including compound words). If this be compared with the number contained in other dictionaries, it will be seen at once how exhaustive it is. The early edition of Webster's Dictionary contained words. Worcester's Dictionary and Supplement contains words, Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, words, and Webster's International Dictionary, words. The encyclopedic dictionary thus contains more words than this most elaborate of its rivals.
But this is far from indicating the full measure of its comparative value, which cannot be estimated by the extra number of words alone. The completeness of treatment of each word must also be taken into account. Each has here been subdivided as far as possible into the various meanings which it assumed at different times, so that its treatment is not simply orthographical, but distinctively historical. The sorting and arranging of the slips containing quotations illustrative of the various senses in which words occur has been a task requiring very great care and labor, and one which has cost the editor and his assistants many hours Of anxious thought.* The exhaustive character of the present work, therefore, cannot be fairly judged from its number Of words as compared with other dictionaries, since the space given to many words greatly exceeds that given by other lexicographers. A truer conception can be gained by comparing the total space occupied. Thus Webster's International Dictionary contains (exclusive Of Introduction, Appendix, etc.) 1681 pages, and Worcester's Dictionary 1696 pages, while the encyclopedic dictionary, with similar exclusions, extends to 5249 pages, or more than three times the number in either of the two leading dictionaries named.
It may be said further that the work has been brought up to date, words which have only recently come into use being duly inserted in their places, so that one may find within its pages a complete history of the English language from the time that this language fairly began to exist to the final decade of the Nineteenth Century.
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