On October 16, 1758 in West Hartford, Connecticut, one of the most influential people in American history was born: Noah Webster. He published his first dictionary in 1806 and in 1828 he published his American Dictionary of the English Language.
You see, Webster was a patriot. He believed in an American national identify that was distinct from England. He believed in an American language. His dictionary included distinctly American words like chipmunk, hickory, and chowder. Have you ever wondered why conventional American spelling differs from conventional English spelling in words like honor (English honour) or color (English colour)? Webster’s Dictionary. He attempted to rationalize American spelling of English to spell words more closely to the way they are pronounced in America. Not all of his attempted spelling reforms caught on viz. dawter for daughter.
But his dictionary standardized meanings, spelling, and pronunciation of words in the young country. As the frontier moved West Mr. Webster’s Dictionary moved with it. For many people if they had two books they were the Bible and Webster’s Dictionary. And that united a country that otherwise might have diverged much, much further than it did.
