A Sample Glossary from
A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language
A small book with tiny print, Noah Webster’s A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language
contained 37,000 entries, including thousands of words that were in daily use in America but not listed in any other dictionary
(including a host of terms from medicine, law, chemistry, botany, geology, agriculture, and other sciences, as well as Native American
loan words).
LAW
- advocate
-
verb: to defend, plead in favor of
- appellate
-
adjective:
belonging to appeals
- decedent
-
noun:
one dead
- lot
-
noun:
a share or division of land, a field
SCIENCE and MATHEMATICS
- aeriform
-
adjective:
having the form of air, as gas
- caloric
-
adjective:
pertaining to the matter of heat
- decahedron
-
noun:
a figure of ten sides
- deliquesce
-
verb:
to dissolve or soften in air
- electrician
-
noun:
one versed in electricity
- foliar
-
adjective:
pertaining to or growing from a leaf
- galvanism
-
noun:
the name given to effects resembling electricity, produced by metallic substances
- ignescent
-
adjective:
yielding fire or sparks
- lignify
-
verb:
to become or convert into wood
- nutrient
-
noun:
that which feeds or nourishes
- psychology
-
noun:
the doctrines of spirit or mind
- sebaceous
-
adjective:
fat, pertaining to fat
- vaccine
-
noun:
the cow pox, kine-pox
- vaccinate
-
verb:
to inoculate with the virus of the cow pox
- vaporize
-
verb:
to convert into vapor by heat
GOVERNMENT
- amendatory
-
adjective:
containing an amendment
- caucus
-
noun:
cant name of secret meetings for electioneering purposes
- census
-
noun:
an enumeration of inhabitants, a register of people, etc.
- constitutionality
-
noun:
the state of being agreeable to the constitution, or of affecting the constitution
- presidential
-
adjective:
pertaining to a president
- selectman
-
noun:
a town official in New England
AGRICULTURE and INDUSTRY
- flume
-
noun:
a channel or passage for water
- folder
-
noun:
a flat instrument to fold sheets of paper
- gin
-
verb:
to clean cotton of its seeds by a gin
- unmalleable
-
adjective:
not capable of being hammered into a plate
PLANTS and ANIMALS
- accipiters
-
noun:
an order of fowls with hooked bills
- butternut
-
noun:
an American tree with an oblong nut, also the nut
- cervine
-
adjective:
pertaining to the deer
- conchology
-
noun:
the science of shellfish
- cordiform
-
adjective:
in form of a heart
- dendroid
-
adjective:
resembling a shrub
- hickory
-
noun:
a tree, a species of walnut
- opossum
-
noun:
a quadruped which carries her young in a bag under her belly
- porcine
-
adjective:
pertaining to swine
- scarious
-
adjective:
dry and rough to the touch
- skunk
-
noun:
a quadruped remarkable for its smell
- winterkill
-
verb:
to kill by means of winter, as grain
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BUSINESS
- debit
-
noun:
a debt, the debtor side of an account
- deliverable
-
adjective:
that may or ought to be delivered
- unmarketable
-
adjective:
not saleable or fit for the market
FOOD and DRINK
- chowder
-
noun:
a dish of fish boiled with biscuit, etc.
- hommony
-
noun:
food made of maiz broken but coarse and boiled
- succotash
-
noun:
a mixture of new soft maiz and beans boiled
- whiskey
-
noun:
a spirit distilled from grain
MISCELLANEOUS
- Americanize
-
verb:
to render American
- caddy
-
noun:
a small box for tea
- checkers
-
noun pl.:
a game
- chore
-
noun:
a small job, domestic work
- demoralize
-
verb:
to corrupt, undermine or destroy moral principles
- emphasize
-
verb:
to pronounce with a stress of voice
- energize
-
verb:
to give strength or vigor
- flytrap
-
noun:
a trap to catch flies
- hydrant
-
noun:
a pipe to conduct and deliver water
- immigrant
-
noun:
one who removes into a country
- inapproachable
-
adjective:
not to be approached
- inexact
-
adjective:
not exact or precise
- insubordination
-
noun:
disobedience or want of submission to authority
- leanto
-
noun:
the part of a building that appears to lean upon another
- notice
-
verb:
to see, regard, observe, attend
- orthoepy
-
noun:
the art of just pronunciation
- penmanship
-
noun:
the act, art, or use of writing
- pry
-
verb:
to look into with close inspection, to raise with a lever
- publicity
-
noun:
a public state, notoriety
- sectarian
-
adjective:
pertaining to a sect
- skittles
-
noun:
a game like ninepins
- slang
-
noun:
vulgar language, cant phrases [low]
- slat
-
noun:
a thin piece of timber connecting larger ones
- slatternly
-
adjective:
negligent in dress, sluttish
- snowshoe
-
noun:
a light frame to walk with on snow
- spry
-
adjective:
nimble, brisk, quick in action
- surf
-
noun:
waves or swell of the sea breaking on shore
- velveteen
-
noun:
a cloth made of cotten and linen
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