In comparing this with other dictionaries of the fame kind, it will be found to have feveral advantages.

I. It contains many words not to be found in any other. II. Many barbarous terms and phrases by which other dictionaries may vitiate the style are rejected from this.

III. The words are more correctly ipelled, partly by attention to their etymology, and partly by obfervation of the practice of the best authors.

IV. The etymologies and derivations, whether from foreign languages or from native roots, are more diligently traced, and more diftinctly noted.

V. The fenfes of each word are more copiously enumerated, and more clearly explained.

VI. Many words, occurring in the elder authors, fuch as Spenfer, Shakespeare, and Milton, which had been hitherto omitted, are here carefully inferted; fo that this book may serve as a gloffary or expository index to the poetical

writers.

VII. To the words, and to the different fenfes of each word, are fubjoined from the large dictionary the names of those writers by whom they have been used; fo that the reader who knows the different periods of the language, and the time of its authors, may judge of the elegance or prevalence of any word, or meaning of a word; and without recurring to other books, may know what are antiquated, what are unusual, and what are recommended by the best authority.

The words of this dictionary, as opposed to others, are more diligently collected, more accurately. fpelled, more faithfully explained, and more authentically afcertained. Of an abstract it is not neceffary to say more; and I hope, it will not be found that truth requires me to fay lefs.

In this divifion and order of the parts of grammar I follow the common grammarians, without enquiring whether a fitter diftribu-⚫ tion might not be found. Experience has long shown this method to be fo diftinct as to obviate confufion, and fo comprehensive as to prevent any inconvenient omiffions. I kwife ufe the terms already received, and already understood, though perhaps others more proper might fometimes be invented. Sylbergios, and other innovators, whose new terms have funk their learning into neglect, have left fufficient warning against the trifling ambition of teaching arts in a new language.

U u
V v

u or va:
confon.
double u

ex

avy

zed, more

commonly iz-
zard, or uzzard,
that is, f bard.

To thefe may be added certain combinations of letters univerfally used in printing; as et, ft, fi, fl, fb, sk, ff, ß, fi, fli, fi, fi, t, and &, or and per fe, and. &, ft, fi, ft, fe, fk, ff, I, fi, fi, fi, f, ƒ, &. §, R, A, IL, If, fl, fi, fi, fi, ffi, f.

Our letters are commonly reckoned twenty-four, becaufe anciently i andj, as well as u and, were expreffed by the fame character; but as thofe letters, which had always different powers, have now different forms, our alphabet may be properly faid to confitt of twenty-Gx letters.

None of the confonants have a double form except the fmall f, of which is used in the beginning and middle, and s at the end,

Vowels are five, a, e, i, o, u.

Such is the number generally received; But for, i it is the practice to write y in the end of words, as thy, boy; before i, as from die, dying; from beautify, beautifying; in the words jays, days, eyes; and in words derived from the Greek, and written originally with u, as fyftem, siçana, fympathy, eum?sia.

For

as

baund for band.

For a we often write w after a ruftick pronunciation; as maun for mang vowel, to make a dipthong; raw, grew, view, vow, floring, lowness.

The founds of all the letters are various.

In treating on the letters, I fall not, like fome other grammarians, enquire into the original of their form, as an antiquarian; nor into their formation and prolation by the organs of fpeech, as a mechanick, anatomift or philologift; nor into the proper ties and gradation of founds, or the elegance or harshness of particular combinations, as a writer of univerfal and tranfcendental grammar, I confider the English alphabet only as it is English; and even in this narrow view I follow the example of former grammarians, perhaps with more reverence than judgment, becaufe by writing in English I fuppofe my reader aheady acquainted with the English language; and because of sounds in general it may be obferved, that words are unable to defcribe them. An account therefore of the primitive and finaple letters is ufelefs almost alike to thofe who know their found, and thofe who know it not.

§ II. Of VOWELS.

A

A has three founds, the flender, open, and broad.

A fender is found in moft words, as face, mane; and in words ending in ation, as creation, falvation, gene

ration.

The short a approaches to the a open, as grass.

The long a, if prolonged by e at the end of the word, is always flender, as graze, fame.

A forms a dipthong only with i or y, and z or w. Ai or ay, as in plain, wain, gay, clay, has only the found of the long and flender a, and differs not in the pronunciation from plane, wane.

Au or aw has the found of the German a as raw, naughty.

A is fometimes found in Latin words not completely naturalifed or affimilated, but is no English dipthong; and is more properly expreffed by fingle e, as Cefar, Eneas.

E.

E is the letter which occurs most frequenly in the English language.

E is long, as in fcene; or fhort, as in cellar, Separate, celebrate, měn, then.

It is always fhort before a double confonant, or two confonants, relent, mědlar, reptile, Serpent, cellar, cèssation, bleffing, fell, felling, debt.

E is always mute at the end of a word, except in monofyllables that have no other vowel, as the; or proper names, as Penelope, Phebe, Derbe; The a flender is the proper English a call-being used to modify the foregoing ed very justly by Erpenius, in his Arabick Grammar, a Anglicum cum e miflum, as having a middle found between the open a and the The French have a fimilar found in the word pais, and in their e mafculine.

A open is the a of the Italian, or nearly resembles it; as father, rather, congratulate, fancy, glass.

A broad refembles the a of the German; as all, wall, call.

Many words pronounced with a broad were anciently written with au, as fault, mault; and we fill write fault, vault. This was probably the Saxon found, for it is yet retained in the northern dialects, and in the

confonant, as fince, once, hedge, oblige; or to lenthen the preceding vowel, as bắn, bane ; căn, cane; pin, pine ; tun, tune; rob, rōbe; pop, pōpe, fir, fire; cur, cure; tub, tube.

Almost all words which now terminate in confonants ended anciently in e, as year, yeare; wildness, wildneffe; which e probably had the force of the French e feminine, and conffituted a fyllable with its affociate confonant; for, in old editions, words are fometimes divided thus clear-re, fel-le, knowledge. This e was perhaps for a time vocal; or filent in poetry as convenience required; but it has been long wholly mute, Camden calls it the filent e

I

It does not always lengthen the foregoing vowel, as glove, live,

It has fometimes in the end of words a found obfcure, and scarcely perceptible, as open, shapen, shotten, thifile, participle, metre, lucre.

E forms as a dipthong with a; as near; with i, as deign, receive; and with or w, as new, flew. Ea founds like

long, as mean, or like ee, as dear, clear, near. Ei is founded like e long, as feize, perceiving.

Ea founds as a long and foft. E az are combined in beauty, and its derivatives, but have only the found of «.

E may be faid to form a dip thong by reduplication, as agree, Juping.

Es is found in yesmen, where it is founded 25 short; and in people, where it is pro

nounced like et.

I.

The fhort o has fometimes the found of a

clofe u, as fin, come.

O coalefces into a diphthong with a, as mean, groan, approach; oa has the found of o long.

O is united to e in fome words derived from Greek, as economy; but oe being not an English diphthong, they are better written as they are founded, with only e, economy.

With i, as oil, foil, meil, noifome.

This coalition of letters feems to unite the founds of the two letters as far as two founds can be united without being destroyed, and therefore approaches more nearly than any combination in our tongue to the

notion of a diphthong.

With o, as boot, boot, cooler; oo has the found of the Italian u.

0

With a or, as our, power, flower; but in fome words has only the found of long, as in foul, berul, ow, grow. Thefe different founds are ufed to diftinguith different fig. nifications; as bow, an inftrument for fhooting; bow, a depreflion of the head: fow, the fhe of a boar;

I has a found long, as fine; and ow, to fcatter feed: bowl, an orhort, as fir. bicular body; bow! a wooden veffel.

That is eminently obfervable in i, which may be likewife remarked in other letters, that the fhort found is not the long found contracted, but a found wholly different.

The long found in monofyllables is always marked by the e final as ibin, thine.

I is often founded before r as a hort ; as flirt, first, shirt.

It forms a diphthong only with e, as field, field, which is founded as the double-ee; except friend, which is founded as frend.

I is joined with eu, in lieu, and ew, in view; which tripthongs are founded as the open

Q.

O is long, as bōne, ōbedient, corrōding; or fhort, as block, knock, oblique, fall.

Women, is pronounced wimen.

0

Ou is fometimes pronounced like • foft, as court; fometimes like a fhort, as cough; fometimes like " clofe, as could; or a open as rough, tough; which ufe can only teach.

Ou is frequently used in the laft fyilable of words which in Latin end in or, and are made English, as boñour, labour, favour, from bonor, labor, favor. ·

Some late innovators have ejected the w without confidering that the laft fyllable gives the found neither of or nor ur, but a found between them, if not compounded of both; befides that they are probably derived to us from the French nouns in eur, as beneur, faveur.

Chas before e and i the found of f; as fincerely, centrick, century, cir