Funk & Wagnalls dictionaries

Funk & Wagnalls dictionaries

      family of English-language dictionaries noted for their emphasis on ease of use and current usage.

      The first Funk & Wagnalls dictionary was A Standard Dictionary of the English Language (1893). It espoused four policies pertinent to its initial and future publications: the ordering of definitions according to current, rather than historical, usage; the appearance of etymologies at the end of definitions, rather than at the beginning; the use of one alphabetical list for all entries, rather than separate sections for geographical, biographical, mythological, or biblical terms; the use of lowercase initial letters for all entry titles except proper nouns.

      Isaac Funk (Funk, Isaac Kauffman), the editor of the Standard, believed strongly in accurate phonetics and simplified spellings whenever possible, a policy to which Funk & Wagnalls still adheres. In addition to the present unabridged New Standard, the company publishes a line of several dictionaries, most of which are based on the Standard Dictionary of the English Language (International Edition), a new work published in 1958. These spinoffs include, among others, the Comprehensive Standard International Dictionary, a reprint of the Standard with encyclopaedic matter added; and the Standard College Dictionary, an abridged version of the Standard. The Standard Encyclopedic Dictionary is a reprint of the latter with the addition of encyclopaedic matter.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Funk & Wagnalls — is a publisher based in New York City known for its reference works, including an encyclopedia, content from which became a part of Microsoft s Encarta digital encyclopedia.HistoryIsaac Kaufmann Funk founded the business in 1876 as I.K. Funk… …   Wikipedia

  • Funk, Isaac Kauffman — ▪ American publisher born Sept. 10, 1839, Clifton, Ohio, U.S. died April 4, 1912       American publisher who was also a Lutheran minister, religious journalist, Prohibition Party publicist, and spelling reformer.       Funk graduated from… …   Universalium

  • dictionary — /dik sheuh ner ee/, n., pl. dictionaries. 1. a book containing a selection of the words of a language, usually arranged alphabetically, giving information about their meanings, pronunciations, etymologies, inflected forms, etc., expressed in… …   Universalium

  • Webster's Dictionary — Webster s redirects here. For other uses, see Webster (disambiguation). An 1888 advertisement for Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary. Webster s Dictionary refers to the line of dictionaries first developed by Noah Webster in the early 19th century,… …   Wikipedia

  • -onym — The suffix onym, in English and other languages, means word, name, and words ending in onym refer to a specified kind of name or word, most of which are classical compounds. For example, an acronym is a word formed from the initial letter or… …   Wikipedia

  • Encarta — Microsoft Encarta Encarta 2008 Premium on Windows Vista Developer(s) …   Wikipedia

  • History of the Encyclopædia Britannica — The Encyclopædia Britannica has been published continuously since 1768, appearing in 15 official editions. Several editions have been amended with multi volume supplements (3rd–6th) or undergone drastic re organizations (15th). In recent years,… …   Wikipedia

  • Collateral adjective — A collateral adjective is an adjective with a similar meaning to a given noun, but derived from a different root. For example, lunar serves as an adjective to describe attributes of the Moon; moon comes from the Old English mōna and lunar from… …   Wikipedia

  • Rebracketing — For the process by which the elements of a word are given new meanings, see Folk etymology. Contents 1 Role in forming new words 2 Examples 3 …   Wikipedia

  • Robert L. Chapman — Robert Lundquist Chapman (December 28, 1920 ndash;January 27, 2002) was an American English professor who edited several dictionaries and thesauri.Chapman was born in Huntington, West Virginia to Curtis W. Chapman, a typewriter mechanic, and… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”