Joseph Worcester

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1784 (age 81)

For five years following his graduation he taught in Salem, Massachussets, where Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of his students. In 1819, after two years spent in Andover, he settled permanently in Cambridge. While teaching at Salem, Worcester prepared his first work, A Geographical Dictionary, or Universal Gazetteer, Ancient and Modern, published in 1817. It was followed in 1818 by A Gazetteer of the United States, in 1819 by Elements of Geography, in 1823 by Sketches of the Earth and Its Inhabitants, and in 1826 by Elements of History, Ancient and Modern. All of these works were extensively used as textbooks. In 1828 appeared the first of his long series of dictionaries, an edition of Johnson's English Dictionary, with Walker's Pronouncing Dictionary, Combined. The following year he prepared an abridgment of Webster's large dictionary of 1828, and in 1830 his own Comprehensive Pronouncing and Explanatory Dictionary of the English Language appeared. This volume contained what may be called Worcester's one permanent contribution to lexicography and the English language in America, the idea of a sound intermediate between the a of hat and that of father. This sound, which has since come to be known as the "compromise vowel, " offered an escape to those who were too timid to use, in such words as fast, grass, and dance, the then fashionable vowel of hat, and were ashamed of the vowel of father, which, as Worcester said, seemed "to border on vulgarism. " Worcester's 1830 dictionary evoked from Noah Webster [q. v. ] a rather ill-natured charge of plagiarism. This attack was the first move in a half-century long battle for supremacy between the two great rival series of dictionaries, a battle which degenerated later into the graceless and petty commercial strife between the rival publishers known as the "War of the Dictionaries. " After the publication of his Comprehensive . On his return in 1831 he assumed his eleven-year editorship of The American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge. While A Universal and Critical Dictionary of the English Language (1846)--next to the 1860 Quarto, Worcester's most important work--was passing through the press, he suffered from cataract. In spite of this handicap, the work on the dictionaries went on. Enlarged and improved editions of the Comprehensive appeared in 1847 and 1849. In 1855 it appeared with the title A Pronouncing, Explanatory, and Synonymous Dictionary of the English Language, with the discrimination of synonyms made an important and distinguishing feature. It also listed, for the first time in an English dictionary, Christian names of men and women with their etymological significations. In 1860, when Worcester was seventy-six, appeared the most elaborate and important of all his works, the illustrated Quarto, A Dictionary of the English Language. The illustrations were hailed by many critics as an original feature, but the idea had been used before him in Bailey's Dictionary and Blount's Glossographia. Worcester's work did not end with the publication of his Quarto. For the remaining five years of his life, he made daily annotations for a future revision. Both men were diligent, but in temperament and attitude contrasted sharply. III, 1892, p. 8). Reviewing the 1860 edition, Edward Everett Hale stated that only two books would be necessary in establishing a new civilization, "Shakespeare and this dictionary" (Christian Examiner, May 1860, p. 365). The supremacy of Webster was not established until after 1864, when Webster's . Unabridged, the work of many competent hands, appeared. [Sarah A. Worcester, The Descendants of Rev. William Worcester (1914); Ezra Abbott, in Proc. Am. Acad. of Arts and Sciences, vol. VII (1868); S. A. Allibone, A Critical Dict. of English Lit. and British and Am. Authors (1871), vol. III; F. B. Dexter, Biog. Sketches Grads. Yale Coll. , vol. VI (1912); G. S. Hillard, biog. sketch in Worcester's A Dict. of the English Language (Phila. , 1878, and other editions); William Newell, memoir, in Proc. Massachussets Hist. Soc. , vol. XVIII (1881); A. P. Stokes, Memorials of Eminent Yale Men (2 vols. , 1914); S. T. Worcester, "Joseph E. Worcester, LL. D. ," in Granite Monthly, Apr. 1880, and Hist. of the Town of Hollis, N. H. (1879); G. P. Krapp, The English Language in America (2 vols. , 1925); M. M. Mathews, A Survey of English Dictionaries (1933); S. A. Steger, Am. of Writings on the English Language (1927); Boston Transcript, Oct. 27, 1865. ]

Joseph Emerson Worcester

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Background

and the second son of Jesse and Sarah (Parker) Worcester.

Education

The local public schools offered meager opportunities for education, but, according to his brother Samuel, Joseph studied at home "with that quiet and unwearied perseverance and resolute energy, which were marked traits of his character through his whole life" (Granite Monthly, post, p. 247).

At the age of twenty-one he entered Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachussets, and at twenty-five, the sophomore class at Yale College, graduating in 1811.

Career

For five years following his graduation he taught in Salem, Massachussets, where Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of his students.

In 1819, after two years spent in Andover, he settled permanently in Cambridge.

While teaching at Salem, Worcester prepared his first work, A Geographical Dictionary, or Universal Gazetteer, Ancient and Modern, published in 1817.

It was followed in 1818 by A Gazetteer of the United States, in 1819 by Elements of Geography, in 1823 by Sketches of the Earth and Its Inhabitants, and in 1826 by Elements of History, Ancient and Modern.

All of these works were extensively used as textbooks.

In 1828 appeared the first of his long series of dictionaries, an edition of Johnson's English Dictionary, with Walker's Pronouncing Dictionary, Combined.

The following year he prepared an abridgment of Webster's large dictionary of 1828, and in 1830 his own Comprehensive Pronouncing and Explanatory Dictionary of the English Language appeared.

This volume contained what may be called Worcester's one permanent contribution to lexicography and the English language in America, the idea of a sound intermediate between the a of hat and that of father.

This sound, which has since come to be known as the "compromise vowel, " offered an escape to those who were too timid to use, in such words as fast, grass, and dance, the then fashionable vowel of hat, and were ashamed of the vowel of father, which, as Worcester said, seemed "to border on vulgarism. "

Worcester's 1830 dictionary evoked from Noah Webster [q. v. ] a rather ill-natured charge of plagiarism.

This attack was the first move in a half-century long battle for supremacy between the two great rival series of dictionaries, a battle which degenerated later into the graceless and petty commercial strife between the rival publishers known as the "War of the Dictionaries. "

After the publication of his Comprehensive .

On his return in 1831 he assumed his eleven-year editorship of The American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge.

While A Universal and Critical Dictionary of the English Language (1846)--next to the 1860 Quarto, Worcester's most important work--was passing through the press, he suffered from cataract.

In spite of this handicap, the work on the dictionaries went on.

Enlarged and improved editions of the Comprehensive appeared in 1847 and 1849.

In 1855 it appeared with the title A Pronouncing, Explanatory, and Synonymous Dictionary of the English Language, with the discrimination of synonyms made an important and distinguishing feature.

It also listed, for the first time in an English dictionary, Christian names of men and women with their etymological significations.

In 1860, when Worcester was seventy-six, appeared the most elaborate and important of all his works, the illustrated Quarto, A Dictionary of the English Language.

The illustrations were hailed by many critics as an original feature, but the idea had been used before him in Bailey's Dictionary and Blount's Glossographia.

Worcester's work did not end with the publication of his Quarto.

For the remaining five years of his life, he made daily annotations for a future revision.

Both men were diligent, but in temperament and attitude contrasted sharply.

III, 1892, p. 8).

Reviewing the 1860 edition, Edward Everett Hale stated that only two books would be necessary in establishing a new civilization, "Shakespeare and this dictionary" (Christian Examiner, May 1860, p. 365).

The supremacy of Webster was not established until after 1864, when Webster's .

Unabridged, the work of many competent hands, appeared.

[Sarah A. Worcester, The Descendants of Rev. William Worcester (1914); Ezra Abbott, in Proc.

Am.

Acad.

of Arts and Sciences, vol.

VII (1868); S. A. Allibone, A Critical Dict.

of English Lit.

and British and Am.

Authors (1871), vol.

III; F. B. Dexter, Biog.

Sketches Grads.

Yale Coll. , vol.

VI (1912); G. S. Hillard, biog.

sketch in Worcester's A Dict.

of the English Language (Phila. , 1878, and other editions); William Newell, memoir, in Proc.

Massachussets Hist.

Soc. , vol.

XVIII (1881); A. P. Stokes, Memorials of Eminent Yale Men (2 vols. , 1914); S. T. Worcester, "Joseph E. Worcester, LL. D. ," in Granite Monthly, Apr. 1880, and Hist.

of the Town of Hollis, N. H. (1879); G. P. Krapp, The English Language in America (2 vols. , 1925); M. M. Mathews, A Survey of English Dictionaries (1933); S. A. Steger, Am.

of Writings on the English Language (1927); Boston Transcript, Oct. 27, 1865. ]

Religion

Worcester, a conservative, held more closely to British usage, especially that of Johnson and Walker, while Webster, in the words of H. E. Scudder, "walked about the Jericho of English lexicography, blowing his trumpet of destruction" (Noah Webster, 1881, p. 290).

During his lifetime his achievements were recognized by election to the Massachusetts Historical Society, the American Academy, the Oriental Society, and the Royal Geographical Society of London.

Connections

He was one of fifteen children, fourteen of whom, like their father, taught at one time or another in the public schools.

married:: Amy
rival:: Noah
rival:: Hickling
Daughter:: McKean
Brother:: Samuel
husband:: McKean

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Joseph Emerson Worcester

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