Dictionary Society of North America

A Minor Exception: On W.C. Minor and Noah Webster

Joshua Kendall's article in The Nation discusses Dr. W. C. Minor's early and problematic work as a definer for the 1864 edition of Webster's Dictionary, two decades before the mental collapse which led to his incarceration and, ultimately, to his famous contributions to the Oxford English Dictionary. Minor's involvement with Webster also is discussed by DSNA member Michael C. Hancher in his article "Illustrating Webster," just published in Dictionaries (31) 2010.

Book Reviews for Dictionaries 32 (2011)

Members of DSNA will have noticed that our annual journal Dictionaries has a new cover design. Later this spring, the journal will be available online at Project Muse, beginning with Number 31 (2010); eventually all previous volumes will be online. Other format changes are forthcoming.

As part of DSNA's various efforts to make Dictionaries more accessible and timely, the journal will be published earlier in the year. The contents for the 2011 volume will be set by early summer. If you are the author or publisher of a book or website that you believe would be suitable for review in Dictionaries this year, please contact the DSNA office at your earliest convenience.

Dictionaries 32 invites submissions

The 2011 volume of Dictionaries (No. 32) is in preparation, and manuscripts are invited for consideration for this or future issues. To ensure the review of your essay for possible publication in Dictionaries 32, please submit your work by 1 May 2011. Dictionaries welcomes articles on all aspects of lexicography, both practical and historical, as well as from areas of linguistic inquiry that relate to lexicography, and from the study of  reference works in general as they bear on dictionary making. Within reason, the length of articles is flexible, and the Editor is open to proposals to dedicate the entire article section of the journal to a theme or even to a single, lengthy article.  

Manuscripts and inquiries should be sent to Dictionaries editor Elizabeth Knowles.  More information for contributors is available in the sidebar of this website.

Dictionaries is a peer-reviewed annual journal, published in the fall. Beginning with No. 31, Dictionaries will appear both in print and electronically, the latter via Project Muse.