~ A ~
A, The first letter of the European alphabets, has, in the English language, three different sounds, which may be termed the broad, open, and slender.
The broad sound resembling that of the German a is found, in many of our monosyllables, as all, wall, malt, falt; in which a is pronounced as au in cause, or aw in law. Many of these words were anciently written with au, as sault, waulk; which happens to be still retained in fault. This was probably the ancient sound of the Saxons, since it is almost uniformly preserved in the rustic pronunciation, and the Northern dialects, as maun for man, haund for hand.
A open, not unlike the a of the Italians, is found in father, rather, and more obscurely in fancy, fast, &c.
A slender or close, is the peculiar a of the English language, resembling the sound of the French e masculine, or diphthong ai in païs, or perhaps a middle sound between them, or between the a and e; to this the Arabic a is said nearly to approach. Of this sound we have examples in the words, place, face, waste, and all those that terminate in ation; as, relation, nation, generation.
A is short, as, glass, grass; or long, as, glaze, graze: it is marked long, generally, by an e final, plane, or by an i added, as, plain.
Wonderful, keep up the good work!
Can I help?
Proofreading is a big help. If you notice a transcription error, please contact me.
If time permits, can the words regulate, rule and commerce be added soon? It would be most helpful. Those that discuss the Constitution often reference Johnsons. Thank you.
They have been added:
Regulate
Rule (noun)
Rule (verb active)
Rule (verb neuter)
Commerce (noun)
Commerce (verb)
I am researching the life of George Ord (1781-1886) of Philadelphia, who is said to have contributed many entries to Johnson’s expanded dictionary (as well as Noah Webster’s first dictionary).
How may I find out which and how many entries he provided to Johnson’s dictionary.
Thanks in advance for any help you might provide.
Al,
Johnson died in 1784, when Ord was only 3 years old. Any entries linked to Ord which appeared in “Johnson” dictionaries would have been added by later lexicographers (many of whom linked the title of their dictionary to Johnson merely for marketing purposes). I focus on the original dictionary Johnson produced, so I do not know much about post-Johnson additions.
I was going to suggest looking at the online OED, but I tried searching for George Ord there myself and was unable to find any contributions or sources linked to Ord.
Sorry that I’m unable to provide any further assistance.
Would you be able to transcribe “Indubitable”?
There is a transcription error in the second sentence under the letter “h”. It should read: ‘the h in English is scarcely “ever” mute’; not “every”
Thanks.
Thanks for catching that. It has been fixed both on the “H” entry page and on the alphabet page.
trouble is it takes half an hour to find a word if not yet transcribed, since if you want ‘time’ you go to ‘T’ and then have to turn some 50 pages, one at a time, to get to to ‘time’. Why not allow one to select a page by number?
Mark,
go to “Page View.” Under the title “Page View” and above the image and page number are two drop-down boxes – “Select Section” and “Select Page”. If you wanted to find “time,” for instance, you would select “T” from the first box. This causes the “Select Page” box to be filled in with the pages from the “T” section, enabling you to select “Tillyfally – Time.” Press the “Go” button and that page is loaded.
Do you have a definition of “arms” as in weaponry? This also is significant in interpreting the constitution.
Here it is, newly transcribed from page 159: Arms
I wonder is there was a definition for ‘people’ as in The People…did Johnson define that?
The first of the five definitions under “People (noun)” is “A nation; these who compose a community,” which includes an illustrative quotation from Shakespeare’s Coriolanus: “What is the city but the people? / True the people are the city.” The entry can be found here.
Hi, I was searching for one of the most used words in the 18th century: Nature, but it isn’t here. Can it be added?
I’ve added “Nature”: http://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/?p=15301