My Word

If you were gonna start your own dictionary on the internet, why would you use the name Webster’s Online Dictionary - the Rosetta Edition™ huh?

Noah Webster was one of the first dictionary writers to buck convention and define (even spell) words according to common usage, especially American usage - accepting color as used in the United States versus colour as used in Britain. In a similar vein, we include as many versions of a given word as possible, including general and specialized synonyms. Since we have used, like so many other modern dictionaries (including those of his children and G. & C. Merriam Co.), Webster’s definitions (which are now part of the public domain) as a starting point. It is not surprising for aficionados to find a verbatim Noah Webster definition, or one that borrows long passages. In our case, we give general credit to Webster as most of the definitions for a bulk of the English section of The Rosetta Edition, share a lexicographic heritage from Webster. If a definition has been updated from his original, then the more recent definition is offered. If not, then Webster's original definition, or one from the 1913 unabridged dictionary bearing his name, is offered and credited. Technical terminology not known at the time of Webster is defined using modern sources.

Why The Rosetta Edition? In his lifetime, Noah Webster learned over 25 languages. Given his polyglot background, we combined Webster's name with Rosetta in honor of his contemporary Jean François Champollion, the intellectual giant in Egyptology who deciphered the three parallel inscriptions carved in hieroglyphs, demotic and Greek on the famous Rosetta Stone. Having decrypted a lost language, Champollion exposed the world to a civilization and its history. Starting from Webster's definitions, we have also tried to offer a modern Rosetta Stone which can introduce the reader to a large variety of linguistic cultures and word usage styles.

Would an infringement of any other name reek so foul?