Webster’s Third New International Dictionary

Philip B. Gove, ed.

Webster’s Third New International Dictionary

Springfield, MA

Merriam-Webster

1961

With its quirky defining style, its omission of 250,000 obsolete words (an “incredible massacre”—Dwight Macdonald) to make room for 100,000 new ones (rock ’n’ roll, schlemiel, yakety-yak), its use of celebrities rather than literary greats for evidence, and especially its refusal to label usages “incorrect,” Webster’s Third created more controversy than any other dictionary in history. In retrospect, we can see the birth of the culture wars of the 1960s: incensed traditionalists called W3 a “beatnik” dictionary. A 1962 New Yorker cartoon featured a secretary at Merriam speaking to a guest: “Sorry. Dr. Gove ain’t in.” 

Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 102