Happy Birthday Noah Webster

Today is the birthday of Noah Webster (books by this author). Webster was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1758.  He published the first American dictionary in 1806. Although Samuel Johnson had published a dictionary in 1755, it reflected British spellings and language rules. Webster’s dictionary, which he began writing when he was 43 years old, the standard American English rules, spelling and pronunciation.

mwlogoToday, take your students on a tour of the online version of Webster’s dictionary: http://m-w.com and click on the links for Most Popular Tweets About Words, Word Games, Word of the Day and New Words and Slang. Of special note is the Visual Vocal Quiz–Name That Thing