Joseph Emerson Worcester | Biography

Joseph Emerson Worcester (24 August 1784-27 October 1865) was Noah Webster's foremost rival in the field of lexicography. After Webster's death Worcester carried on the rivalry with the firm of G. & C. Merriam for some twenty years, during which many of Worcester's ideas were adapted to the scheme of the Webster dictionaries. His most important contribution to the development of the dictionary was his introduction of the practice of carefully discriminating among words closely related in meaning. In contrast to Webster, who could not resist the temptation to reform language according to his own inspirations, Worcester saw his role as modern lexicographers do, to dispassionately and systematically gather, sift, and weigh the best available evidence from actual usage. As such, Worcester continued to influence lexicographical practice well into the twentieth century. A native of Bedford, New Hampshire, and educated at Yale, he settled in Cambridge and first applied himself to teaching and preparing texts in geography and history. By the time his first dictionary, the Comprehensive Pronouncing and Explanatory Dictionary (Boston: Hilliard, Gray) appeared in 1830, he thoroughly understood the merits and defects of his competitors, for he had not only abridged Webster's American Dictionary, but had made his own revision of Samuel Johnson's (Boston: Charles Ewer & T. H. Carter, 1827). Worcester's dictionary underwent steady refinements and improvements in subsequent editions, culminating in A Dictionary of the English Language (Boston: Hickling, Swan & Brown, 1860). The Comprehensive was an immediate success, owing as much to the avoidance of Websterian extravagancies perhaps as to its one-volume format and popular price. Because of this success, and because of Webster's less than complete satisfaction with the abridged American Dictionary, a fierce rivalry arose between the two lexicographers. Moreover, Worcester's 1846 edition was reprinted in London in 1853 with Webster's name prominently on the title page, an attempt by an unscrupulous publisher to exploit the reputation of both men. The Merriam firm took grave offense at this, and stepped up its already extensive campaign of advertising and pamphleteering. Yet this rivalry would have amounted to little had not dictionaries found an ever-expanding market in the growing public school movement. The aggressive competition for an ever-increasing market summoned up every gimmick of high pressure salesmanship. Webster ultimately prevailed with the Merriam edition of 1864. The Merriam firm had effectively institutionalized lexicography, while upon Worcester's death no successor was forth-coming. Moreover, the firm's superior commercial acumen parlayed Webster's name and authority, already known nationwide because of "The Blue-Back Speller," into a tidy profit; Webster himself had already fanned the smoldering American linguistic insecurity into a burning desire for an authoritative word book. Yet without the catalytic effect of Worcester's patient and sober scholarship, a truly modern American dictionary would have been considerably delayed.