One Good Reason to Look it Up

Maybe when you were a kid, you had a parent like mine who would aggressively encourage you to be independent. Asking mom the definition of a word would get you a snap response, “go look it up!” And so, you would saunter over to this giant book tucked between the massive Encyclopedia collection and look the word up.

A Websters Dictionary that used to belong to my grandmother is one of the things I treasure. The edges are worn and some of the binding is torn, repeatedly taped together.  My grandmother would use it to work her crossword puzzles in the evening upon coming home from work. A secretary her whole life, her lexicon of words was extensive.   When Grandma passed from this world the only thing, I wanted was that Webster’s Dictionary.  Because, well, it was hers, and I loved her. That is enough reason to want something that no longer has any real utility in this modern world. To those who pay attention, the things that anchor us are magnificent windows into beauty, truth, and what is good in this world.

For example, although his quotes are chiseled in marble all over Washington D.C, such as:

 “Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens”

Who exactly is  Noah Webster?  I had to do some research, because we have forgotten the great people whose shoulders we stand on as a civilization.

Known as the “Father of American Scholarship and Education” his Blue backed Speller taught five generations of Americans how to spell and read. Merriam bought the rights to his first Dictionary which is now known as the Merriam-Webster dictionary, published in 1828. A graduate of Yale college in 1778, he was a supporter of the American Revolution. As an editor for the Federalist Party Newspaper, he was passionate about establishing an intellectual foundation for American Society. He served on the Connecticut House of Representatives and wrote a highly influential pamphlet in defense of the Constitution called, “A Citizen of America.”

Now, of course, I did not reach for those old Encyclopedias to find this out, I looked this up online, because who knows where those went?  Either in a museum somewhere or a landfill!  But, it did make me realize how desperately little we know about the names of people we come into contact with each day.

And now, dear readers, if you have hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (the fear of long words) I would like to aggressively encourage you to “go look it up!”