1913 Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - online

[Revtim]

http://humanities.uchicago.edu/orgs/ARTFL/forms_unrest/webster.form.html

[matt_mcl]

From the entry “Light”:

@Light

Light was regarded formerly as consisting of material particles, or corpuscules, sent off in all directions from luminous bodies, and traversing space, in right lines, with the known velocity of about 186,300 miles per second; but it is now generally understood to consist, not in any actual transmission of particles or substance, but in the propagation of vibrations or undulations in a subtile, elastic medium, or ether, assumed to pervade all space, and to be thus set in vibratory motion by the action of luminous bodies, as the atmosphere is by sonorous bodies. This view of the nature of light is known as the undulatory or wave theory; the other, advocated by Newton (but long since abandoned), as the corpuscular, emission, or Newtonian theory. A more recent theory makes light to consist in electrical oscillations, and is known as the electro-magnetic theory of light.

[rkts]

Why is this news? They use this same dictionary on Dictionary.com. It’s also available from the Gutenberg project. And while it’s somewhat interesting to read a dictionary from 90 years ago, it has no practical use, since the language (and scientific knowledge, as matt_mcl points out) has changed.

Some of their synonym paragraphs are nice, though.

Usage: Avaricious, Covetous, Parsimonious, Penurious, Miserly, Niggardly. The avaricious eagerly grasp after it at the expense of others, though not of necessity with a design to save, since a man may be covetous and yet a spendthrift. The penurious, parsimonious, and miserly save money by disgraceful self-denial, and the niggardly by meanness in their dealing with others. We speak of persons as covetous in getting, avaricious in retaining, parsimonious in expending, penurious or miserly in modes of living, niggardly in dispensing.

This clobbers the synonym paragraphs in today’s dictionaries, which generally only restate the definition (or in the case of the little Oxford volumes, offer the only definition more specific a synonym or two).

[Bear_Nenno]

rkts, it’s not news. It’s Entertainment.

Oh, and there is no listing for airplane

[Revtim]

@rkts

And while it’s somewhat interesting to read a dictionary from 90 years ago, it has no practical use, since the language (and scientific knowledge, as matt_mcl points out) has changed.

Yeah, that’s the point. To see what’s changed over the years. Some find that interesting.

[rkts]

You Dopers sure are a snarky bunch.

I think an encyclopedia would suit your purpose better. Gutenberg has the first volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica from around the same time. That’s an interesting read.

[Revtim]

Are you sure Gutenberg has an Encyclopedia Britannica? I’ve failed to find it there.

[rkts]

Here is Gutenberg’s version – which, as I said, only has the first of the 28 volumes. A brief search brought up this website, which has all of the volumes, though it’s badly in need of editing.

Enjoy.

[Revtim]

Thanks rkts! I saw that one on Gutenberg, but since it didn’t say anything about Gutenberg or mention any date I thought it was something else.

[Una_Persson]

@rkts

A brief search brought up this website, which has all of the volumes, though it’s badly in need of editing.

…and unless I missed something big, they didn’t get any of the illustrations either.

[Bruce_Daddy]

Com*put"er (?), n. One who computes. <-- a machine which computes -->

[mike1dog]

From the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

The Afghans, inured to bloodshed from childhood, are familiar with death, and audacious in attack, but easily discouraged by failure; excessively turbulent and unsubmissive to law or discipline; apparently frank and affable in manner, especially when they hope to gain some object, but capable of the grossest brutality when that hope ceases. They are unscrupulous in perjury, treacherous, vain and insatiable, passionate in vindic-tiveness, which they will satisfy at the cost of their own lives and in the most cruel manner. Nowhere is crime committed on such trifling grounds, or with such general impunity, though when it is punished the punishment is atrocious. Among themselves the Afghans are quarrelsome, intriguing and distrustful; estrangements and affrays are of constant occurrence; the traveller conceals and misrepresents the time and direction of his journey. The Afghan is by breed and nature a bird of prey. If from habit and tradition he respects a stranger within his threshold, he yet considers it legitimate to warn a neighbor of the prey that is afoot, or even to overtake and plunder his guest after he has quitted his roof. The repression of crime and the demand of taxation he regards alike as tyranny. The Afghans are eternally boasting of their lineage, their independence and their prowess. Tliey look on the Afghans as the first of nations, and each man looks on himself as the equal of any Afghan.

[ioioio]

vitamin – no entry
penicillin – no entry

Virus - 1911

1. (Med.) (a) Contagious or poisonous matter, as of specific ulcers, the bite of snakes, etc.; – applied to organic poisons. (b) The special contagion, inappreciable to the senses and acting in exceedingly minute quantities, by which a disease is introduced into the organism and maintained there. &hand; The specific virus of diseases is now regarded as a microscopic living vegetable organism which multiplies within the body, and, either by its own action or by the associated development of a chemical poison, causes the phenomena of the special disease.
2. Fig.: Any morbid corrupting quality in intellectual or moral conditions; something that poisons the mind or the soul; as, the virus of obscene books.

Virus - 2004

1. a. Any of various simple submicroscopic parasites of plants, animals, and bacteria that often cause disease and that consist essentially of a core of RNA or DNA surrounded by a protein coat. Unable to replicate without a host cell, viruses are typically not considered living organisms.
   b. A disease caused by a virus.
2. Something that poisons one’s soul or mind: the pernicious virus of racism.
3. Computer Science. A computer virus.

Bacterium – 1911
A microscopic vegetable organism, belonging to the class Algæ, usually in the form of a jointed rodlike filament, and found in putrefying organic infusions. Bacteria are destitute of chlorophyll, and are the smallest of microscopic organisms. They are very widely diffused in nature, and multiply with marvelous rapidity, both by fission and by spores. Certain species are active agents in fermentation, while others appear to be the cause of certain infectious diseases.

Bacterium – 2004
Any of the unicellular prokaryotic microorganisms of the class Schizomycetes, which vary in terms of morphology, oxygen and nutritional requirements, and motility, and may be free-living, saprophytic, or pathogenic in plants or animals.