# 'Webster's' Dictionaries. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 9, 2008, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/websters-dictionaries/440666 "2008-03-09T01:00:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2008, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/websters-dictionaries/440666/1 "2008-03-09T01:00:34Z")
I have wondered this one for a long time: Does the word “Webster’s” mean anything when put in the title of a dictionary? I know alot of dictionaries in the U.S. call themselves “Webster’s”. What does it mean? Thank you in advance to all who reply 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2008, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/websters-dictionaries/440666/2 "2008-03-09T01:04:11Z")
Miriam-Webster is a publisher that puts out the Miriam-Webster dictionaries. They bought Noah Webster’s copyrights, and consider their dictionary the [direct descendant of Webster’s work](http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/legacy.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2008, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/websters-dictionaries/440666/3 "2008-03-09T01:16:44Z")
Nonetheless, the term Webster’s is not under copyright, and anybody can put out a Webster’s Dictionary. I have a “Webster New Twentieth Century Dictionary” that is not by Mirriam-Webster. (Two r’s in Merriam.) ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2008, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/websters-dictionaries/440666/4 "2008-03-09T18:50:11Z")
From [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Websters_dictionary#The_name_.22Webster.22_used_by_others): > [@](#): > > As a result of lawsuits filed by Merriam, American courts ruled that “Webster’s” entered the public domain when the Unabridged did, in 1889 (G. & C. Merriam Co. v. Ogilvie, 159 Fed. 638 (1908)) and another court ruled in 1917 that it entered the public domain in 1834 when Noah Webster’s 1806 dictionary’s copyright lapsed. Thus, Webster’s became a genericized trademark and others were free to use the name on their own works. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2008, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/websters-dictionaries/440666/5 "2008-03-09T20:27:19Z")
The Webster in Webster’s Dictionary refers to the dictionary written in 1806 by [Noah Webster](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_Webster). It is now known as Merriam-Websters, since George and Charles Merriam bought the rights to the dictionary in 1843. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2008, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/websters-dictionaries/440666/6 "2008-03-11T03:32:47Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase] Mirriam-Webster. (Two r’s in Merriam.) [/QUOTE] And one i- it’s Merriam-Webster, not Mirriam-Webster. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2008, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/websters-dictionaries/440666/7 "2008-03-11T14:33:30Z")
[QUOTE=mobo85] And one i- it’s Merriam-Webster, not Mirriam-Webster. [/QUOTE] I figure if you write every possible variation, one of them will pass muster. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2008, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/websters-dictionaries/440666/8 "2008-03-11T15:21:27Z")
[QUOTE=Cerowyn] Miriam-Webster is a publisher that puts out the Miriam-Webster dictionaries. They bought Noah Webster’s copyrights, and consider their dictionary the [direct descendant of Webster’s work](http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/legacy.htm). [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase] Nonetheless, the term Webster’s is not under copyright, and anybody can put out a Webster’s Dictionary. I have a “Webster New Twentieth Century Dictionary” that is not by Mirriam-Webster. (Two r’s in Merriam.) [/QUOTE] Just to keep things clear, as **aldiboronti** ’s link suggests, the issue of the _copyright_ in Noah Webster’s dictionary is separate from the issue of the _trademark_ in the term “Webster.” Merriam-Webster apparently acquired the copyright interest, but not the trademark rights. And just to be nitpicky … “Webster” is a generic _term_ with reference to dictionaries. “Generic trademark” is an oxymoron. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2008, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/websters-dictionaries/440666/9 "2008-03-11T15:37:37Z")
World Publishing Company of Cleveland used to carry a line of “Webster’s New World” Dictionaries – not quite up to Merriam-Webster standards but way above Joe’s Generic File-off-the-Copyright Publishing. There were also some schlock paperback “Webster’s” dictionaries (not from World) with execrable publishing (I had one that had pages 145-172 appearing where 37-64 should have been as well as in the normal place). My impression is that the cachet of “Webster’s” has declined over the past 50 years, and only the companies that had been using it tend to continue to. (Oh, and Miriam Webster was, of course, the sister of Aaron and Moses Webster. ;)) ---
**Author:** ![PaulParkhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@PaulParkhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaulParkhead)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2008, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/websters-dictionaries/440666/10 "2008-03-11T17:07:45Z")
Could it be that the publishers use “Webster’s” to make it clear that their book is a US English dictionary, as opposed to a British/International English one? ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2008, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/websters-dictionaries/440666/11 "2008-03-12T01:42:45Z")
[QUOTE=PaulParkhead] Could it be that the publishers use “Webster’s” to make it clear that their book is a US English dictionary, as opposed to a British/International English one? [/QUOTE] Not exactly. It’s true, though that almost every US publisher of dictionaries uses the name in the title of their dictionaries. Even Random House has published a _Random House Webster’s Dictionary_. American Heritage hasn’t yet, but give them time. But it’s not that they need to distinguish them from unAmerican dictionaries, but rather that many purchasers of dictionaries are clueless as to the quality of the various dictionaries and will just buy anything with the name Webster’s in the title.