I was wondering if Noah Webster’s dictionary was still being published. To my surprise, I found there is even an online version of the 1828 dictionary. Also some available in print.
What Google seems to fail to note, is whether a current version is being sold. Did it morph into the Merriam-Webster one, or was that entirely different? Perhaps I missed something.
According to wikipedia, the Merriam-Webster dictionary is a direct descendant of Noah Webster’s dictionary.
Stuff you didn’t ask:
“webster’s dictionary” would technically be Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary of the American Language or its 1840 second edition It was seminal in defining words as they were used in America, which of course even then differed from English, Irish, or Australian usage.
But the term came to be genericized, with any reliable dictionary being “Webster’s” in much the same way as aspirin and band-aid transitioned from brand name to generic term. Dozens of publishers brought out “Webster’s Dictionaries” of varying quality and completeness.
Publishing rights to the actual Webster’s volumes and their ongoing revsions were bought by G. & C. Merriam and Co., which has the only real claim to be producing the successors to “Webster’s dictionary.” The term, however, is in the public domain, either never having been trademarked or the trademark having expired (I wasn’t able to find out which is true.).
Merriam also bought the rights to the name “Webster’s”. The copyright on Webster’s first dictionary, the 1806 A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, lapsed in 1834, and with it, Merriam’s rights to the name (or so ruled a Federal circuit court in G. & C. Merriam Co. v. Ogilvie, 159 Fed. 638 (1908)). The case became an oft-cited precedent in US copyright law.
The copyright on that expired long ago.
It’s available online for free, at gutenberg.org.
Along these lines, anyone can slap the name “Webster’s” on a dictionary. I do not have a cite, but it is self-evident. Miriam-Webster, however, is directly from Noah [after he released the animals ;)]