Just got a dictionary from 1867, 10 cents at a book sale.
Tell me a word and I’ll look it up for you (if it’s in there at that year)
I’ll just tell you that “Lincoln” is not on the list of biographical names because he was TOO RECENT!
Exact title? Author?
Poop.
computer
opium
whig
If you don’t mind the suggestion, how about if you pop in once a week or so and tell us some words in there that one would never hear nowadays?
snain, baseball, football(?), automobile, airplane, Hawaii
“Dope” (as in “Straight”)
Negro, Oriental, Jews
I looked up those words in a 1930 dictionary, and the definitions were quite… interesting, to say the least.
I once looked at a home medical encyclopedia from the 1950s,you wouldn’t believe some of the ideas.
If your experience is like mine writing a paper comparing a turn of the century Britannica with a modern one, nearly any word might be interesting. With the Britannica editions, there were many places where they flat out contradicted each other. Given that there’s considerable variation in definitions of modern dictionaries, going back 145 years should produce interesting results.
As samclem points out, the title and author are important.
Maybe you could chime in those discussions where other folks are reaching for modern dictionaries?
“Jackanape”
Awful, terrible, fabulous, fantastic.
“Congress”–It used to mean “sexual intercourse”.
In some ways… 
GnarlY?
Quadrumana
Ejaculate
Used to mean something wuite different…
Ejaculate
Used to mean something quite different…
Emancipation Proclamation
Moot
faggot
United States
Universe