Chicago Dictionary

Etymologists are always willing to debate whether or not there is such a thing as a U. S. Language. One way of proving that American English is distinct from English English is to cite the vast number of words which have meanings and philological derivations peculiar to the U. S. Last week the University of Chicago announced that Professor Sir William Craigie, since 1901 joint-editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, had half-finished a compendium of such words, his Chicago American Dictionary, "the first historical dictionary of the American tongue." The task has already occupied him for four years. Professor Craigie, a thorough believer in the autonomy of Americanisms,* points out that "American inventiveness, coupled with the strange and rich conditions which faced pioneers on the frontier, have brought forth, in three centuries of American independence, changes in language comparable to the Elizabethan period in England."

By examining all available American publications and documents issued since the 17th Century, Professor Craigie and his corps of graduate students have culled over 400,000 quotations in which English words and phrases are used for the first time in a uniquely American sense. Among the state papers of Virginia was discovered, for example, a letter from a frontiersman in 1746 asking for permission to form a militia company for protection against the Indians. In this communication occurs the original usage of the word "back-woods." The list of Americanisms and the dates upon which they first attained their peculiar U. S. connotation, reported Professor Craigie, "already forms a basis on which a dictionary could be compiled which would present a fair conspectus of the history of American English." Samples:

A (as a mark for classwork), 1897.

Affiliate (to unite politically), 1852.

Angel-cake, 1897.

Anglophobia, 1793.

Ante (poker term), 1853.

Anti-saloon, 1888.

Applejack, 1840.

Assist (baseball term), 1891.

Early Americanisms will be gratefully received by Professor Craigie at the University of Chicago.

* "Americanism," according to Professor Craigie, occurred first in the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1797.

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