Today is Daniel Websters 250th Birthday.

Like every other living thing, words evolve.

I remember when Hijack and Skyjack

entered the dictionary.

There are so many others since that time.  However,

two words I hope  never enter the scrolls. 

One is “Foodies” and the other  “Sammies”. 

I’ve been rather giving when people say,  “Sliders”

and “Sides”.  However Foodies and

Sammies?  It’s cute when an 8 year old says it….

and then ………..no. 

I subscribe to Anu Garg’s Word A Day at Wordsmith.org…….

Webster is their main guy…the finest Word Smith of them all.

2)

Today when we spell the word “color” instead of “colour” we can thank a crotchety, humorless man for saving wear on our fingers, not to mention savings on paper and those obscenely expensive inkjet printer cartridges. Oct 16 marks the 250th birth anniversary of Noah Webster (1758-1843), lexicographer extraordinaire, who compiled the American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), the first authoritative lexicon of American English.

Webster believed in establishing cultural independence from Britain and as such he emphasized a distinct American spelling and pronunciation. His dictionary listed various unusual and shortened spellings of words. He would hardly have imagined how the tide would turn one day. According to reports, more British children today spell “color” instead of “colour”, for example. Webster’s suggestion of using “tung” instead of “tongue” didn’t stick, though.

Today Webster’s name is synonymous with dictionaries and the date of his birth is observed as Dictionary Day. In his honor, this week we’ll present words about words. As Webster said,