Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language [antikvár]

FOREWORD This Pocket-Size Edition of Webster's New World Dictionary has been prepared with a twofold purpose in mind. It will serve as an ade-quate reference work for those who need a useful, reliable dictionary at the lowest possible price. It will alsó serve in an important way those who already own another, larger dictionary but who, becau.se of the nature of their work or study, require a small volume that they can carry with them in pocket, purse, or briefcase. The more than 50,000 vocabulary entries in this dictionary inclu.de not only the most common terms of basic vocabulary as determined by the various word-count lists, but alsó a large number of terms in. specialized fields, selected on the basis of their frequent appearance in newspapers and other popular média. This work alsó contains a large number of idiomatic expressions, compound terms, affixes and com-bining forms, and other special entries not generally included in a dictionary of this size. In addition, there will be found here a considerable number of proper names all entered in the single alphabetical listing of the text. The geographical entries include all autonomous countries, with area and population, major cities of the world, all cities of the United States with over 100,000 population, and the most important bodies of water, mountains, and the like. The names of many important historical persons and names from literature and mythology are alsó entered here. Included alsó in the single alphabetical listing are the most common abbreviations in generál use. The defmitions in this dictionary are designed to give the most in-formation possible in the space available. The editors felt, however, that to force unnecessary cross reference or to bury an important mean-ing in an overall treatment of the word is to place an unnecessary burden upon the user of a dictionary. Consequently, all important, distinct meanings are given individual treatment. To help clarify the ways in which a particular word can be used, illustrative examples of usage are liberally included. Unusual in a pocket-size dictionary are the etymologies that are entered in brackets following the entry word. These little histories of the origin and development of words often help one to a clearer under-standing of the current meanings. The pronunciations recorded are those of General American, the speech of the great majority of the in-habitants of the United States. Variant pronunciations, often in shortened form, have been included, as space permitted. A pronuncia-tion key has been printed on every right-hand page as a further con-venience to the user. The illustrations in this dictionary were selected and designed for maximum usefulness to the reader. The largest practicable size of type was selected in a modern design to facilitate ease of reading. The lexicographical staff responsible for the preparation of this dictionary included: Supervising Associate Editor, Sámuel Solomon; Associate Editors, Thomas Layman, Clark C. Livensparger; Assistant Editors, Alan L. Cohen, Mary S. Shulman, Andrew N. Sparks; Aí-sistants, Irene T. Kauffman, Shirley M. Miller. DÁVID B. GURALNIK