Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition, Unabridged, 1939

[Enoch]

Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition, Unabridged, 1939.  

Isn't this by now public domain?

I suppose this has been requested before?

[Daniel Francis]

I would guess it is in PD by now but I wonder how many changes or new words there are from he 1913 edition Accordance already has? 

 

-Dan

[Λύχνις Δαν]

Based on comments in Landau's, Dictionaries, The Art and Craft of Lexicography (a great read for anyone interested in dictionaries by the way) the second and the third editions are substantially different beasts. I don't know that they would have let the copyright lapse on the second just because the third is out. They may have but it would have to be checked. My online searches were inconclusive. A link at Conrell edu (http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm) suggests that for works published between 1923 and 1963 with a copyright notice that was renewed would be public domain 95 years after publication. That would suggest by 2034 there should be no question. But if it was not renewed, and the same site says studies show renewal rates are low (about 15% for books in that study), that it could well be PD by now. A job for an expert that one.

 

All that said I think it would be nice to have the second. I have the third in print and given the loss of archaisms to a greatly expanded technical content it would be nice to have second. Of course I suspect it's use would be somewhat restricted in my case but hey I like dictionaries That said a Merriam-Webster is available on Android, and I would think IOS, though I cannot speak to what the content is. I just pinged them to see if they'll tell me.

 

Well that was interesting. In the google scans of the renewal indexes of the Catalog of Copyright Entries for 1966 July to December there is an entry for the second edition. https://books.google.com/books?id=XSUhAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA2549#v=onepage&q=New%20International%20Dictionary&f=false. Someone who really knows this would have to comment but that at least suggests a renewal was granted for copyright on the second edition in 1966. My guess is that that means 2034 is the expiry.

 

 

Thx

D (dicionary-aholic and rookie copyright searcher )

[Enoch]

Maybe my thinking is wrong, but I used to think that the old rule was that a copyright lasted 25 years with only 1 renewal possible.  I could add that I think that the M-W 2nd edition of the Collegiate Dictionary would be good.  I like it for its etymologies, and its synonym discussions.  I think that later editions dropped the synonym differentiation discussions as unreliable -- but I still like them, just as I like the old Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich use of * and ** at the end of entries, even tho I understand that they may be incorrect sometimes (the * and ** give you an indication as to how comprehensive the verse citations are; that is, when the article on a word is also supposedly a complete concordance of it in Greek for the target literature).  

[Λύχνις Δαν]

BTW, I forgot to update this thread with what M-W told me about the apps. The free and premium apps use Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition as the source. The premium one differs in offering about 20,000 foreign words and phrases, biographical and geographical entries and over 1000 more illustrations.

 

Thx

D

[Enoch]

Well, let me give you a heads up. Amazon has it listed for only $2,259.95.  But let me warn you that the added shipping charge is

$3.99.

[Λύχνις Δαν]

Yep. It was the shipping that was the deal-breaker on that one☺

 

Thx

D

[Enoch]

Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition, Unabridged, 1939.  

Isn't this by now public domain?

I suppose this has been requested before?

In considering the English word faith, for example, I find that in new dictionaries, the modern perversion of this word's meaning is established, that is, belief without evidence or contrary to evidence (gullibility, credulity).  But the Greek word pistis has no such meaning, proof being one of its meanings in BDAG.  Now I checked the ~1913 first edition of Webster's Unabridged, & found that in that edition also, that modern perversion of meaning was NOT recognized or listed.  So, I wonder if the 2nd edition adopted the modern perversion or not.

 

The definition is important to Biblical studies, as salvation is offered so many, many times in scripture just for faith or belief (with no other hoops added to jump through, as in John 3:16 & in Acts: "believe on the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved."  A modern reader might not understand what justification by faith means. Is it justification by credulity?  Are gullibility & credulity recommended virtues in the Bible?

 

The 2nd edition would give some hint as to the progress of the meaning of faith in English. Words are not static in meaning, they change over time.