A Vocabulary, or Collection of words and phrases which have been supposed to be peculiar to the United States of America. To which is prefixed an essay on the present state of the English language in the United States
Boston: Cummings and Hilliard, 1816. Very Good. Item #14819
Boston: Cummings and Hilliard, 1816. First Separate Edition, "with corrections and additions." Octavo; publisher's plain paper over blue paper-covered boards, titling printed directly to spine ("Pickering's Vocabulary"); vii,[8]-206pp. Extremities scuffed with small loss to bottom fore-edge of upper cover, two small dampspots to the same, small loss mid-spine affecting the "V" in "Vocabulary," endpapers quite toned, contemporary ownership signature to front free endpaper and 20th-century ownership rubberstamp to front pastedown. A Very Good copy in the original binding, textblock pleasingly untrimmed. Collated complete.
The first published dictionary of "Americanisms," defined here (quoting Dr. Witherspoon) as "an use of phrases or terms, or construction of sentences, even among persons of rank and education [in America] different from the use of the same terms or phrases, or the construction of similar sentences in Great Britain" (p. 32). Some familiar (and not-so-familiar) words in use by Americans in 1816: book-store, chore, tidy, folks, gawky, factory, links (as in sausage), moccason, pappoose, meadow, prairie, quackle (to choke or suffocate), and the sadly obsolete happifying.
An abbreviated version of this collection first appeared in the memoirs of the American Academy of Art and Sciences. This separately published volume includes a supplementary list on pp. [196]-206 and errata on p. [207].
[AMERICAN IMPRINTS 38631; SABIN 62638].
Price: $750.00