If you don't know whether "receive" or "recieve" is correct, look up both and see which the dictionary gives. Is "insessant" or "incessant" right? Look for both in the dictionary and see which one is given. The dictionary is an ever-present help in time of trouble to the poor speller. A well-known writer who in her school days was never able to get a higher grade than sixty per cent on spelling says, "I am still a poor speller, but I never write without a dictionary by my side, and I look up every word of which I am doubtful."

Pronunciation. — The standard of accepted pronunciation is given by the dictionary. If you are in doubt as to whether concentrate is accented on the first or the second syllable, look in the dictionary. You will frequently find two pronunciations given as correct. The first is the preferable one. How do you pronounce illustrate? dynamite? suggest? produce? Notice that the verb produce and the noun produce are pronounced differently. See what the dictionary says about these words.

Meaning. In reading we frequently come across words that we do not understand. We may be able to guess their meaning by the sense of the sentence in which they are used. This is really the best way to get the meaning, too, for it gives the word in its natural setting. We must always use words in relation to other words, for only the context brings out the true meaning and force of words. Sometimes, however, we cannot guess. Then the dictionary is our friend. But in looking up a given word in the dictionary, we shall probably find several meanings given. Our task is then to decide which meaning best fits in with the sentence in which the word is used.

Derivation. The English language is somewhat like the American people: it is made up of many foreigners. The

basis of the English language is the Anglo-Saxon, which was spoken by the early tribes who migrated from northern Germany to Britain. But the Romans had previously conquered Britain and left some Latin words. Later the Norman French invaded the islands, and replaced the Anglo-Saxon tongue for two hundred years with the French. The French language was originally based on the Latin, and the Latin, in turn, derived many words from the Greek.

When the European nations went on their crusades to the Holy Land to rescue Palestine from the Turks, they encountered Arabic-speaking nations, and through this contact added a few Arabic words to their native tongue. The discovery of America added some words of native American origin, and later wars with other countries have brought in words of Spanish, Italian, and Russian birth. So you see that in its origin the English language we speak to-day is a mixture of Anglo-Saxon, Latin, Greek, French, and many other languages.

It often helps us to understand the meaning of a word to trace it back to its origin. For example, we use the word pecuniary to-day, meaning "relating to money." The origin of this word is interesting. It comes to us from the Latin. In the early days of Rome the people were shepherds. When they wished to trade with each other they used cattle as a medium of exchange, because they had no metal money or paper money, such as we use to-day. The Latin word for cattle was pecus, and from that word came pecunia, meaning "money." So our modern word pecuniary reminds us of the old days when trade was carried on by bartering a cow or a sheep for clothing or for some other article.

The dictionary, then, gives us the origin of words. It tells us whether a word is from Anglo-Saxon. Latin. or French,

and gives us the meaning of the word in the original language from which it came.

Strictly Alphabetical Arrangement. A story is told of a man in an insane asylum who was apparently in possession of all his faculties but who insisted that he was engaged in making an index for the dictionary. Although you do not need an index for the dictionary, you need a little direction about saving time in looking up words. The first thing of importance is to learn the alphabetical order perfectly, so that you know the letters both forward and backward. Otherwise, when you want to find orifice you will not know whether o comes before or after p.

Not only are the first letters of the word arranged alphabetically in the dictionary, but the alphabetic order is carried out through all the letters of the word. Parade comes before paradise. The first five letters in the two words are the same, but e comes before i, so parade is placed first.

On the upper left-hand side of each page of the dictionary is given the first word found on that page. On the upper right-hand side is given the last word found on that page. For example, suppose you wish to find paralysis in Webster's New International Dictionary. You will look among the pa's until you come to the page marked parallel on the upper ¡left-hand corner and paramyoclonus on the upper right-hand corner. You will know that paralysis must come on this page because paraly comes after parall and before param. Reference to the index words at the top of the page is very important in saving time when you look up words.

Pronunciation. The dictionary spells out the word in parenthesis to indicate its pronunciation. After paralysis, for example, we find (pa-rǎl'i-sis). The accent mark (') indicates the syllable or part of the word that receives the

stress of the voice. English is an accented language, different in that respect from French and Greek, so that it is very important to place the accent right. We are inclined to smile at people who do not observe the usual custom in accenting their words. Instead of ho-tel', we hear people incorrectly say "ho'tel"; for ar'mi-stice we sometimes hear the incorrect "ar-mis'tice." The dictionary always gives

the accent accepted by good usage.

You have probably learned in the lower grades the diacritical marking of letters to indicate their sounds. If you have not, the dictionary places certain key words at the bottom of the page to show how various letters are pronounced. These key words in Webster's New International Dictionary are as follows:

āle, senåte, câre, ăm, ǎccount, ärm, åsk, sofa (all sounds of a)

ēve, event, end, recent, maker (all sounds of e)

ice, ill (all sounds of i)

ōld, obey, ôrb, odd, soft, connect (all sounds of o)

ūse, unite, ûrn, up, circus, menü (all sounds of u)

food, foot; out; oil; chair; go; sing, ink; then, thin; nature, verdure ch in German ich, ach

K =

bon

yet

zh = z in azure

By referring the marked pronunciation to these commonly used words you may without difficulty learn to pronounce a new word.

Notice that the short sounds of vowels, ăm, end, ill, etc., are marked with the breve (~).

The long sounds of vowels are marked with the macron(-). A long sound of a vowel in an unaccented syllable has a dot above the macron to show that it is not fully stressed: as, sĕn'åte.

A short sound of a vowel in an unaccented syllable is written in italics, as, ac-count'.

EXERCISE

Select words of whose pronunciation you are uncertain and practice looking up their pronunciation in the dictionary. Several periods devoted to this practice will give you ease in finding words.

Definitions. If a word has more than one meaning, the dictionary will indicate the different meanings by numbering them, 1, 2, etc. Suppose you have read this sentence: "His lack of education debars him from association with those who are his equals by birth." You do not know the meaning of debar, so you look it up in the dictionary. You will find this definition in Webster's New International Dictionary:1

de-bar (dē-bär′) v. t.

1. To cut off from entrance, as if by a bar or barrier; to preclude; to hinder from approach, entry, or enjoyment; to shut out or exclude; to deny or refuse; with from and sometimes with of.

Their wages were so low as to debar them, not only from the comforts but from the common decencies of civilized life. Buckle.

2. To bar; to prohibit; to forbid; to prevent.

Rare.

Here there are two meanings given. Fitting the meanings to the sentence in which you wish to use the word, you find that to shut out fits the meaning better than any other definition. The illustrative sentence given in the dictionary helps you to understand the use of the word better than a mere definition can do.

Abbreviations used in the Dictionary. You will notice that v. t. is placed after the word debar. This abbreviation stands for verb transitive. The part of speech of each word is thus indicated by the dictionary: n. stands for noun; pro. for pronoun; a. for adjective; adv. for adverb; conj. for conjunc

Published by G. and C. Merriam Company, Springfield, Mass.