For those who haven't read the blog post yet, it also includes an archive.org link to the out-of-copyright 1913 Websters, and ways to install it on Mac, iPhone, Android, and Kindle.
Where the blog post compares the very different definitions of "pathos" in 1913 Webster's & 2010 New Oxford American, I'm reminded of Orwell's "Principles Of Newspeak" appendix at the end of Nineteen Eighty-Four. The appendix imagines how the definitions of words kept being further narrowed until the final Eleventh Edition of the Newspeak Dictionary, to diminish the range of possible thought.
Agreed that the UI on the present iOS app is less than ideal. That said easy mobile access to those sublime definitions is super helpful. Gratitude to the dev.
Will definitely be using Wordnote (great work!) and I echo the wish that the 1913 Webster's be incorporated somehow.
Which one do you use? I think there might be a few that use 1913 Webster's. I use this one [1]. It could be a lot better, but it works.
[1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/websters-writers-dictionary/id...
In case you’ve never read it, this 2014 blog post is an all time favourite of mine. It really opened up my thinking about words and definitions:
You’re probably using the wrong dictionary - http://jsomers.net/blog/dictionary
Ever since reading that, I have tended to use the 1913 Webster’s as my primary dictionary, supplemented by various modern ones where necessary. I found an acceptable iOS app for it - the UI is not good, but at least it has those shimmering definitions.
My dream would be if you could make a version of Wordnote that uses 1913 Webster’s as a dataset.