Joseph Emerson Worcester - Definition and Overview

Joseph Emerson Worcester (1784 - 1865) was an American lexicographer who was the chief competitor of Webster's Dictionary in the Nineteenth Century.

Worcester compiled a gazeteer of the United States in 1818 and published an abridgement of Dr. Johnson's dictionary in 1828, the same year Noah Webster's American Dictionary appeared. In 1829, he published an abridgement of it, but unlike Webster, used London for his guide to pronunciation and opposed Webster's spelling reforms (e.g. tuf for tough, dawter for daughter). He continued to revise his dictionary until his death, but his successors, content merely to reprint the work rather than revise it, soon found it eclipsed by the industry of the G. and C. Merriam Company.