^{Note 1 in page 951} The only recent discussion of this topic is the fine and readable “Survey of the History of English Synonymy” prefixed to Webster's Dictionary of Synonyms (Springfield, 1942), pp. vii–xxv, the purpose of which is “to survey broadly the course of that development from its beginnings to the present” and “to lead up to the exposition of principles which have dominated the writing of this book.” The “Survey” pays little attention to word-finding lists or to early attempts at synonymy in the English dictionary and focusses on studies of synonyms which attempt discrimination.

My article attempts a more intensive study of the early period of English synonymy (1766–1816), including the French antecedents; major and minor figures in English synonymy whether in separate studies of discriminated synonyms, word-finding lists, or general English dictionaries; and the growing interest of the public in synonyms as reflected in the reviews of the various works in contemporaneous periodicals and in then-reissues and revisions. I shall also describe and illustrate in the progress of the paper the various methods of dealing with synonyms.

Arthur G. Kennedy's Bibliography of Writings on the English Language (Cambridge, Mass., 1927), pp. 355–356, 225–232, has been an invaluable guide throughout my paper.

^{Note 2 in page 952} Œuvres Complètes de Voltaire (Paris, 1826), xxv, 140.

^{Note 3 in page 952} For more detailed discussions of the insistent demand for a literary academy, see . S. Monroe, “An English Academy,” MP, vm (July 1910), 107–122; Hermann M. Flasdieck, Der Gedanke einer englischen Sprachakademie in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart (Jena, 1928), pp. 49–143; Allen Walker Read, “Suggestions for an Academy in England in the Latter Half of the Eighteenth Century,” MP, xxxvi (Nov. 1938), 145–156.

^{Note 4 in page 953} [John Brightland's Grammar of the English Tongue (London, 1711); James Greenwood's Essay Towards a Practical English Grammar (London, 1711), and Michael Maittaire's English Grammar (London, 1712). For discussions of 18th-century grammars, see W. F. Bryan, “Notes on the Founders of Prescriptive English Grammar,” Manly Anniversary Studies (Chicago, 1923), pp. 383–393; Charles C. Fries, “The Rules of Common School Grammars,” PMLA, XLII (1927), 221–237; and G. L. Kittredge, Some Landmarks in the History of English Grammar (Boston, 1906). On the development of dictionaries in the first half of the 18th century, see D. T. Starnes and G. E. Noyes, The English Dictionary from Cawdrey to Johnson (Chapel Hill, 1946), pp. 69–196.

^{Note 5 in page 953} Joseph Priestley's Rudiments of English Grammar (London, 1761); Robert Lowth's Short Introduction to English Grammar (London, 1762); George Campbell's Philosophy of Rhetoric (London, 1776); Hugh Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres (London, 1783); Lindley Murray's English Grammar (York, 1795, and Boston, 1800). Fries (see n. 4), p. 221, notes that there were more than 200 editions of the last-mentioned work in England and America in the 19th century. Campbell discusses improprieties and makes distinctions between certain commonly confused words (pp. 457–465), but Blair exerted much more influence on early synonymists. The date of publication of his Lectures is deceptive, as they had been delivered from 1760 on at the Univ. of Edinburgh and students' notes had been widely circulated. Blair not only called for a study of synonyms before Truster's pioneer attempt but offered several careful distinctions between apparently synonymous words (Lectures, i, 195–202) which were much studied and used by synonymists, notably Truster.

^{Note 6 in page 953} The first edition appeared anonymously, but the second identified the author. On the varied career of “the Rev. Dr. John Truster” see DNB and the Biographical Note by S. M. in The Art of Carving [by John Truster] (New York, 1932). The descriptive part of the title page of the first English book of synonyms may be of interest: THE DIFFERENCE, BETWEEN WORDS, esteemed SYNONYMOUS, THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE; And, the Proper CHOICE of them determined: TOGETHER WITH, SO much of Abbé GIRARD'S Treatise, on this Subject, as would agree, with our Mode of Expression. Useful, to all, who would, either, write or speak, with PROPRIETY, and, ELEGANCE.

^{Note 7 in page 955} Girard, op. cit., called after the first edition Synonymes François (Paris, 1741), pp. 319–320; Trusler (London, 1766), i, 182–183.

^{Note 8 in page 955} Other original Trusler items are Religion and Persuasion, Ale-house and Public-house, Grot and Grotto, Betwixt and Between, etc.

^{Note 9 in page 955} xxi (London, 1766), 409. Truster's work fared no better in the Monthly Review, xxxii (London, 1766), 150, where, after ridiculing his distinction between Honour and Glory, the reviewer concluded, “Indeed, Sir I we are afraid that you will acquire very little GLORY by this strange, desultory, ill-digested publication.

^{Note 10 in page 956} BRITISH SYNONYMY; OR, AN ATTEMPT AT REGULATING THE CHOICE OF WORDS IN FAMILIAR CONVERSATION, INSCRIBED, With Sentiments of Gratitude and Respect, to such of her Foreign Friends as have made English Literature their peculiar Study, By HESTER LYNCH PIOZZI.

^{Note 11 in page 957} James L. Clifford, Hester Lynch Piozzi (Mrs. Thrale) (Oxford, 1941), p. 371, notes that Johnson is “mentioned fifty times ... and eighteen of the references occur in original anecdotes.”

^{Note 12 in page 957} Thraliana, The Diary of Mrs. Hester Lynch Thrale (Later Mrs. Piozzi) 1776–1809, ed, K. C. Balderston (Oxford, 1942), ii, 905: “Denbigh 2:Jan: 1795 My Synonymes have been review'd at last—the Critics are all civil for aught I see, & nearly just, except when they say that Johnson left some Fragments of a Work upon Synonymy—of which God knows I never heard till now one Syllable, nor had he and I in all the Time we lived together, any Conversation upon the Subject.” A letter to Queeney (Clifford, pp. 372–373) gives further information: “You may perhaps recollect Your Father's partiality for Abbé Girard's Work, ... I have thought a Thousand Times how he would have been pleased with the Performance, but Johnson had never one Thought upon't I'm very sure.”

^{Note 13 in page 958} William Gifford, ed. The Baviad, and Maeviad (1797), p. viii, added a footnote about the British Synonymy: “To execute it [such a work] with any tolerable degree of success, requires a rare combination of talents, among the least of which may be numbered neatness of style, acuteness of perception, and a more than common accuracy of discrimination; and Mrs. Piozzi brought to the task, a jargon long since become proverbial for its vulgarity, an utter incapability of denning a single term in the language, and just as much Latin from a child's Syntax, as sufficed to expose the ignorance which she so anxiously labours to conceal. ‘If such a one be fit to write on SYNONHTES, speak’.” Walpole in his letters to Miss Mary Berry dated 11 Nov. 1793 and 17 April 1794 (Horace Walpole's Correspondence, ed. W. S. Lewis and A. D. Wallace [New Haven, 1944], ii, 59, 92–93) commented acidly, “Here and there she does not want parts, has some good translations and stories that are new,. . . but dashed with her cruel vulgarisms.” Boswell's Life from the third edition (1799) carried an unflattering reference, apparently added by Boswell in the MS. but not reaching print until after his death, to “a Book which she entitles ‘British Synonymy,‘ but which is truly a collection of entertaining remarks and stories no matter whether accurate or not” (Hill-Powell ed., Oxford, 1934, iv, 412).

^{Note 14 in page 958} Europ. Mag., xxv (London, 1794), 361–362; Crit. Rev., xii (London, 1795), 121–128; Monthly Rev., xv (London, 1794), 241–251, 371–380, 480. Dodsley's Annual Register for 1794 also printed extracts from the work.

^{Note 15 in page 959} Op. cit. (see n. 11), p. 374.

^{Note 16 in page 960} On Taylor's life and works see J. W. Robberds, A Memoir of the Life and Writings of the Late William Taylor of Norwich (London, 1843), well reviewed in British and Foreign Review, No. 33, xvii (1844), 214 ff.; and Georg Herzfeld, Wm. Taylor von Norwich: Eine Sludie tiber den Einfluss der neueren deutschen Lilteratur in England (Halle, 1897).

^{Note 17 in page 961} Truster, op. cit. (this item new in the 1783 edition), p. 5; Taylor (1813), p. 53.

^{Note 18 in page 961} Truster (1783), p. 7; Taylor (1813), pp. 61–64; Piozzi, ii, 369–375.

^{Note 19 in page 962} Instead of alphabetical order, Trusler and Taylor offered indexes. Mrs. Piozzi arranged her work alphabetically by the first word in each group but did not give cross references to the other words or make any consistent effort to place first in the group the word of most general meaning or commonest use. Her work, however, was obviously intended for consecutive reading. In some subsequent editions Crabb abandoned alphabetical order as requiring too much space for cross references, but he returned to it ultimately.

^{Note 20 in page 963} lxxviii (1815), 313–317, rev. of Taylor; lxxxviii (1819), 335–336, rev. of Crabb with some reference to Taylor.

^{Note 21 in page 964} xxxv (1827), 403–119, rev. of Taylor's 1813 and Crabb's 1824 editions. This article is attributed by M. F. Brightfield to G. Taylor in “Lockhart's Quarterly Contributors,” PMLA, Lix (1944), 492.

^{Note 22 in page 964} Certain works bearing some relation to synonymy but not belonging in the main line of development may be briefly described here. The first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (London, 1773) in its article, “Dictionary of the English Language,” criticizes Johnson's Dictionary for not “exhibiting the nice distinctions that take place between words which are nearly synonymous” and gives many sample definitions including such distinctions. The Literary Magazine, iv (Philadelphia, July–Dec. 1805), 339–340, and v (Jan.–June 1806), 128–131, carries a brief history of synonymy and several sample distinctions, which because of similarity in content, phrasing, and method seem to have been written by William Taylor. John Murdoch's Dictionary of Distinctions (London, 1811) deals mainly with homonyms and has no connection with synonymy.

Several small works intended for school use and now rare may also be mentioned. George H. Poppleton's Dictionnaire de Synonymes Anglais, Expliqués par des Synonymes Français (2nd éd., Paris, 1812, copy in Univ. of Michigan Library) is a simple guide for French pupils written in French. David Davidson's Arrangement of English Grammar (Edinburgh, 1815, copy in Brit. Mus.) contains a collection of synonyms on pp. 282–302. The following will illustrate the limited nature of the treatment: “To give, To present, To offer. To give is familiar. To present, is respectable. To offer, is sometimes religious. We give to inferiors, or to equals. We present to superiors. We offer to God.” Two other works intended for school use but of somewhat more ambitious and original nature appeared after Crabb and hence are beyond the scope of this article: A Dictionary of English Synonymes by the Rev. John Platts (“new edition,” London, 1845), and The Writer's and Student's Assistant (2nd ed., London, 1832; others in 1835 and 1836), attributed to John H. Brady.

^{Note 23 in page 965} Distinction pointed out by G. H. Howison in his Preface to New Edition, Soule (Boston, 1906), pp. iii–iv.

^{Note 24 in page 966} This item stems from Girard.

^{Note 25 in page 966} LII (London, 1775), 473–475.

^{Note 26 in page 967} The descriptive part of the title page runs às follows: Dhilologia Anglieana: or, a PHILOLOGICAL AND SYNONYMICAL DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE; I WHICH THE WORDS ARE DEDUCED FROM THEIR ORIGINALS—THEIR SENSE DEFINED—AND THE SAME ILLUSTRATED AND SUPPORTED BY PROPER EXAMPLES AND NOTES, CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY.

^{Note 27 in page 968} xxxvi (London, 1811), 400–405.

^{Note 28 in page 969} A sample item follows: “To abhor, imports simply strong dislike; to detest, imports also strong disapprobation. One abhors being in debt; he detests treachery. Blair, Lectures, vol. i, p. 230.”

^{Note 29 in page 970} On the rival Webster and Worcester dictionaries, information is available in Robert K. Leavitt's Noah's Ark, a centennial publication of the Merriam Company (Springfield, 1947). 30 “Projected English Dictionaries, 1755–1828,” JEGP, xxxvi (1937), 188–205.