An Abridgement of the Last Quarto Edition of Ainsworth's Dictionary, English and Latin
by Robert Ainsworth
| Ainsworth's Dictionary | ||
 at the College of William & Mary. |
||
| Author | Robert Ainsworth | |
| Edition | Precise edition unknown | |
| Desc. | 8vo | |
Robert Ainsworth was born in 1660 in the parish of Eccles, about four miles outside Manchester, England.[1] He taught school in Bolton before becoming the master of a boarding school at Bethnal Green, the first of many teaching positions in villages around London.[2] Ainsworth wrote on a number of pedagogical topics and was one of the earliest proponents of total immersion for language learning.[3]
In 1714, Ainsworth was nominated to create a new Latin and English dictionary. After various delays and obstacles, he published the first edition of Thesaurus Linguae Latinae Compendiarius, or, A Compendious Dictionary of the Latin Tongue: Designed for the Use of the British Nations in 1736.[4] He immediately began working on the second edition with the help of Dr. Samuel Patrick. Ainsworth died in 1743. The second edition, published in 1746 and revised by Patrick, became the definitive version of the work. A popular publication, editions of the dictionary or various abridgements would continue to be produced until 1882.[5]
Ainsworth designed his dictionary for use in schools and in teaching the use of both English and Latin for formal composition.[6] Ainsworth included explanations of homonyms to assist translators in the English section, as well as illustrative quotations from classical authors in the Latin section.[7] Along with its linguistic content, the dictionary features abundant supplementary information, including a historical account of Latin through the ages,[8] a list of common names and their English and Latin etymology,[9] and even a list of Latin words used in Roman law.[10] The Abridgement omits full verb declination instead focusing on a more efficient presentation of the verb form and a description of the pattern it follows.[11] The abridger made this choice for pedagogical purposes to attempt to force students to remember the declination and verb forms.[12]
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
Listed in the Jefferson Inventory of Wythe's Library as "Ainsworth's dict. Eng. Abridged. 8vo." This was one of the titles kept by Thomas Jefferson and possibly later sold to the Library of Congress in 1815.[13] Brown's Bibliography[14] lists the 1774 London edition while George Wythe's Library[15] on LibraryThing indicates "Precise edition unknown. Octavo abridgments were published in 1774, 1785, 1790, 1794, and 1798."
To date, the Wolf Law Library has been unable to locate a copy of Ainsworth's Abridgement.
See also
References
External Links
Read the third edition (1790) of this book in Google Books
- ↑ R. D. Smith, "Ainsworth, Robert (1660–1743), lexicographer and schoolmaster," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 23 Sep. 2004; Accessed October 1, 2025.
- ↑ Smith, "Ainsworth, Robert."
- ↑ Smith, "Ainsworth, Robert."
- ↑ Smith, "Ainsworth, Robert."
- ↑ Smith, "Ainsworth, Robert."
- ↑ Robert Ainsworth and Thomas Morell, An Abridgement of the Last Quarto Edition, (Charles Rivington, 1790).
- ↑ Smith, "Ainsworth, Robert."
- ↑ Robert Ainsworth, Thesaurus Linguæ Latinæ Compendiarius: Or, A Compendious Dictionary of the Latin Tongue: Designed for the Use of the British Nations, 3rd ed. (London: Printed by C. and J. Ackers, for W. Mount and T. Page...[et al.], 1751.
- ↑ Ainsworth, Thesaurus Linguæ Latinæ Compendiarius.
- ↑ Smith, "Ainsworth, Robert."
- ↑ Ainsworth and Morell, An Abridgement.
- ↑ Ainsworth and Morell, An Abridgement.
- ↑ E. Millicent Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson (Washington, D.C.: The Library of Congress, 1952-1959), 5:91 [no.4803]. Jefferson noted "Ainsworth's dict. Lat. Eng. abridged. 2.v. 8vo." in the 1815 catalogue of he books sold to the Library of Congress. Since he doesn't list Wythe's copy as a 2 volume set, Wythe's may have been one of the numerous single volume editions.
- ↑ Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, May, 2012) Microsoft Word file. Earlier edition available at: https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433.
- ↑ LibraryThing, s.v. "Member: George Wythe," accessed on May 2, 2023. LibraryThing notes "A copy of this was bound in two volumes: calf, gilt, for Jefferson by Joseph Milligan, 30 April 1808 (cost $2)." Perhaps the copy sold to the Library of Congress was Wythe's and Jefferson rebound it. See Sowerby note above.