How one Webster dictionary defined ‘Negro’ in the 1950s

The big hunk of a dictionary was resting on the auction table like a giant paperweight. From the look of it, I could tell that it was ancient. So I wondered how this old storehouse of American language defined me and my ancestors during that period.

On the cover was the title: “Webster’s Unabridged – Encyclopedic Dictionary.” I opened its thick cover to a page that held the same title with a few more details, including several editors associated with Webster’s New American Dictionary, and the publisher Educational Book Guild Inc. of New York.

The editors offered a caveat: The dictionary was not produced by the “original publishers of Webster’s dictionary,” so I assumed it was not a true Merriam-Webster product. I could find nothing about the Educational Book Guild on the web except for some reference books that it published.

Although I could find no publication date inside the dictionary, I learned later that it was released in 1957.

The tabbed dictionary – which likely once commanded its own pedestal because of its bulk – was a fount of history. I turned to the N’s and looked for the word “Negro.” This was an old book, and I was certain that it did not contain the term “African American.”

The entry began with the bodily features of Negroes, describing them in comparison to Europeans – skin color, hair texture, lip size and nose shape. It went on to say that Negroes were native to Africa where the term applied to “the Bantu stock of the s., and the people of the central and w. area near the Gulf of Guinea.”

“In their present natural state, most Afr. Negroes live a semi-settled life in communities, engage in primitive agric. or in pastoral herding, and have simple handicrafts. In the past, large Negro states and presumably more advanced cultures have flourished, esp. in n. central Afr. where they first may have been the Nubians in the 2nd cent. B.C.”

“Negro society everywhere in Afr. (except Liberia) came under the control of Eur. nations in the 19^th century. Under colonial rule a small, but growing, minority of Afr. Negroes has been able to acquire Eur. edu. and civiliz. Continuing into the 19^th cent., the main traffic in slaves resulted in the growth of large Negro populations in Arabia and the Middle East and in N. and S. America. See Slavery.”

I didn’t search for slavery and questioned some of the dictionary’s history of the continent. My interest was instead piqued by an entry just below this one titled “Negro music.” I was curious about what was written, so I kept reading. The entry defined the music as spirituals, folk songs, ballads, blues, work songs and ragtime – all the music that it said preceded jazz.

“Negro music originated on the plantations, in the meeting-houses, at camp meetings, in fields, and cabins as the slaves worked, prayed, laughed or suffered. Many composers have used Negro themes in their music. Among them, Dvorak, New World Symphony, Henry Franklin Belknap Gilbert, and John Powell. Arrangements of the spirituals have been made by Henry T. Burleigh and Rosamond Johnson. Paul Robeson and Roland Hayes are famous Negro singers, especially noted for their interpretations of the spirituals.”

The last two words in the dictionary with Negro as the prefix were negrophile, someone who was friendly to African Americans, and negrophobe, someone who was not.

I’m sure the dictionary also carried the N-word, but it never occurred to me to look for it. It’s not part of my vocabulary so it rarely enters my head.

But the word did produce some controversy in 1997 after the NAACP requested that Merriam-Webster change its definition. The dictionary editors had defined it as a black person. The NAACP and two women who had looked up the word and complained noted that it was used as a derogatory term for African Americans, not a word that defined them.

Merriam-Webster said dictionaries reflected the language of a given period and included ugly words.

“We have tried to make clear that the use of this word as a racial slur is abhorrent to us, but it is nonetheless part of the language, and as such, it is our duty as dictionary-makers to report on it,” a dictionary official told the Baltimore Sun newspaper. “To do less would simply mislead people by creating the false impression that racial slurs are no longer a part of our culture; and that, tragically, is not the case.”

A year later, after a review, the dictionary publisher decided to revise how it presented slurs, placing an italicized warning at the beginning of the definition to note that the word was offensive.

The dictionary at auction apparently was not a Merriam-Webster. It was likely produced by one of the many publishing companies using the Webster name. Apparently, near the turn of the 19^th century and into the early 20^th century, legal questions regarding copyright and trademark of the name led to other publishers using it to sell dictionaries.

In 1982 G. & C. Merriam Co. changed its name to Merriam-Webster Inc. to distinguish itself. Since 1964, it has been a subsidiary of Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Although its dictionaries are common, Merriam-Webster was not the first to publish them. The British published dictionaries in the 18^th century and others way before then. The first American unabridged dictionary was compiled by Noah Webster in 1806. His grandest was the “American Dictionary of the English Language” published in 1828 with 70,000 entries. It had taken him 22 years to complete, and he was 70 years old.

Webster documented such American terms as skunk, hickory and chowder, and suggested changing what he considered confusing English words such as musick (music), centre (center) and plough (plow). He also wanted to change the words tongue to tung and women to wimmen but those suggestions were not accepted.

After Webster’s death in 1843, G. & C. Merriam bought unsold copies of the 1841 edition of his famous dictionary and obtained the rights to publish revised editions.