I am sorry if this is too off topic. I’m looking for advice and thought this might be the only place to go.
I homeschool my 4 kids and I need a “new” dictionary. Can anyone recommend a publication year that might be good. I do not want a dictionary that has changed definitions or added imaginary words based on woke ideologies.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
Hit up your local thrift store... people donate older dictionaries all the time. I'd look for something older than the 80's if possible.
Pre-WW2 Oxford English dictionary.
Pre-1960 would do.
Webster's 1828 dictionary is available for free online in several places.
http://webstersdictionary1828.com/
https://1828.mshaffer.com/
https://archive.org/details/americandictiona01websrich
I know it's Wikipedia, but the External Links section has a ton of links to digital versions of old dictionaries:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webster's_Dictionary#External_links
Personal anecdote: I've got an old paper dictionary from the 1970s that I don't find objectionable. People will argue that you should go earlier than that, but if you're on a budget, you don't need to break the bank.
Find a copy of Samuel Johnson's dictionary, the original English dictionary, and make learning about dictionaries and how they are written and change part of a history lesson. He was quite opinionated and it shows. Then an early Websters. Thus you will prepare the ground for their later life when they discover revisionism.
Well, you can only bubble yourself so much ... use more than one dictionary and include how each definition is a reflection of a writer and an editor who each have individual subjectivity.
It's useful to understand what other people mean when they say a word. If your kids hear other kids talking about uploading HD twerking vids, or attending an ACAB event, they'll know enough to not hang around with those other kids.
My mother has an American Collegiate dictionary from I think the 40's. Today I'm a radical libertarian-anarcho-capitalist, but using the dictionary I'm a liberal republican. Meanings have changed since then.
It is important to obtain books and encyclopaedias from before the 1940s. This will enrich your and your children's minds far more than any material post ww2. Peoples minds were so much more brilliant and comprehension levels so much higher during 1800s and early 1900s generally speaking and among those who read and studied.
I rely on a funk'n wagnel
Any old dictionary should be fine. History books too, I should think.
This. ^^^