The Imperial Dictionary of the English Language: A Complete Encyclopedic Lexicon, Literary, Scientific, and Technological, edited by Rev. John Ogilvie (1797–1867), was an expansion of the 1841 second edition of Noah Webster

Noah Webster

Noah Webster was an American educator, lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and prolific author...

's American Dictionary

Webster's Dictionary

Webster's Dictionary refers to the line of dictionaries first developed by Noah Webster in the early 19th century, and also to numerous unrelated dictionaries that added Webster's name just to share his prestige. The term is a genericized trademark in the U.S.A...

. It was published by W. G. Blackie and Co

Blackie and Son Limited

Blackie and Son Limited was a publishing house in Glasgow, Scotland and in London, England, from 1890 to 1991.The firm was founded in 1809 by John Blackie, snr. as a partnership with two others and was originally known as 'Blackie, Fullerton and Company'. It began printing in 1819 and was renamed...

. of Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, 1847–1850 in two large volumes.

With the addition of a third supplement volume in 1855, Ogilvie increased Webster's 70,000 word coverage to over 100,000. He included words from science

Science

Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

, technology

Technology

Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...

, and the arts

ARts

aRts, which stands for analog Real time synthesizer, is an audio framework that is no longer under development. It is best known for previously being used in KDE to simulate an analog synthesizer....

; much British usage omitted by Webster; an unusual number of provincial and Scottish words; and added quotations and encyclopedic information for many words. With over 2,000 woodcut

Woodcut

Woodcut—occasionally known as xylography—is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges...

 illustrations, it was the first significantly illustrated dictionary, setting the trend which continues today.

A revised and expanded edition by Charles Annandale

Charles Annandale

Charles Annandale was a Scottish editor, primarily of reference books.-Life:He was born at Fordoun on 26 August 1843, the son of James Annandale. He graduated M.A...

 was published in 1882 in four volumes, over 3,000 pages, with about 130,000 entries, revised definitions and etymologies, and 3,000 illustrations. Although the vocabulary coverage was small by today's standards, it was the largest English dictionary at the time. This edition went through numerous printings in various forms well into the twentieth century.

Due to disputes with the publisher of Webster's American Dictionary (G. & C. Merriam Company

Merriam-Webster

Merriam–Webster, which was originally the G. & C. Merriam Company of Springfield, Massachusetts, is an American company that publishes reference books, especially dictionaries that are descendants of Noah Webster’s An American Dictionary of the English Language .Merriam-Webster Inc. has been a...

), the American edition of the Imperial, published by The Century Company of New York

The Century Company

The Century Company was an American publishing company, founded in 1881.It was originally a subsidiary of Charles Scribner's Sons, but was bought and renamed. The magazine it had published up to that time, Scribners Monthly, was renamed The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine.The Century Company...

 in 1883, contained a copyright notice stating:

Certain owners of American copyrights having claimed that undue use of matter so protected has been made in the compilation of the Imperial Dictionary, notice is hereby given that arrangement has been made with the proprietors of such copyright matter for the sale of this work in this country. The Century Co. May 1st, 1883.

The Century Company acquired rights to Annandale's Imperial and used it as the basis for the much larger American work, the Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

Century Dictionary

The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia was one of the largest encyclopedic dictionaries of the English language. The first edition was published from 1889 to 1891 by The Century Company of New York, in six, eight, or ten volume versions in 7,046 pages with some 10,000 wood-engraved illustrations...

, published 1889–1891.

An adaptation of the Imperial by George Ogilvie

George Ogilvie

George Ogilvie is an Australian actor and film director. He was born in Goulburn, New South Wales in 1931. He directed Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome with George Miller.He was awarded the A.M...

, called Webster's Imperial Dictionary, was published in 1904, versions and revisions of which have been issued under various titles, including Webster's Universal Dictionary and Webster's Twentieth Century Dictionary.

Although superseded, the Imperial remains a much sought after favorite among collectors and dictionary lovers.