# Merriam-Webster *American publisher of reference works; its entry for* Babbittry *is cited in one at-issue pair.* Merriam-Webster, Incorporated is a U.S. publisher of reference works, chiefly dictionaries, and is the oldest dictionary publisher in the country.[^1] George and Charles Merriam founded it in 1831 in Springfield, Massachusetts, as G & C Merriam Co. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. acquired it as a subsidiary in 1964, and it took its present corporate name in 1982.[^1] The company appears in the Minnesota record through one at-issue pair, AI-Stearns-041, which cites the dictionary's entry for *Babbittry*. The entry defines *Babbitt* as "a person and especially a business or professional man who conforms unthinkingly to prevailing middle-class standards." It traces the word to the 1922 novel *Babbitt* by [[Sinclair Lewis]].[^2] The pair treats the entry as evidence that a novel became a term of art. That reading belongs to the pair. The record does not establish any finding by the publisher, a court or an agency.[^2] ## Who In 1828 Noah Webster published *An American Dictionary of the English Language*. The work held 70,000 words, about 12,000 of them new to any dictionary, and sold 2,500 copies. A two-volume second edition followed in 1840.[^3] Webster died in 1843, and George and Charles Merriam then obtained from his estate the publishing and revision rights to the 1840 edition. They issued a revised version with added sections in 1847 and an illustrated update in 1859. Every Merriam-Webster dictionary descends from that work.[^3] The company opened its first website in 1996, offering its dictionary and thesaurus online without charge.[^4] On February 16, 2007, it announced a text-message dictionary and thesaurus service developed with Ask Me How, a mobile search provider.[^4] Its catalogue extends to specialised dictionaries, covering synonyms, usage, geography, biography, proper names, medical and sports terms, slang, and Spanish/English. It also includes titles outside lexicography such as the *Collegiate Thesaurus* and the *Manual for Writers and Editors*.[^4] Its dictionaries once used a phonetic notation of the company's own design. Unicode carried IPA symbols from version 1.1 (1993) but added the company's symbols only in version 4.0 (2003). The online services therefore render pronunciations in a reduced ASCII set.[^5] New entries rest on a citation file of recorded print usage. The file holds more than 16 million items, millions of them on 3-by-5 cards, the oldest dating from the late 19th century.[^6] Editors spend roughly an hour a day reading print sources, from books and newspapers to advertisements and product packaging. Since 2009, new entries have been recorded in an electronic database.[^6] ## In the at-issue record Pair AI-Stearns-041 has rank 41 and sits in the section *The Jurisdiction Gap & the Unrecorded Record Edition* of the project's Stearns package. It glosses "Babbittry" as "conforming unthinkingly to prevailing middle-class standards."[^2] The pair calls Lewis's book "a Stearns County novel" that became "a dictionary term for a governance failure." It sets this beside the [[Lake Wobegon effect]] associated with [[Anoka]], and describes the two as two [[Minnesota]] counties and two writers.[^2] Its anchor is a March 2025 White House presidential action on stopping waste, fraud and abuse by eliminating information silos. The pair's stated reason for that anchor is that "the term of art is the finding, entered by lexicographers."[^7] The pair rests on a single source, the merriam-webster.com entry.[^2] Its description of the term as naming a governance failure is the pair's interpretation. The entry itself supplies a definition and an etymology, not a finding.[^2] ## In the Minnesota record ### What - The entry defines *Babbitt* as "a person and especially a business or professional man who conforms unthinkingly to prevailing middle-class standards," with *Babbittry* the noun naming that practice. It gives the first known use as 1921.[^2] - The etymology reads "George F. Babbitt, character in the novel Babbitt (1922) by Sinclair Lewis."[^2] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *Merriam-Webster* (revision 1381798841, retrieved 2026-10-28) — lead: oldest U.S. dictionary publisher; 1831 founding; 1964 Britannica acquisition; 1982 name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merriam-Webster [^2]: Merriam-Webster, *Babbittry* (dictionary entry) — definition of *Babbitt* and *Babbittry*, first known use 1921, etymology from Sinclair Lewis's *Babbitt* (1922); the sole source of pair AI-Stearns-041. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/babbittry [^3]: Wikipedia contributors, *Merriam-Webster*, "History" (revision 1381798841, retrieved 2026-10-28) — Webster's 1828 and 1840 dictionaries; the Merriams' 1843 rights acquisition and the 1847 and 1859 editions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merriam-Webster [^4]: Wikipedia contributors, *Merriam-Webster*, "Services" (revision 1381798841, retrieved 2026-10-28) — 1996 website; February 16, 2007 mobile service; publication list. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merriam-Webster [^5]: Wikipedia contributors, *Merriam-Webster*, "Pronunciation guides" (revision 1381798841, retrieved 2026-10-28) — company phonetic symbols; Unicode 1.1 (1993) and 4.0 (2003); ASCII rendering online. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merriam-Webster [^6]: Wikipedia contributors, *Merriam-Webster*, "Writing entries" (revision 1381798841, retrieved 2026-10-28) — citation file of more than 16 million entries; editorial reading; electronic database since 2009. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merriam-Webster [^7]: The White House, presidential action on stopping waste, fraud and abuse by eliminating information silos (March 2025) — the anchor cited by pair AI-Stearns-041. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/stopping-waste-fraud-and-abuse-by-eliminating-information-silos/