Digital Durham

This Glossary is presented to provide definitions of terms appearing in the 1880 Census. The source used for the definitions is the 1870 edition of Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language.

The preface to this edition was written by Noah Porter, July, 1864. The following notes describe the conditions under which definitions were selected and included in this Glossary. It will be helpful to review the notes prior to searching for a particular definition.

Entries in the Glossary are arranged in categories relating to headings used in the form of the Census, as follows:

Census Heading	Glossary Heading
Relationship of person to the head of family	Relationships
Profession, occupation or trade	Occupations
Diseased condition of person	Medical Terms

The definitions for each entry were chosen from those offered in the Dictionary. In those cases where the Dictionary presented several definitions for a particular entry, the one or two definitions that relate directly to the Census heading were selected for inclusion in this Glossary. Other definitions were eliminated for purposes of simplification.

The main entries in each Glossary category are derived directly from the manuscript Census and are arranged in alphabetical order within the category. These entries appear on the left margin and are in bold print. As certain entries were included, it was noted that the definitions themselves sometimes contained words that, if defined, would assist in making clear the language used in the Dictionary. As a result, secondary terms and their definitions are included within an entry, each indented and introduced by the secondary term in bold.

Ex.:

Dropsy: An unnatural collection of serous fluid in any cavity of the body?.

Serous: Thin; watery; like whey?.

Each entry is included as spelled in the Census. Occasionally, the Census-taker misspelled terms consistently or perhaps incorrectly here and correct there. Where correct and incorrect spellings occurred, they are both listed. Where only incorrect spellings appeared, they are followed in the Glossary by a corrected spelling in parentheses. Ex.:

Two or more spellings used in the Census:

Measels, Measles Neice, Nice, Niece

Incorrect spelling followed by corrected:

Minengitis ( Meningitis) Pneuralgia ( Neuralgia)

Abbreviated terms appear in the Census. In these instances, the editors of the Glossary understood them to be intended as in the example below:

Phot. Artist: See Photographic Artist.

The Glossary includes several instances where multiple terms were used to described what the editors consider to be essentially the same term. This is particularly true of the "occupations" entered in the Census. In these cases, the terms as they appeared in the Census are grouped and the definitions in common are listed beneath the group. Ex:

Works on farm

Working on farm

Works at home farm laborer

Works on a farm.

In similar fashion, occupations that have a common introductory term were grouped together as in the following example:

Hotel Chambermaid

Hotel Cook

Hotell Keeper ( Hotel Keeper)

Hotel: (defined)

Chambermaid: (defined)

Cook: (defined)

Some terms appearing in the Census simply were not included in the Dictionary. In those instances, the terms have been eliminated from the Glossary. Work, Farm, Laborer.

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