I wonder how much of this is down to the corporatisation of dictionaries. I did a quick search and it turns out that Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com are owned by Rock Holdings, a multinational conglomerate registered in the Isle of Man and controlled by Aaron Banks (one of the shadowy powers responsible for Brexit). Obviously that would have happened well after the dumbing-down process began, but it illuminates the trend.

Thanks for sharing this great piece of prose (as noted by siblings, penned by OP)

It motivated me to read a bit about Noah Webster. While this is far afield from the topic at hand now, I did find his view on abolitionism interesting, as it parallels a common modern attitude of supporting liberationist movements in principle, but resisting them insofar as they disrupt the status quo or meddle in the affairs of another country / another state:

> Initially supportive of the abolitionist movement, Webster helped found the Connecticut Society for the Abolition of Slavery in 1791. However, by the 1830's he began to disagree with the movement's arguments that Americans who did not actively oppose the institution of slavery were complicit in the system. In 1832, Webster wrote and published a history textbook titled History of the United States, which omitted any reference to the role of slavery in American history and included racist characterizations of African Americans. The textbook also "spoke of whiteness as the supreme race and declared Anglo Saxons as the only true Americans." In 1837, Webster criticized his daughter Eliza for her support for the abolitionist movement, writing that "slavery is a great sin and a general calamity—but it is not our sin, though it may prove to be a terrible calamity to us in the north. But we cannot legally interfere with the South on this subject. To come north to preach and thus disturb our peace, when we can legally do nothing to effect this object, is, in my view, highly criminal and the preachers of abolitionism deserve the penitentiary."

I'd love to read more about his daughter Eliza, but unfortunately googling permutations of her presumed name ("Elizabeth Steele Webster"? "Elizabeth Steele Greenleaf Webster"? "Elizabeth Steele Jones"?) unfortunately didn't surface a meaningful biography.

The app appears to be open source (https://github.com/ponychicken/DictUnifier) so I'll see if I can manage a patch.

Thank you for this and your wonderful article!