A Dictionary of the First or Oldest Words in the English Language by Herbert Coleridge is a reference work of lexicography devoted to the words of its subject. It gathers and defines vocabulary for the use of students, scholars, and curious readers, reflecting the patient labor of collecting and ordering a language’s terms.
Preserved here as a free public-domain EPUB, the book is part of Better Gutenberg’s Language & Communication shelf, which gathers foundational texts in linguistics, rhetoric, etymology, and the study of languages. Whether you come to it as a scholar, a student, or a lover of words, it offers a lasting record of how earlier generations understood and described human speech.