Coming up on Word Matters, the brothers Mariam.
I'm Emily Brewster,
and Word Matters is produced by Mariam Webster in collaboration with New England Public Media.
On each episode, Mariam Webster editors Amon Shea, Peter Sokolowski,
and I explore some aspect of the English language from the dictionary's vantage point.
On our previous episode, we told you the story of the man who started it all, Noah Webster.
Today, we'll introduce you to his less famous accomplices, George and Charles Merriam.
This pair of brothers transformed Noah's dictionary from a prestige purchase accessible only to the wealthy to a regular household necessity.
Here's part two of my conversation with our in-house Merriam Webster expert, Peter Sakalowski.
So this brings the Merriams into the story.
They were printers.
They had a printing shop.
in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Springfield, Massachusetts, which is where Merriam-Webster, our company, has been ever since.
Ever since.
So they opened their shop in 1831.
So they were exactly contemporary with Webster's prime years.
Webster's dictionary comes out in 1828.
The Merriams were certainly aware of it.
And there is an amazing little story here because Joseph Adams, who was the bookseller in Amherst,