Savage New England Register, Abbreviations

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[[vol.1, xii (blank)]]

[[xiii]] A B B R E V I A T I O N S.

BY the number of more or less imperfect words, that can be not much less than three hundred thousand in these volumes, very great saving, of space was expected. Caution was given me, in the Genealog. Reg. XII. 362 against the woeful disfiguring that would follow, if the specimen, offered by the publishers toattract subscribers, were to be taken for a sample. As most of these curtailments were common however in similar works, I dared to adhere to the plan, which has not,perhaps, repelled a dozen patrons; and even enlarged my list by addition of one that would occur about two thousand limes. The word freeman, or freemen, may be seen, in its new shape, freem. without offence, I hope, to the taste of any subscriber. Familiar to all readers must be the short form given to our names of the months, nine in twelve, only May, June, and July having their whole beauty; and yet of these nine words the recurrence would probably show the mutilations on my pages to be fifteen or twenty thousand. Titles are always permitted even in other books to appear in brief, as Gov. or Esq. and when rep. may stand for representative, most who turn over a dictionary of this sort will approve the economy. It may happen that, by the accident of the printer's type, or my own carelessness, some word may be abbreviated that had better been printed in full, yet I submit, that the page will be seldom disfigured by such liberty, and probably the reader would not change more than once in five hundred examples. Confusion will not be caused so often as that, I hope; but if a pause be necessary, we all feel the same thing in turning to an English dictionary for definition of words only. Nobody reads continuously from page to page, even in the affluent vocabulary of Johnson; and when a sincere desire to verify a genealogy, or ascertain a special relationship, is felt, the time will not be grudgingly reckoned, if a sentence be not printed out in every word, but with one third or more of those words curtailed. In the following list every word thus abbrev. may not be found, because the shortening may by a judicious reader be referred to: class comprising many, as the adverbial terminations, ly, bly, wanting after casi. And honora.; or the perfect tense or participles of verbs, ed; or in substantives, er and ent.; or in either part of speech, ensu. mak. preced. and tak. without ing or en. For many having, different meanings, as ch. for child, or children, or church; d. for death, died, or daughter; gr. for grand, great, grant, or graduate; mo. for mother or month, the one intended may be trusted to the student's sagacity.

But occasions of error in names of men or women I have scrupulously avoided, so that only one surname can be seen in my pages to be abbrev. and but a single name of bapt. Eliz. [[about 1696 occurrences in vol. 1, filled out by RAK for clarity]] can hardly be mistaken, nor will the lamentation be loud, when a man's name so distinguished as that of the

first Gov. of Mass. is spelled Winth. [[filled out in vol. 1 by RAK, about 88 times]]. Geographical designations are forever meeting our eyes in briefer form than the legal one; and he has poor supply of current letters that requires to be told what shires in Eng. are meant by Bucks, Herts, or Notts.

[[xiv]] THE LIST
a. = about.	easi. = easily.
abbrev. = abbreviation or ted	educ. = education or ted.
acc. = according to.	Eng. = England.
acco. = account.	eno. = enough.
accu. = accurate.	ens. = ensign.
adj. = adjoining.	ensu. = ensuing.
adm. = admission or admitted.	est. = estate.
admin. = administration or tor.	establ. = establishment.
aft. = after.	exc. = except.
alleg. = allegance.	f. = father.
ano. = another.	fam. = family.
approx. = approximately.	fidel. = fidelity.
ar. co. = artillery company.	foll. = following or ed.
ascert. = ascertain or ained.	freem. = freeman or en.
b. = born or birth.	giv. = given or giving
bapt. = baptized or sm.	gr. = grand,great,grant or graduate.
bec. = because or became.	bef. = before.
gr.f. = grandfather.	bot. = bought or bottom.
gr.mo. = grandmother	br. = brother.
gr.s. = grandson.	bur. = buried.
hers.= herself	capt. = captain, captured, or ivity.
H. C. = Harvard College.	catal. = catalogue.
hims. = himself.	ch. = child, children, or church.
Hist. = History.	clk. = clerk.
hist. = historian.	Co. = County.
hon. = honorable.	Col. = Colony or Colonel.
honor. = honorary.	Coll. = College or Collections.
honora. = honorably.	comp. = company.
ign. = ignorant.	confer. = conferred.
Ind. = Indians.	conject. = conjecture.
inf. = infant or informed.	cont. = continued.
inhab. = inhabitant.	contr. = contract.
inq. = inquiry.	orp. = corporal.
cins. = insert.	couns. = counsellor.
inv. = inventory.	cous. = cousin.
judic. = judicial or judicious.	coven. = covenant.
k. = killed or king.	ct. = court.
kn. = known.	d. = died, death, or daughter.
ld. = land.	Dart. = Dartmouth College.
lieut. = lieutenant.	deac. = deacon.
liv. = lived or ing.	decis. = decision.
m. = married or age.	degr. = degree.
maj. = major.	devis. = devised.
mak. = making.	discip. = discipline.
ment. = mentioned.	div. = division or divided.
milit. = military.	docum. = document.
min. = minister.	ds. = deaths or daughters.
mo. = mother or month.	nam. = named.
scatt. = scattering or ed.	N. E. = New England.
sec. = second.	not. = noted.
serb. = sergeant.	o. = oath.
sett. = settlers or settler.	O. E. = Old England.
serv. = service or servant	offic. = official.
sev. = several.	oft. = often.
sh. = share or ship	ord. = ordained.
sis. = sister.	orig. = origin.
spell. = spelling or ed.	peo. = people.
surg. = surgeon.	petitn. = petition.
sw. = swear or swore.	preced. = preceding.
syl. = syllable.	pro. = probate or proved.
tak. = taken.	prob. = probable or ly.
tho. = though.	prop. = property.
thot. = thought.	propound. = propounded.
thro. = through.	propr. = proprietors or proprietor.
transcr. = transcribed.	provis. = provision.
unit. = uniting or ed.	pub. = public.
unm. = unmarried.	rat. = rated.
var. = various or variation.	rec. = record.
w. = wife.	rep. = report or representative.
wh.= who or which.	repud. = repudiated.
wks. = weeks.	respectiv.= respectively.
wid. = widow.	s. = son or sons.
yr. = year.
with a few dozen others, that need not to be particularly mentioned, as the reader, without a compliment, may be presumed to supply meaning for himself to marks of frequent use, like points of the compass. [[from preface to vol. 3]]

Often I have been desired to explain the marks, as *, and others, set before the baptismal names in so many instances. They are exactly copied from Farmer's Register, and seemed to me appropriate. They are hereunder described.
[[knotted # symbol]]	shows, that the man was Governor or President.
[[dagger symbol]]	shows, that he was Deputy Governor.
[[vertical double plus]]	shows, that he was an Assistant, or Counsellor.
[[* = asterisk]]	shows, that he was a Representative.
[[\|\| = double vertical bar]]	shows that he belonged to the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts.
[[NOTE: the electronic text does not include most of the above.]]

November 2000

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