He believed English spelling rules were too complex and in his 1828 book, The American Dictionary of the English Language, he changed the spelling of words like 'colour' to 'color' and 'centre' to 'center'.
He learnt 26 languages during the time he was writing his dictionary in order to better evaluate the etymology of words.
Some of those languages included Anglo-Saxon, Gothic, German, Latin, Greek, Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch, Welsh, Russian, Hebrew, Aramaic, Persian, Arabic and Sanskrit.
During those times Americans in different parts of the country used different types of vocabulary. The also spelled, pronounced and used words differently. Webster hoped that he could standardize American speech.
Webster's dictionaries brought about a redefinition of Americanism in a time of unstable American cultural identity.
He saw language as a tool to control wayward thoughts and his American Dictionary underlined the virtues of social control over human passions and even individualism. It emphasized submission to authority, and fear of God.
After Noah's death George and Charles Merriam got the publishing and revision rights for Webster's 1840 edition of the dictionary but after a series of law suits they lost the rights to exclusively use the name "Webster". The name was then changed to Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.
