Quoted directly from Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England by James Savage, Boston, 1860-1862: Vol I., pp xiii - xv.
ABBREVIATIONS.
By the number of more or less imperfect words, that can be not much less than three hundred thousand in these volumes, very great savings of space was expected. Caution was given me, in the Genealog. Reg. XII. 362, against the woful disfiguring that would follow, if the specimen, offered by the publishers to attract 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 times. The word freeman, or freemen, may be seen, in its new shape, freem, without offence, I hope, to the taste of the 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 recurrance 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 accident of the printer's type, or my own carlessness, 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 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 of more of these words curtailed. In the following list every word thus abbrev. may not be found, because the shortening may be a judicious reader be referred to a class comprising many, as the adverbial terminations, ly, bly, wanting after easi. 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 students 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. can hardly be mistaked, nor will the lamentation be loud, when a man's name so distinguished as that of the first Gov. or Mass. is spelled Winth. 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.
with a few dozen others, that need not 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 a compass.
THE LIST.
a. for about. easi. for easily. nam. for named. scatt. for scattering or ed. abbrev. abbreviation or ted. educ. education or ted. N. E. New England. sec. second. acc. according to. Eng. England. not. noted. serg. sergeant. acco. account. eno. enough. o. oath. sett. settlers or settler. accu. accurate. ens. ensign. O. E. Old England. serv. service or servant. adj. adjoining. ensu. ensuing. offic. official. sev. several. adm. admission or admitted. est. established. oft. often. sh. share or ship. admin. administration or tor. establ. establishment. ord. ordained. sis. sister. aft. after. exc. except. orig. origin. spell. spelling or ed. alleg. allegiance. f. father. peo. people. surg. surgeon. ano. another. fam. family. petitn. petition. sw. swear or swore. approx. approximately. fidel. fidelity. preced. preceding. syl. syllable. ar. co. artillary company. foll. following or ed. pro. probate or proved. tak. taken. ascert. ascertain or ained. freem. freeman or en. prob. probable or ly. tho. though. b. born or birth. giv. given or giving. prop. property. thot. thought. bapt. baptized or sm. gr. grand, great, grant or propound. propounded. thro. through. bec. because or became. graduate. propr. proprietors or proprietor. transcr. transcribed. bef. before. gr. f. grandfather. provis. provision. unit. uniting or ed. bot. bought or bottom. gr. mo. grandmother. pub. public. unm. unmarried. br. brother. gr. s grandson. rat. rated. var. various or variation. bur. buried. hers. herself. rec. record. w. wife. capt. captain, captured, or ivity. H.. C. Harvard College. rep. report or representative. wh. who or which. catal. catalogue. hims. himself. repud. repudiated. wks. weeks. ch. for child, children, or church. Hist. History. respectiv. respectively. wid. widow. clk. clerk. hist. historian. s. son. yr. year. 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. inhabited. contr. contract. inq. inquiry. corp. corporal. ins. 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. § shows, that the man was Governor or President.
¡ shows, that he was Deputy Governor.
± shows, that he was an Assistant, or Counsellor.
* shows, that he was a Representative.
¦ shows, that he belonged to the Acient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts.
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