Word Origin Atlas

Exact historical dictionary sense

Culture in Webster's 1913 dictionary

The 1913 record labels culture as noun. Its source-bounded etymology and selected historical definition appear below.

WEBSTER 1913noun
Culture

[F. culture, L. cultura, fr. colere to till, cultivate; of uncertain origin. Cf. Colony.]

Cross-verified historical sense
The source text may be outdated. The page preserves that historical boundary.
Cross-verified 1913 record
Headwordculture
Part of speechnoun
Historical etymology[F. culture, L. cultura, fr. colere to till, cultivate; of uncertain origin. Cf. Colony.]
Selected historical definitionThe act or practice of cultivating, or of preparing the earth for seed and raising crops by tillage; as, the culture of the soil.
Signed record IDwebster1913-culture-noun-eb9aa6dde9a8
Source locatorCIDE.C, paragraph 22317; Gutenberg eBook 661
Edition-scoped answerNot earliest-attestation proofNot modern consensus
Independent historical textProject Gutenberg section 661Signed structural record sourceGNU GCIDE 0.54 archive
Quick answer

In Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), "culture" is labeled noun. Its etymology is recorded as: "[F. culture, L. cultura, fr. colere to till, cultivate; of uncertain origin. Cf. Colony.]" The selected historical definition says: "The act or practice of cultivating, or of preparing the earth for seed and raising crops by tillage; as, the culture of the soil."

Project Gutenberg Webster 1913 plus signed GNU GCIDE 0.54 Exact cross-verified historical record reviewed 2026-10-04

What this answer proves

One named sense in one historical dictionary edition.

The answer reports the selected headword, part of speech, etymology, definition, and source locator as transcribed in the cross-verified 1913 record.

Evidence boundaryIt does not establish the earliest attestation or a complete borrowing chain.It does not claim current scholarly consensus or a modern dictionary definition.Historical dictionary text may be obsolete, incomplete, inaccurate, or offensive by modern standards.

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Change

[F. change, fr. changer. See Change. v. t.]

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Came

[Cf. Scot. came, caim, comb, and OE. camet silver.]

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Course

[F. cours, course, L. cursus, fr. currere to run. See Current.]

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