''The Dictionary of Old English'' (''DOE'') is a dictionary of the

Old English language Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ce ...

, published by the Centre for Medieval Studies,

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institu ...

, under the direction of Angus Cameron, Ashley Crandell Amos, Antonette diPaolo Healey, and

Haruko Momma Haruko Momma is a philologist and a scholar of Old English literature and language. She has published on Old English poetic composition, Beowulf, philology in the nineteenth century, and teaching Old English. She is currently Professor of English ...

. It complements the ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...

''s comprehensive survey of modern English, the ''

Middle English Dictionary ''The Middle English Dictionary'' is a dictionary of Middle English published by the University of Michigan. "Its 15,000 pages offer a comprehensive analysis of lexicon and usage for the period 1175–1500, based on the analysis of a collection o ...

''s comprehensive survey of

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English ...

, and the '' Scottish Language Dictionaries'' surveys of

Scots Scots usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: * Scots language, a language of the West Germanic language family native to Scotland * Scots people, a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland * Scoti, a Latin na ...

.About the Dictionary of Old English
/ref> The dictionary is still under production. With the publication of the entries under ''I'' in September 2018, the entries for letters A-I of the 24-letter Old English alphabet have been published (though since the dictionary has no entry for ''J'' and published the two entries for ''K'' at the same time as the ''I'' entries, it has technically covered A-K, and the next letter to be published will be ''L''). The dictionary has made extensive use of digital technology, and is based on a

corpus Corpus is Latin for "body". It may refer to: Linguistics * Text corpus, in linguistics, a large and structured set of texts * Speech corpus, in linguistics, a large set of speech audio files * Corpus linguistics, a branch of linguistics Music * ...

of at least one copy of every known surviving text written in Old English.

History

Archived files of research materials from the creation of the Dictionary of Old English

The dictionary was conceived in 1968 as a replacement for the Bosworth–Toller '' Anglo-Saxon Dictionary'', which had been compiled at a time when both the study of the Old English language and lexicographical techniques were less advanced. From the outset, the editors were interested in the potential application of computer technology to the task of compiling the dictionary, and in basing the dictionary text on a corpus. A dictionary plan was published in 1973. It was originally anticipated that work on the dictionary would begin in 1976 and the dictionary would begin appearing in fascicles shortly thereafter. The first fascicle was not published until 1986, and covered words beginning with the letter D. The letter G was reached in 2008. the entries for 8 of the 24 letters of the Old English alphabet, A-H were published, with over 60% of the total entries written. The letter I was released in September 2018.

Availability

A Dictionary of Old English office, 2011

The dictionary is available in 3 formats: Publications of the ''Dictionary of Old English''
/ref>

This site offers a limited number of free searches per year, then charges apply. Registration is required.

The corpus is available in 2 formats:

The computerized corpus (old version) is available to download on request from the University of Oxford Text Archive, free for use in education and research:
''Dictionary of Old English'' Corpus in Electronic Form (DOEC)

Notes

External links

Official websiteAn animated clip highlighting Old English and the DOEA clip created by University of Toronto featuring editors and studentsIn memory of Angus CameronPut Your Own Stamp on the Dictionary of Old English
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dictionary Of Old English Old English dictionaries