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A dictionary is a listing of
lexemes from the
lexicon of one or more specific
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...
s, often arranged
alphabetically
Alphabetical order is a system whereby character strings are placed in order based on the position of the characters in the conventional ordering of an alphabet. It is one of the methods of collation. In mathematics, a lexicographical order is t ...
(or by
radical and stroke for
ideographic
An ideogram or ideograph (from Greek "idea" and "to write") is a graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept, independent of any particular language, and specific words or phrases. Some ideograms are comprehensible only by familiari ...
languages), which may include information on
definitions, usage,
etymologies,
pronunciation
Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken. This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or language in a specific dialect ("correct pronunciation") or simply the way a particular ...
s, translation, etc.
[Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition, 2002] It is a
lexicographical
Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries.
* Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries.
* Theoreti ...
reference that shows inter-relationships among the data.
A broad distinction is made between general and
specialized dictionaries
A specialized dictionary is a dictionary that covers a relatively restricted set of phenomena. The definitive book on the subject (Cowie 2009) includes chapters on some of the dictionaries included below:
*synonyms
*pronunciations
*names (place na ...
. Specialized dictionaries include words in specialist fields, rather than a complete range of words in the language. Lexical items that describe concepts in specific fields are usually called terms instead of words, although there is no consensus whether
lexicology and
terminology
Terminology is a group of specialized words and respective meanings in a particular field, and also the study of such terms and their use; the latter meaning is also known as terminology science. A ''term'' is a word, compound word, or multi-wo ...
are two different fields of study. In theory, general dictionaries are supposed to be
semasiological
Semasiology (from el, σημασία, ', "signification") is a discipline of linguistics concerned with the question "what does the word ''X'' mean?". It studies the meaning of words regardless how they are pronounced. It is the opposite of on ...
, mapping word to
definition, while specialized dictionaries are supposed to be
onomasiological, first identifying
concept
Concepts are defined as abstract ideas. They are understood to be the fundamental building blocks of the concept behind principles, thoughts and beliefs.
They play an important role in all aspects of cognition. As such, concepts are studied by ...
s and then establishing the terms used to designate them. In practice, the two approaches are used for both types.
[A Practical Guide to Lexicography, Sterkenburg 2003, pp. 155–157] There are other types of dictionaries that do not fit neatly into the above distinction, for instance
bilingual (translation) dictionaries, dictionaries of
synonyms (
thesauri
A thesaurus (plural ''thesauri'' or ''thesauruses'') or synonym dictionary is a reference work for finding synonyms and sometimes antonyms of words. They are often used by writers to help find the best word to express an idea:
Synonym dictionar ...
), and
rhyming
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually, the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic ...
dictionaries. The word dictionary (unqualified) is usually understood to refer to a general purpose
monolingual dictionary
An explanatory dictionary or defining dictionary is a dictionary that provides definitions of word meanings at its entries. It may give additional information on pronunciation, grammar, etymology
Etymology () The New Oxford Dictionary of Eng ...
.
[A Practical Guide to Lexicography, Sterkenburg 2003, pp. 3–4]
There is also a contrast between
''prescriptive'' or ''descriptive'' dictionaries; the former reflect what is seen as correct use of the language while the latter reflect recorded actual use. Stylistic indications (e.g. "informal" or "vulgar") in many modern dictionaries are also considered by some to be less than objectively descriptive.
The first recorded dictionaries date back to
Sumerian times around 2300 BCE, in the form of bilingual dictionaries, and the oldest surviving monolingual dictionaries are
Chinese dictionaries
Chinese dictionaries date back over two millennia to the Han dynasty, which is a significantly longer lexicographical history than any other language. There are hundreds of dictionaries for the Chinese language, and this article discusses some of ...
3rd century BCE. The first purely English alphabetical dictionary was ''
A Table Alphabeticall'', written in 1604, and monolingual dictionaries in other languages also began appearing in Europe at around this time. The systematic study of dictionaries as objects of scientific interest arose as a 20th-century enterprise, called
lexicography
Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries.
* Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries.
* Theoreti ...
, and largely initiated by
Ladislav Zgusta Ladislav Zgusta (20 March 1924 in Libochovice – 27 April 2007 in Urbana, Illinois) was a Czech-American historical linguist and lexicographer, who wrote one of the first textbooks on lexicography. He was a professor of linguistics and classics ...
.
[ The birth of the new discipline was not without controversy, with the practical dictionary-makers being sometimes accused by others of having an "astonishing" lack of method and critical-self reflection.]
History
The oldest known dictionaries were cuneiform
Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sh ...
tablets with bilingual Sumerian– Akkadian wordlists, discovered in Ebla
Ebla ( Sumerian: ''eb₂-la'', ar, إبلا, modern: , Tell Mardikh) was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria. Its remains constitute a tell located about southwest of Aleppo near the village of Mardikh. Ebla was an important center t ...
(modern Syria) and dated to roughly 2300 BCE, the time of the Akkadian Empire
The Akkadian Empire () was the first ancient empire of Mesopotamia after the long-lived civilization of Sumer. It was centered in the city of Akkad () and its surrounding region. The empire united Akkadian and Sumerian speakers under one ...
. The early 2nd millennium BCE '' Urra=hubullu'' glossary is the canonical Babylonian version of such bilingual Sumerian wordlists. A Chinese dictionary, the c. 3rd century BCE '' Erya'', is the earliest surviving monolingual dictionary; and some sources cite the ''Shizhoupian
The ''Shizhoupian'' () is the first known Chinese dictionary, and was written in the ancient Great Seal script. The work was traditionally dated to the reign of King Xuan of Zhou (827–782 BCE), but many modern scholars assign it to the State ...
'' (probably compiled sometime between 700 BCE to 200 BCE, possibly earlier) as a "dictionary", although modern scholarship considers it a calligraphic compendium of Chinese character
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanj ...
s from Zhou dynasty
The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese ( B&S): *''tiw'') was a royal dynasty of China that followed the Shang dynasty. Having lasted 789 years, the Zhou dynasty was the longest dynastic regime in Chinese history. The military control of China by ...
bronzes. Philitas of Cos
Philitas of Cos (; el, Φιλίτας ὁ Κῷος, ''Philītas ho Kōos''; – ), sometimes spelled Philetas (; , ''Philētas''; see Bibliography below), was a Greek scholar, poet and grammarian during the early Hellenistic period of ancien ...
(fl. 4th century BCE) wrote a pioneering vocabulary ''Disorderly Words'' (Ἄτακτοι γλῶσσαι, ') which explained the meanings of rare Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
ic and other literary words, words from local dialects, and technical terms. Apollonius the Sophist
Apollonius the Sophist ( el, Ἀπολλώνιος ὁ Σοφιστής) was a famous grammarian, who probably lived towards the end of the 1st century AD and taught in Rome in the time of Tiberius. He was born in Alexandria, the son of another gra ...
( fl. 1st century CE) wrote the oldest surviving Homeric lexicon. The first Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
dictionary, the Amarakośa, was written by Amarasimha c. 4th century CE. Written in verse, it listed around 10,000 words. According to the '' Nihon Shoki'', the first Japanese dictionary
have a history that began over 1300 years ago when Japanese Buddhist priests, who wanted to understand Chinese sutras, adapted Chinese character dictionaries. Present-day Japanese lexicographers are exploring computerized editing and electronic ...
was the long-lost 682 CE ''Niina'' glossary of Chinese characters. The oldest existing Japanese dictionary, the c. 835 CE ''Tenrei Banshō Meigi
The is the oldest extant Japanese dictionary of Chinese characters. The title is also written 篆隷万象名義 with the modern graphic variant ''ban'' (万 "10,000; myriad") for ''ban'' (萬 "10,000; myriad").
The prominent Heian Period monk a ...
'', was also a glossary of written Chinese. In '' Frahang-i Pahlavig'', Aramaic
The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...
heterograms are listed together with their translation in the Middle Persian
Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle ...
language and phonetic transcription in the Pazend
Pazend () or Pazand ( pal, 𐭯𐭠𐭰𐭭𐭣; ae, 𐬞𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌 𐬰𐬀𐬌𐬥𐬙𐬌) is one of the writing systems used for the Middle Persian language. It was based on the Avestan alphabet, a phonetic alphabet originally used to ...
alphabet. A 9th-century CE Irish dictionary, Sanas Cormaic
''Sanas Cormaic'' (or ''Sanas Chormaic'', Irish for "Cormac's narrative"), also known as ''Cormac's Glossary'', is an early Irish glossary containing etymologies and explanations of over 1,400 Irish words, many of which are difficult or outdated. ...
, contained etymologies and explanations of over 1,400 Irish words. In the 12th century, The Karakhanid
The Kara-Khanid Khanate (; ), also known as the Karakhanids, Qarakhanids, Ilek Khanids or the Afrasiabids (), was a Turkic khanate that ruled Central Asia in the 9th through the early 13th century. The dynastic names of Karakhanids and Ilek K ...
- Turkic scholar Mahmud Kashgari
Mahmud ibn Husayn ibn Muhammed al-Kashgari, ''Maḥmūd ibnu 'l-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Kāšġarī'', , tr, Kaşgarlı Mahmûd, ug, مەھمۇد قەشقىرى, ''Mehmud Qeshqiri'' / Мәһмуд Қәшқири uz, Mahmud Qashg'ariy / М ...
finished his work "Divan-u Lügat'it Türk", a dictionary about the Turkic dialects, but especially Karakhanid Turkic. His work contains about 7500 to 8000 words and it was written to teach non Turkic Muslims, especially the Abbasid Arabs, the Turkic language. Al-Zamakhshari
Abu al-Qasim Mahmud ibn Umar al-Zamakhshari (; 1074 –1143) was a medieval Muslim scholar of Iranian peoples, Iranian descent. He travelled to Mecca, Makkah and settled there for five years and has been known since then as Jar Allah ‘God's Ne ...
wrote a small Arabic dictionary called "Muḳaddimetü'l-edeb" for the Turkic-Khwarazm ruler Atsiz
Ala al-Din wa-l-Dawla Abu'l-Muzaffar Atsiz ibn Muhammad ibn Anushtegin ( fa, علاء الدين والدولة أبو المظفر عتسيز بن محمد بن أنشتكين; 1098 – 1156), better known as Atsiz () was the second Khwarazmshah ...
. In the 14th century, the Codex Cumanicus
The Codex Cumanicus is a linguistic manual of the Middle Ages, designed to help Catholic missionaries communicate with the Cumans, a nomadic Turkic people. It is currently housed in the Library of St. Mark, in Venice (BNM ms Lat. Z. 549 (=1597 ...
was finished and it served as a dictionary about the Cuman
The Cumans (or Kumans), also known as Polovtsians or Polovtsy (plural only, from the Russian exonym ), were a Turkic nomadic people comprising the western branch of the Cuman–Kipchak confederation. After the Mongol invasion (1237), many so ...
-Turkic language. While in Mamluk Egypt
The Mamluk Sultanate ( ar, سلطنة المماليك, translit=Salṭanat al-Mamālīk), also known as Mamluk Egypt or the Mamluk Empire, was a state that ruled Egypt, the Levant and the Hejaz (western Arabia) from the mid-13th to early 16th ...
, Ebû Hayyân el-Endelüsî finished his work "Kitâbü'l-İdrâk li-lisâni'l-Etrâk", a dictionary about the Kipchak and Turcoman languages spoken in Egypt and the Levant
The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is ...
. A dictionary called "Bahşayiş Lügati", which is written in old Anatolian Turkish, served also as a dictionary between Oghuz Turkish, Arabic and Persian. But it is not clear who wrote the dictionary or in which century exactly it was published. It was written in old Anatolian Turkish
Old Anatolian Turkish (OAT, tr, Eski Anadolu Türkçesi, ''EAT'') is the stage in the history of the Turkish language spoken in Anatolia from the 11th to 15th centuries. It developed into Early Ottoman Turkish. It was written in the Arabic sc ...
from the Seljuk period and not the late medieval Ottoman period. In India around 1320, Amir Khusro
Abu'l Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrau (1253–1325 AD), better known as Amīr Khusrau was an Indo-Persian culture, Indo-Persian Sufi singer, musician, poet and scholar who lived under the Delhi Sultanate. He is an iconic figure in the cultural his ...
compiled the Khaliq-e-bari, which mainly dealt with Hindustani and Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
words.
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
dictionaries were compiled between the 8th and 14th centuries CE, organizing words in rhyme order (by the last syllable), by alphabetical order of the radicals, or according to the alphabetical order of the first letter (the system used in modern European language dictionaries). The modern system was mainly used in specialist dictionaries, such as those of terms from the Qur'an
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...
and hadith
Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approva ...
, while most general use dictionaries, such as the ''Lisan al-`Arab'' (13th century, still the best-known large-scale dictionary of Arabic) and ''al-Qamus al-Muhit'' (14th century) listed words in the alphabetical order of the radicals. The ''Qamus al-Muhit'' is the first handy dictionary in Arabic, which includes only words and their definitions, eliminating the supporting examples used in such dictionaries as the ''Lisan'' and 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 co ...
''.
In medieval Europe, glossaries with equivalents for Latin words in vernacular
A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
or simpler Latin were in use (e.g. the Leiden Glossary
The ''Leiden Glossary'' is a glossary contained in a manuscript in Leiden University Library in the Netherlands, Voss. Lat. Q. 69. The lemmata ( headwords) come from "a range of biblical, grammatical, and patristic texts".Lapidge, ''Anglo-Saxon Li ...
). The '' Catholicon'' (1287) by Johannes Balbus, a large grammatical work with an alphabetical lexicon, was widely adopted. It served as the basis for several bilingual dictionaries and was one of the earliest books (in 1460) to be printed. In 1502 Ambrogio Calepino
Ambrogio Calepino (Latin: ''Ambrosius Calepinus''; c. 1440–1510), commonly known by the Latin form of his name, Calepinus, was an Italian lexicographer.
Calepino was born in Castelli Calepio Gigliola Soldi Rondinini, Tullio De MauroCALEPIO, A ...
's ''Dictionarium'' was published, originally a monolingual Latin dictionary, which over the course of the 16th century was enlarged to become a multilingual glossary. In 1532 Robert Estienne
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
published the ''Thesaurus linguae latinae'' and in 1572 his son Henri Estienne
Henri Estienne (; ; 1528 or 15311598), also known as Henricus Stephanus (), was a French printer and classical scholar. He was the eldest son of Robert Estienne. He was instructed in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew by his father and would eventually tak ...
published the ''Thesaurus linguae graecae
The Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG) is a research center at the University of California, Irvine. The TLG was founded in 1972 by Marianne McDonald (a graduate student at the time and now a professor of theater and classics at the University of Cal ...
'', which served up to the 19th century as the basis of Greek lexicography. The first monolingual Spanish dictionary written was Sebastián Covarrubias's ''Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española
The ''Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española'' (''Thesaurus of Castilian or Spanish Language'') is a dictionary of the Spanish language, written by Sebastián de Covarrubias in 1611.
It was the first monolingual dictionary of the Castilian ( ...
'', published in 1611 in Madrid, Spain. In 1612 the first edition of the ''Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca
The ''Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca'' was the first dictionary of the Italian language, published in 1612 by the Accademia della Crusca. It was also only the second dictionary of a modern European language, being just one year later ...
'', for Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
, was published. It served as the model for similar works in French and English. In 1690 in Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...
was published, posthumously, the ''Dictionnaire Universel'' by Antoine Furetière for French. In 1694 appeared the first edition of the ''Dictionnaire de l'Académie française
The ''Dictionnaire de l'Académie française'' is the official dictionary of the French language.
The Académie française is France's official authority on the usages, vocabulary, and grammar of the French language, although its recommendations ...
'' (still published, with the ninth edition not complete ). Between 1712 and 1721 was published the ''Vocabulario portughez e latino'' written by Raphael Bluteau. The Real Academia Española published the first edition of the ''Diccionario de la lengua española
The ''Diccionario de la lengua española'' (DLE; ; en, Dictionary of the Spanish language), previously known as ''Diccionario de la Real Academia Española'' (DRAE; en, Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy), is produced, edited, and publish ...
'' (still published, with a new edition about every decade) in 1780; their ''Diccionario de Autoridades'', which included quotes taken from literary works, was published in 1726. The ''Totius Latinitatis lexicon'' by Egidio Forcellini
Egidio Forcellini (August 26, 1688April 5, 1768) was an Italian philologist.
Forcellini was born at Fener in the district of Treviso and belonged to a very poor family. He went to the seminary at Padua in 1704, studied under Facciolati, and in d ...
was firstly published in 1777; it has formed the basis of all similar works that have since been published.
The first edition of '' A Greek-English Lexicon'' by Henry George Liddell
Henry George Liddell (; 6 February 1811– 18 January 1898) was dean (1855–1891) of Christ Church, Oxford, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University (1870–1874), headmaster (1846–1855) of Westminster School (where a house is now named after ...
and Robert Scott appeared in 1843; this work remained the basic dictionary of Greek until the end of the 20th century. And in 1858 was published the first volume of the Deutsches Wörterbuch by the Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among the ...
; the work was completed in 1961. Between 1861 and 1874 was published the ''Dizionario della lingua italiana'' by Niccolò Tommaseo
Niccolò Tommaseo (; 9 October 1802 – 1 May 1874) was a Dalmatian linguist, journalist and essayist, the editor of a ''Dizionario della Lingua Italiana'' in eight volumes (1861–74), of a dictionary of synonyms (1830) and other works. He is ...
. Between 1862 and 1874 was published the six volumes of ''A magyar nyelv szótára'' (Dictionary of Hungarian Language) by Gergely Czuczor and János Fogarasi. Émile Littré
Émile Maximilien Paul Littré (; 1 February 18012 June 1881) was a French lexicographer, freemason and philosopher, best known for his '' Dictionnaire de la langue française'', commonly called .
Biography
Littré was born in Paris. His fathe ...
published the Dictionnaire de la langue française between 1863 and 1872. In the same year 1863 appeared the first volume of the ''Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal
The ''Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal'' (''WNT''; ) is a dictionary of the Dutch language. It contains between 350,000 and 400,000 entries describing Dutch words from 1500 to 1976. The paper edition consists of 43 volumes (including three sup ...
'' which was completed in 1998. Also in 1863 Vladimir Ivanovich Dahl published the ''''. The Duden
The Duden () is a dictionary of the Standard High German language, first published by Konrad Duden in 1880, and later by Bibliographisches Institut GmbH. The Duden is updated regularly with new editions appearing every four or five years. , ...
dictionary dates back to 1880, and is currently the prescriptive
Linguistic prescription, or prescriptive grammar, is the establishment of rules defining preferred usage of language. These rules may address such linguistic aspects as spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax, and semantics. Sometimes infor ...
source for the spelling of German. The decision to start work on the ''Svenska Akademiens ordbok
A complete set of ''Svenska Akademiens ordbok'', as of late 2014. The majority of the volumes remain unbound in this set.
''Svenska Akademiens ordbok'' (), abbreviated SAOB, is a dictionary published by the Swedish Academy, with the official titl ...
'' was taken in 1787.
English dictionaries in Britain
The earliest dictionaries in the English language were glossaries of French, Spanish or Latin words along with their definitions in English. The word "dictionary" was invented by an Englishman called John of Garland
Johannes de Garlandia or John of Garland was a medieval grammarian and university teacher. His dates of birth and death are unknown, but he probably lived from about 1190 to about 1270.
He was born in England, and studied at Oxford and then at t ...
in 1220 he had written a book '' Dictionarius'' to help with Latin "diction". An early non-alphabetical list of 8000 English words was the ''Elementarie'', created by Richard Mulcaster
Richard Mulcaster (ca. 1531, Carlisle, Cumberland – 15 April 1611, Essex) is known best for his headmasterships of Merchant Taylors' School and St Paul's School, both then in London, and for his pedagogic writings. He is often regarded as t ...
in 1582.
The first purely English alphabetical dictionary was '' A Table Alphabeticall'', written by English schoolteacher Robert Cawdrey in 1604. The only surviving copy is found at the Bodleian Library in Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
. This dictionary, and the many imitators which followed it, was seen as unreliable and nowhere near definitive. Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, (22 September 169424 March 1773) was a British statesman, diplomat, and man of letters, and an acclaimed wit of his time.
Early life
He was born in London to Philip Stanhope, 3rd Earl of Ches ...
was still lamenting in 1754, 150 years after Cawdrey's publication, that it is "a sort of disgrace to our nation, that hitherto we have had no… standard of our language; our dictionaries at present being more properly what our neighbors the Dutch and the Germans call theirs, word-books, than dictionaries in the superior sense of that title."
In 1616, John Bullokar described the history of the dictionary with his "English Expositor". ''Glossographia'' by Thomas Blount, published in 1656, contains more than 10,000 words along with their etymologies or histories. Edward Phillips
Edward Phillips (August 1630 – c. 1696) was an English author.
Life
He was the son of Edward Phillips of the crown office in chancery, and his wife Anne, only sister of John Milton, the poet. Edward Phillips the younger was born in Strand, L ...
wrote another dictionary in 1658, entitled "The New World of English Words
''The New World of English Words, or, a General Dictionary'' is a dictionary compiled by Edward Phillips and first published in London in 1658. It was the first folio English dictionary.
Contents
As well as containing common words, the dictiona ...
: Or a General Dictionary" which boldly plagiarized
Plagiarism is the fraudulent representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and thought ...
Blount's work, and the two criticised each other. This created more interest in the dictionaries. John Wilkins
John Wilkins, (14 February 1614 – 19 November 1672) was an Anglican clergyman, natural philosopher, and author, and was one of the founders of the Royal Society. He was Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death.
Wilkins is one of the f ...
' 1668 essay on philosophical language contains a list of 11,500 words with careful distinctions, compiled by William Lloyd. Elisha Coles
Elisha Coles (c. 1640 – 1680) was a 17th-century English lexicographer and stenographer.
Life
He was son of John Coles, schoolmaster of Wolverhampton, and nephew of Elisha Coles the religious author. He became chorister of Magdalen Coll ...
published his "English Dictionary" in 1676.
It was not until Samuel Johnson's '' A Dictionary of the English Language'' (1755) that a more reliable English dictionary was produced. Many people today mistakenly believe that Johnson wrote the first English dictionary: a testimony to this legacy. By this stage, dictionaries had evolved to contain textual references for most words, and were arranged alphabetically, rather than by topic (a previously popular form of arrangement, which meant all animals would be grouped together, etc.). Johnson's masterwork could be judged as the first to bring all these elements together, creating the first "modern" dictionary.
Johnson's dictionary remained the English-language standard for over 150 years, until the Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
began writing and releasing 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 co ...
'' in short fascicles from 1884 onwards. It took nearly 50 years to complete this huge work, and they finally released the complete ''OED'' in twelve volumes in 1928. One of the main contributors to this modern dictionary was an ex-army surgeon, William Chester Minor
William Chester Minor (also known as W. C. Minor; 22 June 1834 – 26 March 1920), was an American army surgeon, psychiatric-hospital patient, and lexicographical researcher.
After serving in the Union Army during the American Civil War, Minor m ...
, a convicted murderer who was confined to an asylum for the criminally insane.
The OED remains the most comprehensive and trusted English language dictionary to this day, with revisions and updates added by a dedicated team every three months.
American English dictionaries
In 1806, American Noah Webster
Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible ( Book of Genesis, chapters 5 ...
published his first dictionary, '' A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language''. In 1807 Webster began compiling an expanded and fully comprehensive dictionary, ''An American Dictionary of the English Language;'' it took twenty-seven years to complete. To evaluate the etymology of words, Webster learned twenty-six languages, including Old English
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 c ...
(Anglo-Saxon), German, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, Hebrew, Arabic, and Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
.
Webster completed his dictionary during his year abroad in 1825 in Paris, France, and at the University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...
. His book contained seventy thousand words, of which twelve thousand had never appeared in a published dictionary before. As a spelling reform
A spelling reform is a deliberate, often authoritatively sanctioned or mandated change to spelling rules. Proposals for such reform are fairly common, and over the years, many languages have undergone such reforms. Recent high-profile examples a ...
er, Webster believed that English spelling rules were unnecessarily complex, so his dictionary introduced spellings that became American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances i ...
, replacing "colour" with "color", substituting "wagon" for "waggon", and printing "center" instead of "centre". He also added American words, like "skunk" and "squash," which did not appear in British dictionaries. At the age of seventy, Webster published his dictionary in 1828; it sold 2500 copies. In 1840, the second edition was published in two volumes. Webster's dictionary was acquired by G & C Merriam Co. in 1843, after his death, and has since been published in many revised editions. Merriam-Webster was acquired by Encyclopedia Britannica
An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articl ...
in 1964.
Controversy over the lack of usage advice in the 1961 ''Webster's Third New International Dictionary
''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (commonly known as ''Webster's Third'', or ''W3'') was published in September 1961. It was edited by Philip Babcock Gove and a team of lexicographers who spent 757 ...
'' spurred publication of the 1969 ''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'' (''AHD'') is an American dictionary of English published by Boston publisher Houghton Mifflin, the first edition of which appeared in 1969. Its creation was spurred by the controversy o ...
'', the first dictionary to use corpus linguistics.
Types
In a general dictionary, each word may have multiple meanings. Some dictionaries include each separate meaning in the order of most common usage while others list definitions in historical order, with the oldest usage first.
In many languages, words can appear in many different forms, but only the undeclined or unconjugated form appears as the headword
In morphology and lexicography, a lemma (plural ''lemmas'' or ''lemmata'') is the canonical form, dictionary form, or citation form of a set of word forms. In English, for example, ''break'', ''breaks'', ''broke'', ''broken'' and ''breaking'' ...
in most dictionaries. Dictionaries are most commonly found in the form of a book, but some newer dictionaries, like StarDict
StarDict, developed by Hu Zheng (胡正), is a free GUI released under the GPL-3.0-or-later license for accessing StarDict dictionary files (a ''dictionary shell''). It is the successor of StarDic, developed by Ma Su'an (馬蘇安), continuing ...
and the ''New Oxford American Dictionary
The ''New Oxford American Dictionary'' (''NOAD'') is a single-volume dictionary of American English compiled by American editors at the Oxford University Press.
''NOAD'' is based upon the ''New Oxford Dictionary of English'' (''NODE''), published ...
'' are dictionary software running on PDAs or computers. There are also many online dictionaries
An online dictionary is a dictionary that is accessible via the Internet through a web browser. They can be made available in a number of ways: free, free with a paid subscription for extended or more professional content, or a paid-only service. ...
accessible via the Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
.
Specialized dictionaries
According to the ''Manual of Specialized Lexicographies'', a specialized dictionary
A specialized dictionary is a dictionary that covers a relatively restricted set of phenomena. The definitive book on the subject (Cowie 2009) includes chapters on some of the dictionaries included below:
*synonyms
*pronunciations
*names (place na ...
, also referred to as a technical dictionary, is a dictionary that focuses upon a specific subject field, as opposed to a dictionary that comprehensively contains words from the lexicon of a specific language or languages. Following the description in ''The Bilingual LSP Dictionary'', lexicographers categorize specialized dictionaries into three types: A multi-field dictionary
A multi-field dictionary is a specialized dictionary that has been designed and compiled to cover the terms within two or more subject fields. Multi-field dictionaries should be contrasted with single-field dictionaries and sub-field dictionarie ...
broadly covers several subject fields (e.g. a business dictionary), a single-field dictionary
A single-field dictionary is a specialized dictionary that has been designed and compiled to cover the terms of one particular subject field. Single-field dictionaries should be contrasted with multi-field dictionaries and sub-field dictionaries ...
narrowly covers one particular subject field (e.g. law), and a sub-field dictionary
A sub-field dictionary is a specialized dictionary that has been designed and compiled to cover the terms of one (or possibly more) sub-fields of a particular subject field. It is therefore a sub-division of the class of dictionary called a singl ...
covers a more specialized field (e.g. constitutional law). For example, the 23-language Inter-Active Terminology for Europe Interactive Terminology for Europe (IATE) is the interinstitutional terminology database of the European Union. The project was launched in 1999 with the objective of creating a web-based interface for all EU terminology resources so as to make the ...
is a multi-field dictionary, the American National Biography
The ''American National Biography'' (ANB) is a 24-volume biographical encyclopedia set that contains about 17,400 entries and 20 million words, first published in 1999 by Oxford University Press under the auspices of the American Council of Le ...
is a single-field, and the African American National Biography Project
The African American National Biography Project is a joint project of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University and Oxford University Press. The object of the project is to publish and maintain a database o ...
is a sub-field dictionary. In terms of the coverage distinction between "minimizing dictionaries" and "maximizing dictionaries", multi-field dictionaries tend to minimize coverage across subject fields (for instance, ''Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
''The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions'' is a reference work edited by John Bowker and published by Oxford University Press in the year 1997. It contains over 8,200 entries by leading authorities in the field of religious studies containing ...
'' and ''Yadgar Dictionary of Computer and Internet Terms Sindhi to English dictionaries are bilingual dictionaries which provide English equivalents of Sindhi language words.
Compilations of Sindhi and English terms were created for non-Sindhi speaking students in the early 1800s. ''The Journal of the As ...
'') whereas single-field and sub-field dictionaries tend to maximize coverage within a limited subject field (''The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology
''The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology'' is an etymological dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press. The first editor of the dictionary was Charles Talbut Onions, who spent his last twenty years largely de ...
'').
Another variant is the glossary, an alphabetical list of defined terms in a specialized field, such as medicine (medical dictionary
A medical dictionary is a lexicon for words used in medicine. The three major medical dictionaries in the United States are '' Stedman's'', ''Taber's'', and ''Dorland's''. Other significant medical dictionaries are distributed by Elsevier. Dict ...
).
Defining dictionaries
The simplest dictionary, a defining dictionary
An explanatory dictionary or defining dictionary is a dictionary that provides definitions of word meanings at its entries. It may give additional information on pronunciation, grammar, etymology
Etymology () The New Oxford Dictionary of Eng ...
, provides a core glossary
A glossary (from grc, γλῶσσα, ''glossa''; language, speech, wording) also known as a vocabulary or clavis, is an alphabetical list of terms in a particular domain of knowledge with the definitions for those terms. Traditionally, a glo ...
of the simplest meanings of the simplest concepts. From these, other concepts can be explained and defined, in particular for those who are first learning a language. In English, the commercial defining dictionaries typically include only one or two meanings of under 2000 words. With these, the rest of English, and even the 4000 most common English idioms and metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...
s, can be defined.
Prescriptive vs. descriptive
Lexicographers apply two basic philosophies to the defining of words: ''prescriptive'' or ''descriptive''. Noah Webster
Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible ( Book of Genesis, chapters 5 ...
, intent on forging a distinct identity for the American language, altered spellings and accentuated differences in meaning and pronunciation of some words. This is why American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances i ...
now uses the spelling ''color'' while the rest of the English-speaking world prefers ''colour''. (Similarly, British English
British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...
subsequently underwent a few spelling changes that did not affect American English; see further at American and British English spelling differences
Despite the various English dialects spoken from country to country and within different regions of the same country, there are only slight regional variations in English orthography, the two most notable variations being British and America ...
.)
Large 20th-century dictionaries such as 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 co ...
'' (OED) and '' Webster's Third'' are descriptive, and attempt to describe the actual use of words. Most dictionaries of English now apply the descriptive method to a word's definition, and then, outside of the definition itself, provide information alerting readers to attitudes which may influence their choices on words often considered vulgar, offensive, erroneous, or easily confused. '' Merriam-Webster'' is subtle, only adding italicized notations such as, ''sometimes offensive'' or ''stand'' (nonstandard). '' American Heritage'' goes further, discussing issues separately in numerous "usage notes." ''Encarta
''Microsoft Encarta'' is a discontinued digital multimedia encyclopedia published by Microsoft from 1993 to 2009. Originally sold on CD-ROM or DVD, it was also available on the World Wide Web via an annual subscription, although later article ...
'' provides similar notes, but is more prescriptive, offering warnings and admonitions against the use of certain words considered by many to be offensive or illiterate, such as, "an offensive term for..." or "a taboo term meaning...".
Because of the widespread use of dictionaries in schools, and their acceptance by many as language authorities, their treatment of the language does affect usage to some degree, with even the most descriptive dictionaries providing conservative continuity. In the long run, however, the meanings of words in English are primarily determined by usage, and the language is being changed and created every day. As Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...
says in the prologue to "El otro, el mismo": "''It is often forgotten that (dictionaries) are artificial repositories, put together well after the languages they define. The roots of language are irrational and of a magical nature.''"
Sometimes the same dictionary can be descriptive in some domains and prescriptive in others. For example, according to Ghil'ad Zuckermann, the ''Oxford English-Hebrew Dictionary'' is "at war with itself": whereas its coverage (lexical items) and glosses (definitions) are descriptive and colloquial, its vocalization is prescriptive. This internal conflict results in absurd sentences such as ''hi taharóg otí kshetiré me asíti lamkhonít'' (she'll tear me apart when she sees what I've done to the car). Whereas ''hi taharóg otí'', literally 'she will kill me', is colloquial, ''me'' (a variant of ''ma'' 'what') is archaic, resulting in a combination that is unutterable in real life.
Historical dictionaries
A historical dictionary
A historical dictionary or dictionary on historical principles is a dictionary which deals not only with the latterday meanings of words but also the historical development of their forms and meanings. It may also describe the vocabulary of an earl ...
is a specific kind of descriptive dictionary which describes the development of words and senses over time, usually using citations to original source material to support its conclusions.
Dictionaries for natural language processing
In contrast to traditional dictionaries, which are designed to be used by human beings, dictionaries for natural language processing (NLP) are built to be used by computer programs. The final user is a human being but the direct user is a program. Such a dictionary does not need to be able to be printed on paper. The structure of the content is not linear, ordered entry by entry but has the form of a complex network (see Diathesis alternation
In linguistics, diathesis alternation or verb alternationLevin, B. (1993) English Verb Classes and Alternations: A Preliminary Investigation, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL occurs when the same verb can be used in different subcategor ...
). Because most of these dictionaries are used to control machine translation
Machine translation, sometimes referred to by the abbreviation MT (not to be confused with computer-aided translation, machine-aided human translation or interactive translation), is a sub-field of computational linguistics that investigates t ...
s or cross-lingual information retrieval
Cross-language information retrieval (CLIR) is a subfield of information retrieval dealing with retrieving information written in a language different from the language of the user's query.
The term "cross-language information retrieval" has many ...
(CLIR) the content is usually multilingual and usually of huge size. In order to allow formalized exchange and merging of dictionaries, an ISO standard called Lexical Markup Framework (LMF) has been defined and used among the industrial and academic community.
Other types
* Bilingual dictionary
* Collegiate dictionary (American)
* Learner's dictionary (mostly British)
* Electronic dictionary
* Encyclopedic dictionary
* Monolingual learner's dictionary
** Advanced learner's dictionary
* By sound
** Rhyming dictionary
* Reverse dictionary (Conceptual dictionary)
* Visual dictionary
* The Devil's Dictionary, Satirical dictionary
* Phonetic dictionary
Pronunciation
In many languages, such as the English language, the pronunciation of some words is not consistently apparent from their spelling. In these languages, dictionaries usually provide the pronunciation. For example, the definition for the word ''dictionary'' might be followed by the International Phonetic Alphabet spelling (in British English) or (in American English). American English dictionaries often use their own pronunciation respelling systems with diacritics, for example ''dictionary'' is respelled as "dĭk′shə-nĕr′ē" in the The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, American Heritage Dictionary. The IPA is more commonly used within the British Commonwealth countries. Yet others use their own pronunciation respelling systems without diacritics: for example, ''dictionary'' may be respelled as . Some online or electronic dictionaries provide audio recordings of words being spoken.
Examples
Major English dictionaries
Dictionaries of other languages
Histories and descriptions of the dictionaries of other languages on Wikipedia include:
* List of Arabic dictionaries, Arabic dictionaries
* Chinese dictionaries
Chinese dictionaries date back over two millennia to the Han dynasty, which is a significantly longer lexicographical history than any other language. There are hundreds of dictionaries for the Chinese language, and this article discusses some of ...
* Dehkhoda Dictionary (Persian Language)
* List of Dutch dictionaries, Dutch dictionaries
* List of French dictionaries, French dictionaries
* List of German dictionaries, German dictionaries
* Japanese dictionary, Japanese dictionaries
* Polish dictionaries
* Scottish Gaelic dictionaries
* Scottish Language Dictionaries
* Sindhi to English Dictionary, Sindhi Language Dictionaries
Online dictionaries
The age of the Internet brought online dictionaries to the desktop and, more recently, to the smart phone. David Skinner (journalist), David Skinner in 2013 noted that "Among the top ten lookups on Merriam-Webster Online at this moment are ''holistic, pragmatic, caveat, esoteric'' and ''bourgeois.'' Teaching users about words they don't already know has been, historically, an aim of lexicography, and modern dictionaries do this well."
There exist a number of websites which operate as online dictionaries, usually with a specialized focus. Some of them have exclusively user driven content, often consisting of neologisms. Some of the more notable examples are given in List of online dictionaries and :Online dictionaries.
See also
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
*
*Atkins, B.T.S. & Rundell, Michael (2008) ''The Oxford Guide to Practical Lexicography'', Oxford: Oxford University Press.
* (published in the UK as ''The Surgeon of Crowthorne'').
*
Further reading
* Guy Jean Forgue, "The Norm in American English", ''Revue Française d'Etudes Americaines,'' Nov 1983, Vol. 8 Issue 18, pp. 451–461. An international appreciation of the importance of Webster's dictionaries in setting the norms of the English language.
External links
*
Glossary of dictionary terms
by the Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
*
{{Authority control
Dictionaries,
Lexicography
Reference works