''Le Petit Larousse Illustré'', commonly known simply as ''Le Petit Larousse'' (), is a French-language

encyclopedic dictionary An encyclopedic dictionary typically includes many short listings, arranged alphabetically, and discussing a wide range of topics. Encyclopedic dictionaries can be general, containing articles on topics in many different fields; or they can sp ...

published by

Éditions Larousse Éditions Larousse is a French publishing house specialising in reference works such as dictionaries. It was founded by Pierre Larousse and its best-known work is the ''Petit Larousse''. It was acquired from private owners by Compagnie Europée ...

. It first appeared in 1905 and was edited by

Claude Augé Claude Augé (; 31 October 1854 – 22 July 1924) was a French pedagogue, publisher, and lexicographer. Biography First a school master, he married a grand niece of Pierre Larousse's wife, joined the Librairie Larousse as bookkeeper in 1885 an ...

, following Augé's '' Dictionnaire complet illustré'' (1889). The one-volume work has two main sections: a

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, p ...

featuring common words and an encyclopedia of

proper nouns A proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity (''Africa'', ''Jupiter'', ''Sarah'', ''Microsoft)'' as distinguished from a common noun, which is a noun that refers to a class of entities (''continent, ...

. ''Le Petit Larousse'' 2007 (published in 2006) includes 150,000 definitions and 5,000 illustrations. A Spanish-version ''El Pequeño Larousse Ilustrado'' and an Italian version ''Il Piccolo Rizzoli Larousse'' have also been published. The motto of

Pierre Larousse Pierre Athanase Larousse (23 October 18173 January 1875) was a French grammarian, lexicographer and encyclopaedist. He published many of the outstanding educational and reference works of 19th-century France, including the 15-volume ''Grand dic ...

, the namesake of Éditions Larousse, perpetuated in Larousse's publications is "Je sème à tout vent" ("I sow to all winds"). This motto inspires the cover art of ''Le Petit Larousse'', which typically features a female figure blowing dandelion seeds. Upon its 100th anniversary, a history of ''Le Petit Larousse'' was published called ''La dent-de-lion, la semeuse et le Petit Larousse'' written by

Jean Pruvost Jean may refer to: People * Jean (female given name) * Jean (male given name) * Jean (surname) Fictional characters * Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character * Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations * ...

( fr). The following editions are available: *Compact *Coffret Noël *Grand Format *Grand Format Coffret Noël *Collection Multimedia *CD-ROM Edition Prestige

External links

Les Editions Larousse''Le Petit Larousse''
5th edition, 1906, at Google Books
''Le Petit Larousse''
5h editions, 1906, at the Internet Archive French encyclopedias French dictionaries 1905 non-fiction books 2005 non-fiction books 20th-century encyclopedias 21st-century encyclopedias {{encyclopedia-stub