''Van Dale's Great Dictionary of the Dutch Language'' ( nl, Van Dale Groot woordenboek van de Nederlandse taal ), called ' for short, is the leading

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, etymologie ...

of the

Dutch language Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic language spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language. It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language, after its close relatives German and English. '' Afrikaans'' ...

. The latest edition was published in April 2022.

History

Van Dale's dictionary was first published after the death of Johan Hendrik van Dale, who had started work on his ''New Dictionary of the Dutch Language'' ( ) in 1867.About ''Van Dale'' on the official website
/ref> This was built upon the original same-named 1864 dictionary of I.M. Calisch and N.S. Calisch. Van Dale did not see the new work published in his lifetime, as he died in 1872. It was finished by his student Jan Manhave. Today it is published by the

private company A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...

Van Dale Lexicografie. Commonly nicknamed ' ("thick Van Dale") and ' ("big Van Dale") due to its size, the dictionary is published in three volumes (A-I, J-R, S-Z). It is usually updated every 7–8 years, and the 15th edition was published in 2015. Today there are compilations, pocket editions, electronic editions on CD-ROM and an online edition on the Van Dale website. The online edition includes a free version for the more common words, and a subscription-based professional version with access to the full 90,000-word dictionary.

Position

The ''Van Dale Dictionary'' is a private endeavor, to be distinguished from the government-published "

Green Booklet The Word list of the Dutch language ( nl, Woordenlijst Nederlandse Taal ) is a spelling dictionary of the Dutch language (Dutch orthography). It is officially established by the Dutch Language Union (). Because of the colour of its published fo ...

" that lists the official spelling mandated for schools and government employees. ''Van Dale'' includes the official spelling of the words as well, but it further provides their definitions. There have been arguments whether inclusion in ''Van Dale'' should be understood as an approval, in particular for words considered discriminatory like ' ("

negro In the English language, ''negro'' is a term historically used to denote persons considered to be of Black African heritage. The word ''negro'' means the color black in both Spanish and in Portuguese, where English took it from. The term can be ...

", but traditionally not used in a derogatory sense in Dutch). The position of the editors is clear: the actual use is decisive. Disapproved words are marked as such, but not omitted. The purpose is to inform the reader, therefore the responsibility of using certain words lies solely on them.

Editions

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.vandale.nl
''Van Dale'', 14th edition
at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

''Van Dale'', 14th edition
at

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

Dutch dictionaries Dutch language 1864 non-fiction books 1874 non-fiction books 1884 non-fiction books 1898 non-fiction books 1914 non-fiction books 1924 non-fiction books 1950 non-fiction books 1961 non-fiction books 1970 non-fiction books 1976 non-fiction books 1984 non-fiction books 1992 non-fiction books 1995 non-fiction books 1999 non-fiction books 2005 non-fiction books 2015 non-fiction books Dutch non-fiction literature Dutch culture

History

Position

Editions

See also

References

External links