Diccionario De La Lengua Española
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The (''DLE''; English: ''Dictionary of the Spanish language'') is the authoritative
dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...
of the
Spanish language Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, gl ...
. It is produced, edited, and published by the
Royal Spanish Academy The Royal Spanish Academy (, ; ) is Spain's official royal institution with a mission to ensure the stability of the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, and is affiliated with national language academies in 22 other Hispanophon ...
, with the participation of the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language. It was first published in 1780, as the ''Diccionario de la lengua castellana'' and subsequent editions have been published about once a decade. The twenty-third edition was published in 2014; it is available online, incorporating modifications to be included in the twenty-fourth print edition. The dictionary was created to maintain the linguistic purity of the Spanish language; unlike many English-language dictionaries, it is intended to be authoritative and prescriptive, rather than
descriptive In the study of language, description or descriptive linguistics is the work of objectively analyzing and describing how language is actually used (or how it was used in the past) by a speech community. François & Ponsonnet (2013). All aca ...
.


Origin and development


Purpose

When the RAE was founded in 1713, one of its primary objectives was to compile an authoritative Spanish dictionary. Its first statutes said in 1715 that its purpose was to: The RAE's original motto of ''limpia, fija y da esplendor'' (It cleans, stabilises, and gives splendour o the language was in more recent times modified to ''unifica, limpia y fija'' (it unifies, cleans, and stabilises). In 1995 it was still expected to "establish and spread the criteria of propriety and correctness". Despite this policy, in the 21st century the Academy has responded to criticism about definitions considered to be derogatory or racist such as ''trapacero'' ("swindler") for ''gitano'' ("gypsy") by saying that the dictionary tries to reflect actual usage, and that nothing is changed by removing the definition from the dictionary, education must be used to eradicate inappropriate usages. However, after refusing to change some definitions, they were ultimately changed. See the section
Criticism Criticism is the construction of a judgement about the negative or positive qualities of someone or something. Criticism can range from impromptu comments to a written detailed response. , ''the act of giving your opinion or judgment about the ...
below for examples.


Editions

The first dictionary was the six-volume ''Diccionario de Autoridades'' (''Dictionary of Authorities'') from 1726 to 1739. Based on that work, an abridged version was published in 1780, the full title of which was ''Diccionario de la lengua castellana compuesto por la Real Academia Española, reducido á un tomo para su más fácil uso'' (''Dictionary of the Castilian tongue composed by the Royal Spanish Academy, reduced to one volume for its easier use''). According to its prologue, the dictionary was published for general public access during the long time between the publishing of the first and second editions of the exhaustive ''Diccionario de Autoridades'', thus offering a cheaper reference book. By the time the second edition was published, it had become the principal dictionary, superseding its ancestor. The fourth edition of the dictionary (1803) introduced the digraphs " ch" (''che'') and " ll" (''elle'') to the Spanish alphabet as separate, discrete letters. Entries starting with "ch" were placed after all the "c" entries (so ''czarda'' appeared before ''chacal''), and "ll" entries after "l". Also in 1803, the letter "x" was replaced with "j" when it had the same pronunciation as "j", and the
circumflex accent The circumflex () is a diacritic in the Latin and Greek scripts that is also used in the written forms of many languages and in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from "bent around"a translation of ...
(^) was eliminated. In 1994, it was decided at the 10th Congress of the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language to use the universal
Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from â ...
, which does not include "ch" and "ll" as single letters. The earliest editions were more extensive: they included
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
translations of the entry, in some cases gave
usage The usage of a language is the ways in which its written and spoken variations are routinely employed by its speakers; that is, it refers to "the collective habits of a language's native speakers", as opposed to idealized models of how a languag ...
examples (especially in popular phrases), and summarised the word's
etymology Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...
; contemporary editions do so concisely. The earliest editions had "x" entries that no longer appear individually. Historically, the decision to add, modify, or delete words from the dictionary has been made by the RAE, in consultation with other language authorities (especially in Latin America) when there was an uncertainty. This process continued between 1780 and 1992, but, since the 1992 edition, RAE committees, the Instituto de Lexicografía, and the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language—which specifically deals with American vocabulary—collaborate in producing the ''Dictionary of the Spanish Language''.


List of editions

The editions are listed on the RAE Web site, and the forewords of former editions can be accessed from there. Some editions, including the 1726–1739 ''Diccionario de autoridades'', are available in
facsimile A facsimile (from Latin ''fac simile'', "to make alike") is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from other forms of r ...
, or for online search.


Formats

Until the twenty-first edition, the ''DLE'' was published exclusively on paper. The 2001, twenty-second edition was published on paper, CD-ROM, and on the Internet with free access. The 23rd edition of 2014 was made available online with free access, incorporating modifications to be included in the twenty-fourth print edition. Sample entries, with explanation of annotations and abbreviations, are available from the RAE Web site.


Previous titles

From the first edition (1780) through the fourth edition (1803), the dictionary was known as the ''Diccionario de la lengua castellana compuesto por la Real Academia Española'' (''Dictionary of the Castilian language composed by the Spanish Royal Academy''). From the fifth edition (1817) through the fourteenth edition (1914), it was known as the ''Diccionario de la lengua castellana por la Real Academia Española'' (''Dictionary of the Castilian language by the Spanish Royal Academy''). Starting with the fifteenth edition (1925), it has been known as the ''Diccionario de la lengua española'' (''Dictionary of the Spanish language''), to recognise the many regions of the Spanish-speaking world.


Criticism


Pejorative definitions

Many Spanish dictionaries have had racial and religious bias over the centuries; the ''DLE'' is no exception. Christianity and Catholicism were described in favourable terms; Judaism, Islam, and Protestantism unfavourably. By 2021 few biased definitions remained in the updated online ''DLE''; one that could be considered biased is one of the uses of ''moro'' ( Moor, i.e. Muslim) – 10: (colloquial) A jealous and possessive man, who dominates his partner. In 2006, the Spanish Federation of Jewish Communities complained that some of the dictionary's entries and definitions about Judaism were racist and offensive. One definition of ''sinagoga'' (synagogue) was: "a meeting for illicit ends"; the nominal definition of 'synagogue' was given first, and the pejorative definition was so identified. This had been removed by 2021. In November 2014, Romani in Spain complained about RAE at the
European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...
. ''Yerba-buena'', an association of Spanish ''
gitanos The Romani in Spain, generally known by the Endonym and exonym, endonym ''Calé'', or the Endonym and exonym, exonym (), belong to the Romani people#Romani subgroups, Iberian Romani subgroup known as Calé, with smaller populations in Portugal ...
'' ("gypsies" in English), complained that one definition of ''Gitano'': "one who practices deceit" or "one who tricks", is offensive and could encourage racism. The RAE responded that the word ''gitano'' is actually used with the meaning of "trickster" in Spanish, and that the dictionary documents the actual use of words; inappropriate use has to be eradicated by education, removing the word from the dictionary does not change its use: "we simply photograph the landscape; we do not create it". However, in November 2014 it was announced that the definition was to be modified, and in October 2015 it was changed, with ''trapacero'' included in the definitions in the updated online dictionary, but labelled "used as offensive or discriminatory". RAE also defined "woman" as the "weak sex". In November 2017, the term was examined and one month later it was changed.


See also

*
Descriptive linguistics In the study of language, description or descriptive linguistics is the work of objectively analyzing and describing how language is actually used (or how it was used in the past) by a speech community. François & Ponsonnet (2013). All aca ...
*
Linguistic prescription Linguistic prescription is the establishment of rules defining publicly preferred Usage (language), usage of language, including rules of spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, etc. Linguistic prescriptivism may aim to establish a standard ...


Notes


References


External links

*
''Tesoro Lexicográfico de la lengua española''
database with digital copies of all of the dictionaries edited and published by the RAE. *
''Real Academia Española''
webpage, with links to both th
online version of the dictionary
and the '' Diccionario panhispánico de dudas'', amongst others. {{DEFAULTSORT:Diccionario de la lengua espanola de la Real Academia Espanola 1780 non-fiction books Spanish dictionaries Spanish language