DICTIONARY

a list of all or most of the words of a language, with their meanings, pronunciations, and origin arranged in alphabetical order. It is also now generally applied to works, arranged on similar lines, dealing with biography, dates, geography, theology, science, and numerous other subjects. An etymological dictionary is one in which the history and derivation of words is made the principal object. A glo ary differs from a dictionary in being a list of dialectal, obsolete, foreign, or unusual words. Apparently the earliest dictionary of which there is any trace was the compiled by A poll on i us, a grammarian of the age of August us. Latin lexicography was inaugurated by the Thene, Paris, 1531. Another famous early dictionary was Bayle’s Dictionnaire Hist or i que et Critique, 1697. Other noted works of the kind are the Ital. Vocabulario dell a Crusca, 1612; that pub. by Fr. Academy, 1694; the Madrid Academy, 1726-39; and the great Ger. work of the Grimm brothers, commenced in 1854. The first Eng. dictionary worthy of the name was that compiled by Nathan Bailey, 1721, which formed the basis of the better-known work of Dr. Samuel Johnson, pub. in 1755. Webster’s Dictionary was first i ued in 1806, and then to the present time, while the late Sir James Murray’s New English Dictionary is still in course of publication. The output of dictionaries has been enormous.