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Period: 601 to 701
The Beginning of Dictionary Making in Britain
The historical roots of British lexicography go back to when Latin was a means of international communication in Europe. To facilitate their reading and translation English monks produced glosses based on interlinear translations from Latin. All religious texts were supplemented with such lists of Latin-English equivalents — glossaries. One of the first glossaries is the "Leiden Glossary" in which the pairs of equivalents are arranged in the order of their occurrence in the text. -
Period: 1218 to 1218
Creating the word “dictionary”
The word dictionarius is coined by the English-born Parisian teacher John of Garland as a title for an elementary Latin textbook. -
Period: 1468 to 1468
"Medulla Gramatice"
It was necessary to make regular Latin-English dictionaries which would not be confined to 'hard' Latin words in a particular text but include as many Latin-English equivalents as possible. Such an attempt was made by compilers of "Medulla Gramatice" — the first Latin-English dictionary which appeared in the 15th century. Later on "Medulla Gramatice" served the basis for the first printed bilingual dictionary "Ortus (Hortus) Voca-bulorum". -
Period: 1530 to 1530
English–French Lesclarcissement de la langue francoyse
John Palsgrave’s English–French Lesclarcissement de la langue francoyse offers the first sophisticated bilingual dictionary of two living European languages. -
Period: 1531 to 1531
Latin Dictionarium, seu latinae linguae thesaurus
First edition of the Latin Dictionarium, seu latinae linguae thesaurus of Robert Estienne (Robertus Stephanus), the foundational work in modern European lexicography. Enlarged editions would follow in 1536 and 1543; Estienne’s work would also be the basis for bilingual dictionaries such as those in the Eliot–Cooper–Thomas–Rider–Holyoke tradition in sixteenth- to seventeenth-century England -
Period: 1547 to 1547
The first printed Welsh dictionary
Publication of William Salesbury’s A Dictionary in Englyshe and Welshe moche necessary to all suche Welshemen as wil spedly learne the englyshe to[n]gue … whereunto is p[re]fixed a little treatyse of the englyshe pronu[n]ciacion of the letters, the first printed Welsh dictionary, which is also valuable for its description of contemporary English pronunciation. -
Period: 1567 to 1567
Vocabularium saxonicum
Laurence Nowell’s Vocabularium saxonicum initiates the lexicography of Old English; unpublished until the twentieth century, it stands at the head of a tradition leading through William Somner’s Dictionarium saxonico–latino–anglicum (1659) to Joseph Bosworth’s Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (1838; revised version by Bosworth [A–G] and T. N. Toller [H onwards] 1882–1921). -
Period: 1573 to 1573
"Alvearic or Tripple Dictionarie, English, Latin, French" by J. Baret
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Period: to
"A Dictionarie French and English" by Claudius Hollyband
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Period: to
Italian–English Worlde of wordes
John Florio publishes his Italian–English Worlde of wordes, amply expanded in 1611 as Queen Annas new world of words, with further renamed editions in the seventeenth century; the only similarly rich treatment of the vocabulary of seventeenth-century English would be Randle Cotgrave’s French–English Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues (1611; further eds. with English–French second part 1632 onwards). -
Period: to
Table Alphabeticall
Robert Cawdrey publishes his Table Alphabeticall, registering 2,498 ‘hard words’: the first free-standing non-specialized monolingual dictionary of English. Other small hard-word dictionaries more or less indebted to Cawdrey’s would be widespread in England throughout the seventeenth century. -
Period: to
Alphabetical dictionary
William Lloyd, ‘Alphabetical dictionary’, part of John Wilkins’s Essay towards a real character and a philosophical language, provides the first monolingual treatment of the general vocabulary of English. -
Period: to
Etymologicon linguae anglicanae
Stephen Skinner, Etymologicon linguae anglicanae, the first etymological dictionary of English, is published posthumously; an abridged translation by Richard Hogarth, the Gazophylacium anglicanum, follows in 1689. -
Period: to
A Collection of English Words
John Ray, A Collection of English Words not generally used (dated 1674 on the title-page, but published in the previous year), the first free-standing printed dictionary of English regional usage. -
Period: to
A New English Dictionary
John Kersey, A New English Dictionary, registers about 28,000 lemmas, including many common words which had not been treated in the hard-word tradition (and had not been readily accessible in Lloyd’s rather recherché work of 1668). -
Period: to
Universal Etymological English Dictionary
Nathan Bailey, Universal Etymological English Dictionary (further editions to 1802), followed by a so-called second volume in 1727 (actually a separate dictionary; further editions to 1776), a folio Dictionarium Britannicum in 1730, and a revised work issued as A New Universal Etymological English Dictionary in 1755, ed. Joseph Nicol Scott, and registering about 65,000 words. -
Period: to
Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language
Samuel Johnson, Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language published early August. -
Period: to
Dictionary of the English Language
Samuel Johnson, Dictionary of the English Language published in two folio volumes, registering some 43,000 lemmas, and providing a dictionary of English as elaborate, and as richly supported with quotations. Abridged editions appeared 1756 onwards, as did a succession of editions of the full dictionary, the fourth (of 1773) being heavily revised by Johnson; a four-volume revision by H. J. Todd appeared in 1818 and a new revision by R. G. Latham in 1866–1870. -
Period: to
"A Dictionary of the English Language in Which the Words are Deduced from Their Originals and Illustrated in Their General Significations by Examples from the Best Writers"
This dictionary had two parts. The first part consisted of "Preface", "The history of the English language» and «The grammar of the English language", the second part was the dictionary corpus, comprising 40,000 entries. A central concern of S.Johnson's research of the lexicon was the study of current English and selection of those words which could be considered to be the norm. Otherwise stated, S.Johnson's Dictionary was a prescriptive one. -
Period: to
A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language
Noah Webster’s first dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, registers about 40,000 lemmas and promises a greater work to come; this would be published in 1828 -
Period: to
An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language
John Jamieson, An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language (2 vols, with a 2-volume supplement in 1825) makes pioneering use of accurately referenced and chronologically ordered illustrative quotations. A revised edition, ed. John Longmuir and David Donaldson, was published 1879–87. -
Period: to
Charles Richardson’s Dictionary
First instalment of Charles Richardson’s dictionary of English published 14 February, as part of the first fascicle of the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, under the general editorship of Samuel Taylor Coleridge; the 58th and last fascicle of the main body of the Encyclopaedia was published in 1844, and the Encyclopaedia was then reissued in 25 bound volumes in 1845, the dictionary having been separately issued (with revision of the material already published in fascicles) -
Period: to
A Vocabulary, or, Collection of Words and Phrases
John Pickering, A Vocabulary, or, Collection of Words and Phrases which have been supposed to be peculiar to the United States (first handwritten draft written 22 February 1810–1 January 1813) provides the first free-standing printed wordlist of a variety of English from beyond the British Isles. -
Period: to
American Dictionary of the English Language
Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language published November (the manuscript having been completed January 1825) in two large quarto volumes, registering some 70,000 lemmas, and showing the influence of Johnson’s Dictionary as revised by Todd in 1818. -
Period: to
Comprehensive Pronouncing and Explanatory Dictionary of the English Language
Publication of Worcester’s Comprehensive Pronouncing and Explanatory Dictionary of the English Language initiates a vigorous rivalry between editions of this dictionary (notably Worcester’s Universal and Critical English Dictionary of 1846 and its successors up to A Dictionary of the English Language of 1860) and of Webster’s, lasting until 1864. -
Period: to
A Greek-English Lexicon
H. G. Liddell and R. Scott, A Greek–English Lexicon, based on Franz Passow’s revision (1819) of J. G. Schneider’s Kritisches griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch beym Lesen der griechischen profanen Scribenten zu gebrauchen (1797–98), brings the historical principles set out by Passow in 1812 into English lexicographical practice. -
Period: to
Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases
Peter Mark Roget, Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases published 11 June (printing, in a run of 1,000, began in March). -
Period: to
On Some Deficiencies in our English Dictionaries
Richard Chenevix Trench’s two-part presentation ‘On Some Deficiencies in our English Dictionaries’ to the Philological Society of London, 5 and 19 November, followed 7 January 1858 by the presentation to the society of Trench’s scheme for a new English dictionary, initiates the New English Dictionary / Oxford English Dictionary (NED / OED) project. -
Period: to
Revision of American Dictionary of the English Language
A revision of Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language, ed. Noah Porter with etymologies by C. A. F. Mahn, revitalizes the Webster tradition; subsequent editions would appear in 1879 (with New Words section and biographical supplement), 1882, and 1884. -
Period: to
First fascicle of the NED
First fascicle (A–Ant) of the NED published 29 January by the Clarendon Press (the academic imprint of Oxford University Press), ed. James Murray on the basis of materials gathered under his editorship and those of Herbert Coleridge and F. J. Furnivall. The completed dictionary, of 15,490 pages, comprised 252,200 entries, with 1,861,200 illustrative quotations. -
Period: to
First fascicle of the Century Dictionary
First fascicle (A–Appet) of the Century Dictionary published on or before 17 June, ed. William Dwight Whitney, based on Annandale’s revision of Ogilvie’s Imperial Dictionary, and thus ultimately a descendant of Webster’s American Dictionary of 1828. -
Period: to
Webster’s International Dictionary (1st edition)
First edition of Webster’s International Dictionary, ed. Porter et al., a thorough revision of the American Dictionary of 1864–84, comprising 175,000 entries. A further edition with a supplement of 25,000 entries would appear in 1900, ed. William T. Harris, and a Webster’s New International Dictionary, with 400,000 entries, in 1909, also ed. Harris. -
Period: to
Funk & Wagnall’s Standard Dictionary of the English Language
First volume of Funk & Wagnall’s Standard Dictionary of the English Language; the second appeared in 1894, and the two together included 304,000 entries. A revision would appear in 1913 as the New Standard Dictionary of the English Language, offering 450,000 entries. -
Period: to
Joseph Wright’s English Dialect Dictionary
First part (A–Ballot) of Joseph Wright’s English Dialect Dictionary published 1 July. The 30th and last part (the second half of the Dialect Grammar) would appear in September 1905. -
Period: to
Concise Oxford Dictionary (COD)
First edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary (COD) published 16 June, ed. H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler. The twelfth edition, issued as The Concise Oxford English Dictionary, was published in 2011; COD has been the basis for dictionaries of several varieties of English. -
Period: to
‘New Dictionary Schemes’ to the Philological Society
William Craigie’s presentation ‘New Dictionary Schemes’ to the Philological Society, initiates the so-called period dictionaries of English, multi-volume historical dictionaries intended to treat particular areas more fully than was possible for the NED / OED. -
Period: to
128th and last fascicle of the NED/OED
128th and last fascicle (Wise–Wyzen) of the NED / OED published 19 April, ed. C. T. Onions (Wise–Worling) and William Craigie (Worm–Wyzen). The fascicle XYZ, ed. Onions, had appeared 6 October 1921. Completed NED issued in ten volumes. -
Period: to
1st fascicle of “The Scottish National Dictionary”
First fascicle (A–Aggle) of The Scottish National Dictionary (SND), ed. William Grant. SND would be completed in 10 volumes in 1976 (1–2 ed. Grant, 3 by Grant and David Murison, 4–10 by Murison), with a supplement ed. Iseabail Macleod in 2005. -
Period: to
1st fascicle of “A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue”
First fascicle (A–Assemble) of A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (DOST), ed. William Craigie. DOST would be completed in 12 volumes in 2002 (1–2 ed. Craigie, 3 by Craigie and A. J. Aitken, 4–8 by Aitken et al., 9–12 by Margaret Dareau et al.). -
Period: to
Corrected Oxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary, being a corrected re-issue with an Introduction, Supplement, and Bibliography of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, published in November, ed. Craigie and Onions, in twelve volumes (the Supplement had been made available to subscribers to the dictionary on 21 September). It would be reissued in micrographic form (four pages of the original to one page of the reissue) in two volumes in 1971, thereafter becoming readily affordable to very many readers -
Period: to
The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles
The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles published in two volumes 17 February, ed. C. T. Onions, H. W. Fowler, and Jessie Coulson. A sixth edition, ed. Angus Stevenson, was published in 2007. -
Period: to
New International Dictionary (2nd edition)
Webster’s New International Dictionary, Second Edition published 25 June, ed. William Allan Neilson, presenting 552,000 entries, with over 12,000 pictorial illustrations. -
Period: to
New Method English Dictionary (1st edition)
First edition of A New Method English Dictionary, ed. Michael West and James Endicott, the first significant monolingual learners’ dictionary of English (second edition 1965). -
Period: to
First fascicle of Dictionary of American English
First fascicle of Dictionary of American English, ed. William Craigie et al.; the 20th and last fascicle would appear in 1944, and the dictionary would be issued in four volumes in that year. This was the first of the period dictionaries proposed in 1919 to be completed; it was followed in 1951 by the two-volume Dictionary of Americanisms, ed. Mitford M. Mathews, which focuses more closely on words of American origin, and takes their history up to the time of compilation -
Period: to
Idiomatic and Syntactic English Dictionary
Idiomatic and Syntactic English Dictionary, ed. A. S. Hornby, E. V. Gatenby, and H. Wakefield, published in Tokyo; this dictionary would be reprinted photographically by Oxford University Press as A Learner’s Dictionary of Current English in 1948 and reissued as The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English in 1952; this and successive editions had sold more than 14,000,000 copies by the early 1990s. The eighth edition was published in 2010. -
Period: to
1st fascicle of the Middle English Dictionary
First fascicle (E–Endelonges) of the Middle English Dictionary. The dictionary would be completed in thirteen volumes, chief editors Hans Kurath (A–F), Sherman M. Kuhn with John Reidy (G–P), and Robert E. Lewis et al. (Q–Z), the whole comprising 54,081 entries, supported by 891,531 illustrative quotations. The 115th and final fascicle of the alphabetical sequence, X–Z, was published July 2001, followed by a revised Plan and Bibliography in 2007. -
Period: to
Third New International Dictionary of the English Language
Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, published 28 September (with at least some entries released to the press as early as 6 September), ed. Philip Gove; attacks on the supposed permissiveness of the dictionary began in early September, the most violent being published in 1962. -
Period: to
Dictionary of Jamaican English
F. G. Cassidy and R. Le Page, Dictionary of Jamaican English published in or before June, drawing on four centuries of written record and on oral usage; a second edition would follow in 1980. -
Period: to
American Heritage Dictionary
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language published 15 September, edited by William Morris, with an etymological appendix by Calvert Watkins, notes on disputable items by a usage panel, and numerous photographic illustrations; fifth edition: November 2011, ed. Steve Kleinedler. -
Period: to
1st volume of Dictionary of American Regional English
First volume (A–C) of Dictionary of American Regional English published early September, ed. F. G. Cassidy et al., and drawing on fieldwork with 2,777 informants in 1,002 US communities, and on written sources. The last in the alphabetical sequence (Sl–Z, ed. Joan Houston Hall) appeared in March 2012, with a final volume of maps, indexes, and questionnaire responses published in 2013. -
Period: to
1st fascicle of the Dictionary of Old English
First fascicle (D) of the Dictionary of Old English published, ed. Angus Cameron et al., registering 897 headwords on 951 pages in microfiche. It has been followed by microfiche and electronic publications of A–C and E–G. -
Period: to
OED (2nd edition)
Second edition of the OED published 30 March, ed. John Simpson and Edmund Weiner, in twenty volumes, comprising 291,500 entries, supported by 2,436,600 quotations. -
Period: to
“Lexicographic year”
Three new editions of English learner's dictionaries (OALD 5, LDCE 3 and COBUILD 2) and two new dictionaries — "Cambridge International Dictionary of English" (CIDE) and "Harrap' Essential English Dictionary" (HEED) came out almost simultaneously. -
Period: to
Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage
Richard Allsopp, Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage transcends national boundaries to register the standardizing English of the Anglophone Caribbean as a whole. -
Period: to
Online Oxford English Dictionary
OED Online launched 14 March. -
Period: to
Publication of the Historical Thesaurus of the OED
Publication of the Historical Thesaurus of the OED, ed. Christian Kay, Jane Roberts, Michael Samuels, and Irene Wotherspoon.