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According to the Royal Spanish Academy, the dictionary can also be defined as:
- A repertoire in the form of a book or on electronic support in which the words or expressions of one or more languages, or of a specific subject, are collected, according to a certain order, accompanied by their definition, equivalence or explanation.
- A catalog of news or data of the same genre, arranged alphabetically. There are bibliographic, biographical, geographical dictionaries, etc.
The dictionary allows you to consult the different terms that are used in a language, and find their definition, uses and examples in context, etymology, spelling, pronunciation, syllabic separation and grammatical forms.
Brief history of the dictionary
The origin of dictionaries
The first dictionary in the world arose in Mesopotamia, around the year 2,300 BC. This dictionary was a cuneiform writing text that incorporated Sumerian words. However, dictionaries more similar to the current ones arose centuries later.
Around the 4th century BC, the Greek philologist Philetas of Cos compiled phrases and expressions from the Ancient Greek dialects, especially those used in the Iliad and the Odyssey .
In the first century AD, the grammarian and lexicographer Apollonius the Sophist created the Homeric Lexicon, a dictionary that included terms from Homer’s works.
The first dictionaries
During the Middle Ages, different specialized glossaries on various topics were produced. In the 13th century, the English grammarian John de Garland was the first to introduce the term “dictionary.” He named his own work that way, which consisted of a help list for the pronunciation of English words that came from Latin.
The first dictionaries were generally bilingual and were often used to translate texts from one language to another. Dictionaries of Anglo-Saxon and Latin terms already existed in the 16th century. Likewise, during the Spanish colonization in America, the need to understand the native languages and teach Spanish arose. The first Mexican dictionary was written by Fray Alonso de Molina between 1555 and 1571. This bilingual dictionary included common vocabulary in the Spanish and Mexica languages. Later there was also a version with words in Spanish and Nahuatl.
In the 17th century, the priest Robert Cawdrey created the first dictionary of the English language, known as the Table Alphabetical . However, the first issue to use the dictionary title was The English Dictionary , by lexicographer Henry Cockeram. This dictionary is also known as An interpreter of hard english words and was published in 1623.
Other famous dictionaries were the Johnson Dictionary, which was published in 1755, and the Oxford English Dictionary, which was released almost two centuries later.
The Royal Academy and the first dictionary of the Spanish language
The first proper dictionary of the Spanish language was prepared by the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) and published in 1780.
The Royal Spanish Academy was established in 1713. Its founder, Juan Manuel Fernández Pacheco y Zúñiga, Marquis of Villena, established this institution with the aim of recording changes in the Spanish language over time and regulating the use of the Spanish language.
To carry out this highly complex task, the Royal Spanish Academy has a group of forty-six academics who study, adapt and include words from the Spanish language, their uses in different countries and cultures, modifications, spellings and definitions.
After the publication of the first dictionary, different adaptations were made. Currently there are more than twenty versions, updated over the years.
The Dictionary of the Spanish language is considered the most important lexicographical work of the Spanish language. It is characterized by being the result of the collaboration and collection of general lexicon by academics from Spain and the rest of the countries where Spanish is spoken. In addition to the printed dictionaries, there is the RAE online dictionary, which can be used for all kinds of online queries.
Characteristics of a dictionary
Dictionaries are characterized by including different parts, which are similar in copies of almost all languages. A common dictionary has:
- Articles: These are the different divisions of the dictionary, for example, the letters A, B, C, etc.
- Input: Also known as lemma. It is the lexical unit that appears written in bold: A, B, C, etc.
- Word: is the word or term on which information is provided. It is usually highlighted in bold type.
- Pronunciation: they are the linguistic signs that are written inside square brackets and indicate the sounds of the word.
- Etymology: it is the historical origin of the words, from which they obtained their meaning and form. The words can come from Latin, Greek, Arabic, etc.
- Grammatical category: according to the grammatical property or the type of word, its classification can be found in article, noun, adjective, pronoun, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction or interjection.
- Definition: is the concept or meaning of the word.
- Acceptances: are each of the meanings of a word. They can be highlighted in bold and numbered, and even be separated by two bars.
Some dictionaries may also include:
- Examples: of the word in the context of a sentence. They are usually in italics.
- Common expressions: popular phrases or locutions that include that word.
- Other indications on the use of the word in question.
- Synonyms and antonyms of said term.
Types of dictionaries
Although in the beginning dictionaries consisted of groups of words and their meanings, currently there are different types of dictionaries that incorporate different information and formats. Some of them are:
- Normative: they include the terms that are considered correct according to the norms of the language.
- Grammar dictionaries: these do not include words but grammatical structures with their corresponding meaning and construction.
- Etymological: these focus on the origin of words, their roots and their meanings.
- Thesaurus: These group words that have similar meanings.
- Antonym dictionaries: include words that have opposite meanings.
- Encyclopedic Dictionary: This type of dictionary has more extensive, specific, and detailed information on terms related to various disciplines such as History, Geography, Astronomy, and other fields.
- I deological: includes groups of words that are associated with certain ideas or ideology.
- Online or virtual dictionary: it is a digital version of the traditional printed dictionary. It exists on various electronic media, such as CDs and DVDs, and also on internet websites and mobile applications.
other dictionaries
Other common types of dictionaries are:
- Dictionary of doubts: they are made up of words and phrases that have different meanings and are cause for confusion or are used incorrectly. It also includes colloquial expressions.
- Dictionary for practical use: it has the meanings of words that are not recognized by the official institution of the language, such as the Royal Spanish Academy, even though they are used in everyday life.
- Bilingual dictionaries: they have the meanings of the words of two languages.
- Specialized: they incorporate words that belong to a certain field, such as computer science, biology, history, etc.
- Thesaurus: they are groups of words that are related to the term to be consulted.
- Reverse dictionary: the words are arranged alphabetically according to the last letters of each word. This type of dictionary is used in the writing of poems and verses.
- Learning Dictionary: Focus on language learners and provide simpler definitions.
- Visual dictionary: includes images that are used to illustrate the meaning of words.
Curiosities about dictionaries
- Despite what is commonly believed, if a word is not in the dictionary, it does not mean that it does not exist. Even the largest dictionaries do not include all possible words in a language. In reality, a word exists when it is used.
- Living languages are constantly evolving and creating new words all the time. Dictionaries cannot prevent these changes but they do regulate and support the correct use of existing words.
- Dictionaries are usually updated every year, but they are always a bit out of date with respect to the spoken language.
- A large percentage of the words that are in dictionaries are not used frequently.
- Specific terms, such as medical vocabulary, are often not included in common dictionaries.
- Some publishers, such as MacMillan, have announced that they will stop printing dictionaries and focus on virtual dictionaries, which outperform print ones in the ability to include photos, videos, and audio with the correct pronunciation of each word.
Bibliography
- RAE. Online dictionary of the Spanish language. Available at: https://www.rae.es/
- Ciro, LA The dictionary as an object of study and didactic tool in language teaching. (2007). Colombia. The USB Agora. Available in pdf file, at: https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/4077/407748996004.pdf
- Medina Guerra, AM; Ayala Castro, MC Dictionaries through history . (2010). Spain. Malaga University.
