DICTIONARY (Low Latin dictionarism, first used in the 14th century; from dictio, post classical synonym for verbum, word). The various applications of the term, general and special, are so familiar that a detail would be of no service. Of its synonyms, it may be said that the Greek word "lexicon* is customarily restricted to a dictionary of ancient or Oriental languages, with definitions, etc., in the language of the supposed reader; "glossary* and "vocab ulary* to dictionaries of the terms used in the special works to which they are attached. A glossary (called by the Germans idioticon, by the Italians vocabolario) is a defined list of unusual, antique or foreign words; a vocabu lary, in classical works sometimes called an in dex, belongs to a book in or text-book of a for eign language, and renders the foreign words into the reader's language, or the exercises of the latter into the foreign.
The modern use of the term "dictionary* is not limited to a simple compilation, but has been extended to technical and other subjects, in which alphabetical arrangement of topics is maintained. Thus at present there are bio graphical, bibliographical, geographical, mathe matical, historical, philosophical, medical, musi cal, rhyming and other dictionaries.
Functions.— The variation of kind with the variation of users and origin, common to all literature, is well exemplified in dictionaries. The original dictionary was a simple definer of words which a cultivated reading class was sup posed not to know,— foreign, provincial, tech nical, obsolete, etc.; the modern dictionary of its own language attempted to exclude nearly all but the accepted vocabulary of current liter ature,— that is, what people knew already,— or at least what would be needed for such reading; the later ones increasingly include the means of understanding everything ever printed in a lan guage. Two classes only, for obvious reasons, are still excluded (one of' which the older ones gave), by reason of the change in audience from men to women and children : gross words, ex cept a few too important philologically to be spared; and argot. The "abridged* dictionaries for many years, with ludicrous logic, excised the difficult words and retained the familiar ones; the first to exercise common-sense and reverse this plan was Jabez Jenkins in his won derful "vest-pocket lexicon,* whose nearly 30,000 words contained almost all the unusual ones and the pronunciational cruces. The attempts
to draw a line in full dictionaries are now rec ognized as injudicious: that a word or form of a word has gone out of use is the very reason it should be defined or at least cross-referenced. An incomplete record of the language is by so much unserviceable. Part of the exclusions re sulted from the growth of a half-educated mid dle class who looked to it as a standard of taste. The French Academy at first omitted all techni cal terms, and all words assumed below its standard of elegant usage; but as this made the book half useless, and the omissions were cred ited to the Academy's ignorance or carelessness instead of its fastidiousness, it could not be maintained. Recent dictionaries attain the same end by marking words as "obsolete,* "little used,* °provincial,* gar, J1 etc. The attempted arbitrament of pro nunciations, though inevitable (being among the chief services for which they are consulted), will always remain a battle-ground embarrassing even to the umpires. Still more important, however, is a dictionary's value for the histori cal development of a language. No dictionary fulfils its best purpose which does not, as far as possible, trace the varying significations from their sources, with their development by meta phor or technical use; and any arrangement which obscures this is vicious; whatever tem porary convenience may be subserved. As the validity of this development depends on citation of passages, these should be full, otherwise we have only the arbitrary assertion of the com pilers. Back from even this lie the original etymologies of the words, which are of great value and even more interest; and the best dic tionaries give them with their in other languages. All the irregular grammaUcal forms, and the particles by which words are in flected,— a sufficient grammatical apparatus for correct usage,— should be given as a matter of course. Syllabifications, divisions, etc., should also be indicated: in a word, the dictionary is a proof-reader's vademecum, and must contain all requisite material for him to use.