DICTIONARY (ML. dietionarins, Nvord-hook, from Lat. dictio, word, from (Hi-ere. to say). In its original and most common application, a ..ork which is lingui-.tie in character, being a c011ipihition of all or a portion of the words of a language arranged according to sonic exact order. usually the alphabetical one, with brief explanations and definitions. in later and more dictionaries additional information of an appropriate character is included within the scope of the work. Thus etymologies. of pronunciation. and variations in orthography may be given. while a still further expansion in cludes citations which illustrate the use of a word. The name is said to have been used for the first time by Joannes de Garlandia, who died in A.D. 1250 ile described his book containing a classified list of as a dictionarius. In its use the word dictionary is no longer confined to a simple linguistic compilation, but is applicable to works on special or technical subjects. which through the medium of an alphabetical classifica tion of words belonging to that subject. give appropriate and detailed information. These dictionaries on special subjects are very ni.f. merous, such as biographical, historical. biblio graphical. geographical. philosophical. mathemat ical, medical. and architectural die t irmaries.
The following terms are more or less moo. with dietionary—voeabulary, which is a list of work, restricted to a single work or to some division of the language, e.g. the vocabu lary of Caesar'- Gallic War: lexicon, a word ap plied by English-speaking people to a dictionary of some foreign language, as Hebrew, Greek, or Latin; glossary, a partial dictionary of words of a certain dialect or of antiquated or technical terms accompanied by glosses or explanations; thesaurus ( verborum). i.e. a treasury of words,
an elaborate diet ionary with many references and full explanations. More unfamiliar are idiotiron., from Greek b5myrikos, ida;tikoR, belonging to an individual, and oaomaRt icon the former. common in Germany, indicates a dictionary of words of a dialect; the latter, from the Greek 6voaa, cmma, name, is a dictionary of names, as the Onoinasti eon of Julius Pollux of the second century—a Greek dictionary in ten books containing words arranged according to their meaning. Index de a vocabulary withmit explanatory matter arranged in alphabetical order. often plaeed at the close of a hook to indieate more exactly and definitely the content, thereof. The gazet teer and coneordance should he mentioned as hav ing certain characteristics of dictionaries. The first is a geographical dietionary with names of places, rivers, etc., in alphabetical order, with a brief account of each. The word was used first by Lawrence Eehard, whose work was en titled The Ca:ette• r; or. Newsman's lutcrpretcr —.I Geographical Index (11th ed., London. 1716). In part ii. the author speaks of his work as Gazetteer." A concordance is an index of various pa—ages in a book classified according to certain leading word, which are arranged in an alpha helical order. As this was first made for the Bible. Johnson defines it as "a book which shows in how many texts of Scripture any word occurs." Thos, as examples. may be cited: ('ruder, .t compiete Concordance to the (Ill and \ere Testa ments (London, 1S59 ; Clarke. concordance to Nhakcspearc (ib.. 1827) ; Brightwell .1 Con cordance to the Entire of Alfred Tennyson (ib.. 1869).