HISTORY. The earliest dictionary of 'which there is any mention is that made in Nineveh in the reign of Asshurbanipal in the seventh century D.C.. which is impressed on a number of clay tablets in cuneiform letters. Arabic scholars early busied themselves with dictionary-making. a work very necessary for a language as copious as theirs. The first to attempt to gather the entire Arabic vocabulary in one work was prob ably Khalil Hai Ahmed of Oman (died 701). He adopted an arrangement not alphalwtieal, but ac cording to certain phonetic and physiological principles. Of KhaliFs many successors. Mukar ram ibn Mansur. an Egyptian (died 1311), and al-Firuzabadi. a Persian by birth, whose travels. however, entitled him to be called a citizen of the oriental world ( died 14141. may be mentioned. The work of the former (Cairo, 1300 sqq.) filled 20 volumes, and the Camas ('dictionary') of the latter. preserved only in part. extended to (II). or, according to some to 100 vol umes. While in a certain sense Hebrew lexi cography began with the Massoretic ( sixth. eighth centuries), the real production of diction aries dated from the tenth century. and took it origin and stimulus from the study of Arabic. Rabbi Sandia Gaon (died 942) was the first lexicographer: David Kimehi (c.120))), author of the Book of Roots. was the greatest. :Mena hem ben Santa (c.960) made a arranged according to stems. Judah Hayyuj (c.1000) propounded the theory of triliteral roots. and his work was continued by Rabbi Jonah (lbn Jonah, c.1030). Sanskrit diction aries begin at a early date in the glossary of Vaska to the Itig-Veda (about the fifth century a. C.) , and they continue to be for the most part collections of rare words and meanings. de signed especially for the authors who composed the artificial poetry which is so prevalent. in India. These dictionaries, the most of which were written the fifth century A.D.. are in variably in verse, and are divisible into the two general classes of lexicons of synonyms and homonyms. Alphabetic arrangement begins only in the latter period of the homonymous diction aries. The older works of this class arrange the words in order of importance. while the synony minis dictionaries a re classified according to sub. jects. Other modes are according to number of syllables in the word, its gender, or its final let ter. The number of native Sanskrit lexicons
is over fifty, and of them the Ainara-ka (q.v.) is the most frequently quoted. There are also special d iet iona ries I/II botany. med ieine, and astronomy. as well as glossaries in Pali, and polyglot lexicons in Sanskrit. Tibe tan. and even ( see Zacharhe, 1 di.se/o It ogle rblicho r, Ist17.) (If Old and .)lialdle Iranian t Avestan and Pahlavi) there are but two native dictionaries, one .kres• tan Pahlavi, and the other Pahlavi l'azand (both edited by Hang and daina•pji, Paotiabay and lam .1,m, 1.117-70, the former also by Ileichelt, Vien I a, natio). 111 .\lodern Persian there is a hang list of lexicons, both general and special. which are based upon .\ rabic models, the oldest one, perhaps. NN rit tcu by .\sadi. Eiralusi's teacher. dating from the eleventh century. In the classical languages, Creek and Latin, we final evidences of lexicographical wort: at an early period. 1)ic of language in a form with which we are familiar are of modern origin. They are an outgrowth of the importance of Greek and Latin literature to the scholars of the Middle Ago,, may be traced to the custom of lin-NA ing marginal glosses or explanatory words in texts of classical authors. The bilingual dic tionary in partieular is due to the closer inter course of the various nations of the more modern world. The I :reek, and did not conceive of a work •ontaining all the words of their own or of :a foreign language. and their early dic tiona•ies were simply glossaries of unaknal wordy or phrases. .\themens this of Alexandrian schol ars such as Zenodotais, librarian of the great lilirary, who compiled hooks containing foreign phrases and a glossary of limner; and of .\rte midorns of n.c. 2-10, who prepared a book of teehnieal terms on cooking. !loth have been According to Suidas. .kpollonius. the Sophist of the days of Augustus„ wrote the earliest (:reek Nvii jell was .cis 'OgnpiKai, I,t is II or llorgig•rir Words. pub lishedby liekker. of Berlin, 1833. This is the most ancient extant. Other _\lexandrian lexicographers were .Elitis Mo cis I A.D. 11101, the \vim wrote a Oreek (..\ttic) lexicon (edited by Hudson. Oxford. 17121, and Ilarpo erat ion fourth century). who composed a lexicon of the Attie orator: (edited by 1)indorf. Oxford, 1 s53 ) .