dictionary
pronunciation
How to pronounce dictionary in British English:
UK [ˈdɪkʃənri]
How to pronounce dictionary in American English:
US [ˈdɪkʃəneri]
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- Noun:
- a reference book containing an alphabetical list of words with information about them
Word Origin
- dictionary
- dictionary: [16] The term dictionary was coined in medieval Latin, probably in the 13th century, on the basis of the Latin adjective dictionārius ‘of words’, a derivative of Latin dictiō ‘saying’, or, in medieval Latin, ‘word’. English picked it up comparatively late; the first known reference to it is in The pilgrimage of perfection 1526: ‘and so Peter Bercharius [Pierre Bercheur, a 15thcentury French lexicographer] in his dictionary describeth it’.Latin dictiō (source also of English diction [15]) was a derivatives of the verb dicere ‘say’. Its original meaning was ‘point out’ rather than ‘utter’, as demonstrated by its derivative indicāre (source of English indicate) and words in other languages, such as Greek deiknúnai ‘show’, Sanskrit diç- ‘show’ (later ‘say’), and German zeihen ‘accuse’, which come from the same ultimate source.Its past participle gave English dictum [16], and the derived verb dictāre ‘assert’ produced English dictate [17] and dictator [14]. It has been the basis of a wide range of other English words, from the more obvious derivatives like addict and predict to more heavily disguised offspring such as condition, index, and judge.=> addict, condition, dictate, diction, ditto, index, indicate, judge, predict
- dictionary (n.)
- 1520s, from Medieval Latin dictionarium "collection of words and phrases," from Latin dictionarius "of words," from dictio "word" (see diction). Probably first English use in title of a book was in Sir Thomas Elyot's "Latin Dictionary" (1538) though Latin Dictionarius was so used from early 13c. Grose's 1788 "Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue" has "RICHARD SNARY. A dictionary." DICTIONARY, n. A malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic. This dictionary, however, is a most useful work. [Bierce]
Example
- 1. Yet the oxford dictionary lists only half as many .
- 2. You can select more than one dictionary if you wish .
- 3. I purchased several french dictionary programs and can 't remember what life was like without them .
- 4. He took a dictionary from the desk .
- 5. In 1604 the first english dictionary was published .