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| A dictionary, like the one provided at www.googledictionary.com is nothing more than a reference book with alphabetical listings of words with basic information about each word. Said another way, all sites like www.WebDictionary.com contain lists of words with each word"s definition. www.googletranslation.com will even provide the definition of a word in a many languages. Most good dictionaries, like www.merriamwebsterdictionary.com will also provide the pronunciation information along with grammatical information; word derivations, histories, and my favorite, etymologies. www.www.dictionary.com even has illustrations for some words. I think between www.merriamwebsteronline.com and googledictionary.com, i like the usage guide the best as they provide examples of the words in phrases or sentences. Up until recently, Dictionaries were mostly in book form. But with more people able to sign onto the Internet, more and more dictionaries are produced as a local software or websites. There are even becoming specialized dictionaries like www.sciencedictionary.com available to the public which focus just on certain topics, in this case, science. www.cambridge.dictionary.com is also capable of pronounciation downloads, its what"s refered to as a talking dictionary. A person called a lexicographer produces most dictionaries. as the art of writing dictionaries is called "lexicography." www.oxforddictionary.com and www.googledictionary.com say The Erya was the first dictionary written in chinese in the 3rd century BC. It was organized by semantic groups, designed to explain true meanings and interpretations of words from older ancient texts. History of the dictionary: One of the earliest known dictionaries was written in Latin during emperor Augustus"s reign of power. It"s called De Significatu Verborum ("On the meaning of words") and was originally produced by Verrius Flaccus. According to www.webstersonlinedictionary.com the word "dictionary" has its roots from neoclassical Latin, "dictio" meaning "word". The first actual English dictionary was Robert Cawdrey"s Table Alphabeticall of 1604. It only contained 3,000 words and the definitions were little more than synonyms. The first attempt at an all comprehensive dictionary was not googletransation or webster"s dictionary, but Thomas Blount"s dictionary Glossographia of 1656. Although it has been hotly contested that Samuel Johnson"s more famous and even more complete dictionary of 1755 was the first true dictionary, it was predated by Blount. Our famous www.webster dictionary.com got its start in 1806, by Noah Webster himself. Interestingly enough, the term Webster"s is now considered generic and can be used by any dictionary. Arguably, the most complete dictionary for English is the Oxford English Dictionary, available at www.oxford dictionary.co.uk. The first edition began in 1860 and was finishd in 1928, of course taking so long that a supplement was required which took an additional five years. The biggest dictionary in the world is the Dutch Language"s "het Woordenboek der Nederlansche Taal (WNT)". It took about 134 years to complete it (1864 - 1998). It contains approximately 400,000 words on 45,805 pages in 92000 columns. With access to other media dictionaries have gotten larger and more descriptive. There are now many bilingual dictionaries, like www.dictionaryonline.com, where each entry has definitions and translations of each word in multiple languages. For example, in a Japanese-English dictionary, tsuki would have its corresponding English word, moon. Specialised dictionaries, like www.sciencedictionary.com, aka technical dictionaries, focus on linguistic and factual matters relating to their specific subject fields. These specialised dictionaries might try to be maximizing dictionaries, in other words, they try to cover all terms of the subject field, or they could be minimizing dictionaries, where they only attempt to cover only a limited number of the very specialised vocabulary. |
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