802 



DICTIONARY 



DICTYOGENS 



limits of his power were as follows : he could not 

 touch the treasury ; he could not leave Italy ; and 

 he could not ride through Home on horseback 

 without previously obtaining the permission of the 

 people. While the consuls had only twelve lictors, 

 the dictator was preceded by twenty-four, bearing 

 the secures and fasces. To him also belonged the 

 sella curulis and the toga prcetexta. The last legally 

 elected dictator was M. Junius Pera, who entered 

 on his office 216 B.C. From this time nominal 

 dictators were frequently appointed for the purpose 

 of holding the elections, but even these finally 

 disappeared, 202 B.C. 



Dictionary (late Lat. dictionarium), a book 

 containing the words of a language alphabetically 

 arranged, with their definitions and significations 

 set forth more or less fully. In this respect it 

 differs from a mere list or index, that it contains 

 explanations about each word included within its 

 scope, except where it is more convenient, by a 

 cross-reference, to refer the reader for a part or the 

 whole of the account of one word to what is said 

 under some other word. There are several other 

 terms that are used synonymously, or nearly so, 

 with dictionary. The Greek word Lexicon is in 

 common use for a dictionary of languages. It is 

 not entirely so limited, however, in practice, as may 

 be seen in such works as the Lexicon Juridicum 

 of Calvinus or Kahl, which is just a dictionary of 

 Roman and feudal law of the same kind as Sir 

 Edward Tomlin's Law Dictionary is of English 

 law. The word Encyclopaedia has generally a wider 

 meaning ; but in actual use we find books of refer- 

 ence of exactly the same kind styled indifferently 

 dictionaries and encyclopaedias. The terms Glos- 

 sary and Vocabulary are nearly synonymous with 

 a dictionary of a language ; and Thesaurus, Cata- 

 logue, Directory, Gazetteer, and Index are some- 

 times used as titles where dictionary might be not 

 inapplicable. 



Dictionaries may be divided into two classes ( 1 ) 

 those whose object is to explain words and phrases ; 

 and ( 2 ) those that aim at giving information about 

 things. 



(1) Dictionaries of language are, again, divided 

 into various sub-classes or species. The most com- 

 mon kind what, indeed, is understood by the 

 term dictionary (and the equivalent Greek term 

 Lexicon) when used by itself is an alphabetical 

 list of the words composing any language either 

 explained in the same language, or interpreted 

 by the corresponding words of one or more other 

 languages. To indicate that all the words of 

 the language are included, the name Thesaurus 

 ( ' Treasury ' ) is sometimes used, as in the great 

 Hebrew dictionary of Gesenius. The words used by 

 particular authors or classes of authors are often 

 explained in special dictionaries or lexicons, such 

 as those to Livy, Cicero, Tacitus, Homer, Sophocles, 

 Shakespeare, and the like. A Glossary is a 

 dictionary of unusual terms, as archaic, provincial, 

 or technical terms. An etymological dictionary 

 is one in which the derivation of words is the sole 

 or a prominent object. 



( 2 ) Dictionaries of things ( Ger. Reahuorterbucher ), 

 or of information, are also of various kinds. When 

 the whole field of human knowledge is embraced, 

 we have an alphabetical Encyclopaedia or Conversa- 

 tions-Lexicon. The name Encyclopaedia or Cyclo- 

 paedia is sometimes given to dictionaries of special 

 departments of knowledge, as Anatomy and Physi- 

 ology ; but in all such cases dictionary seems the 

 correcter term, as in the well-known dictionaries 

 edited by Sir William Smith, which cover the 

 whole ground of Bible terms, Greek and Roman 

 biography and mythology and antiquities, Chris- 

 tian antiquities, and Christian biography. 



There is no kind of information, within wide or 



narrow bounds, that may not be thrown into the 

 dictionary form. Dictionaries of apt quotations 

 from the classics, the Scriptures, or the fathers 

 were not unknown in the 17th century. There are 

 dictionaries of biography, of geography, of nautical 

 terms, of dates, of architecture, of cookery, of 

 political economy, of heraldry, of fortification 

 in fact, of every object of human knowledge 

 and practice. 



Dictionaries of language, in our sense of the 

 word, are of modern origin. The Greeks and 

 Romans had no idea of a book embracing all the 

 words of their own or any foreign tongue. Glos- 

 saries, however, of unusual words and phrases were 

 early current. The earliest work of the kind 

 extant (though much interpolated) is the Homeric 

 Lexicon ( Gr. Lexeis Homerikai ) of Apollonius, an 

 Alexandrine grammarian of the time of Augustus, 

 More extensive compilations, such as the Lexicon 

 of Suidas (q.v. ), and the Etymologicum Magnum 

 (q.v.), were made in the middle ages. A real dic- 

 tionary became first possible after the invention of 

 printing. A broad and sure basis for Greek lexico- 

 graphy was laid by Henry Stephens ( q. v. ) in his 

 Thesaurus (1572), on which the school of Hemster- 

 huis built further, and which has been greatly 

 extended by the labours of Schneider, Passow r 

 Seiler, Jakobitz, Rost, and Pape. The well-known 

 work of Liddell and Scott (7th ed. 1883) is based 

 on the great German one of Passow. The The- 

 saurus (1531) of Robert Stephens inaugurated 

 Latin lexicography, which has been extended 

 by Joh. Matth. Gesner, Forcellini, Ducange 

 (medieval Latin), Scheller, Freund, Georges, 

 Miihlmann, and Vanic"ek, and is well represented 

 in English by Riddell and White, Andrews, Smith, 

 and the Americans Lewis and Short. The earliest 

 standard dictionaries of modern tongues were the 

 Italian Vocabulario della Crusca (1612); the Dic- 

 tionary of the French Academy (1694); and that 

 of the Academy at Madrid (1726-39). The great 

 German Dictionary, begun in 1854 by the brothers 

 Grimm, is still unfinished. Littre'.s French Diction- 

 ary (4 vols. and supplement) appeared in 1863-78. 

 The materials collected by the Philological Society 

 formed the main foundation for the great New 

 English Dictionary, of which vols. i. and ii. were 

 edited by Dr Murray ( 1888-93), in conjunction with 

 Henry Bradley in vol. iii. and onwards. This splen- 

 did work follows a strictly historical method, and 

 aims to give all the significations of every English 

 word during the last seven hundred years, with a 

 series of quotations illustrating its usage. English 

 dictionary-making in its larger sense began with 

 Dr Johnson (q.v.), the basis of whose work was an 

 interleaved copy of Nathan Bailey's Diet. (1721-7). 



The best complete English dictionaries at present in 

 use are Richardson's, Worcester's, Webster's Latham's 

 edition of Johnson, Annandale's edition of Ogilvie's 

 Imperial Dictionary, and especially the Century ( 6 vols. 

 New York, 1889-91, edited by Whitney), and the Stand- 

 ard (2 vols. New York, 1893-95); for Scotch words, 

 Jamieson (1808-25; ed. Donaldson, 1879-87); for 

 etymology, those of Wedgwood, Edw. Mtiller ( German ), 

 and Professor Skeat. The great Eny. Dialect Dictionary 

 (ed. Wright) began in 1896, superseding Halliwell, T. 

 Wright, &c. For older English words, the chief are 

 ^Elfric's Glossary (about 975), Way's edition (1843-65) of 

 the Promptorium Parvulorum (about 1440), Bosworth's 

 Anglo- Saxon Dictionary ( ed. Toller), Stratmann'sMt^c/Ze- 

 English Dictionary ( ed. H. Bradley, 1891 ), Grein's Sprach- 

 schatz dcr Anyelsachsischen Dichter, and Matzner's Alt- 

 englische Sprachproben, &c. ; as well also the Eng. words in 

 Cotgrave's French-English Diet. (1611), Minsheu's Guide 

 into Tonrjues (1617), &c. See BIOGRAPHY, ENCYCLO- 

 PAEDIA, DIALECT, ENGLISH, and articles on the various 

 languages ; also Vater's bibliography of dictionaries ( 2d 

 ed., by Julg, 1847). 



DlCtyogens, a term proposed by Lindley for 

 Monocotyledons (q.v.) with, reticulated leaves. 



