| dictionary |
| Definition:
The following definition is from the Oxford English Dictionary: "A book dealing with the individual words of a language (or certain specified classes of them), so as to set forth their orthography, pronunciation, signification, and use, their synonyms, derivation, and history, or at least some of these facts: for convenience of reference, the words are arranged in some stated order, now, in most languages, alphabetical; and in larger dictionaries the information given is illustrated by quotations from literature…." |
| Example: The Online Dictionary of Language Terminology (the ODLT) |
| Etymology:
The word derives from the Medieval Latin dictionarium, a collection of words and phrases, which in turn derives from the Latin dictio, word. Note: The word was probably first used as part of the title of a book in Sir Thomas Elyot's Latin Dictionary (1538). |
| Oxford English Dictionary: Its first OED citation is from 1526: "And so Peter Bercharius in his dictionary describeth it.' (Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531), 233) |