How did the dictionaries begin?
We’ve all opened a dictionary at some point — maybe to check the spelling of a word or find its meaning. But have you ever stopped to wonder where dictionaries come from or how they have changed over time?
Most of us think of a dictionary as a simple book with words listed in alphabetical order, each with its meaning, pronunciation, and sometimes the word’s history. But dictionaries weren’t always like this. In fact, it took hundreds of years for the kind of dictionary we use today to be created.
The word “dictionary” first appeared in the year 1225 in Latin as dictionarius, meaning “a collection of words.” But this early version was very different — it only listed Latin words that students had to memorize. It wasn’t even used to explain word meanings the way modern dictionaries do.
It wasn’t until the 1400s that English words started to appear in dictionaries — and even then, they were only there to help students learn Latin. One of these early books had 12,000 English words, each matched with a Latin word.
The first real English dictionary came in 1552, made by a man named Richard Huloet. It still had a Latin title, but for the first time, the English words were explained in English. Huloet’s dictionary even had a touch of humor. For example, for the word “black spot,” he gave a funny description: “like when a wife has a black eye and says she stumbled on her husband’s fist.”
After that, more and more dictionaries appeared, but they didn’t include every word. Most only explained difficult words, and some were made for special purposes — like rhyming dictionaries for poets, where words were arranged by their final syllables instead of their first.
One of the biggest reasons for making dictionaries was to help more people learn to read, especially to read the Bible. Another reason was the confusion caused by the lack of consistent spelling in English.
The first purely English dictionary was made by Robert Cawdrey in 1604. It had about 3,000 words. Then came a major step forward — Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language in 1755. It listed over 42,000 words and gave examples of how they were used. Johnson’s dictionary became the most trusted source for English words and stayed that way for more than 170 years.
Finally, in 1928, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) was completed. It was a huge project that took 44 years to finish, published bit by bit in small parts. The OED was bigger and more detailed than anything before it, and it has been updated regularly ever since. By 1992, it was even available on CD-ROM.
Before the 20th century, dictionaries were always physical books. But with modern technology, they’ve become electronic. At first, they were just digital copies of printed dictionaries. But soon, electronic dictionaries started offering much more — like easy search tools, pronunciation clips, grammar help, and even videos.
Today, dictionaries are powerful tools available in many forms — online, on apps, and in portable devices. They are no longer limited by page numbers or size. And they continue to grow as new words and meanings are added all the time.