lexicon

(λεξικόν, sc. βιβλίον). A Greek name for a word-book, probably first used in the ninth century A.D. The Latin equivalent dictionarium appears about three centuries later. Chinese writers pretend that lexicons have been known in their language for 3000 years. But the conception of a condensed digest of a branch of knowledge, classified and ordered for convenient reference, is traced by authentic records to that source of all ideas which have been fruitful of intellectual growth, the great age of Greece. In Plato's time, the Homeric poems were a text-book for the study of the youth of Athens, and collections of peculiar words and phrases, with explanations, were made for the use of teachers. At first the notes were written in the order of the text, but convenience soon dictated other arrangements, by subjects or by alphabetical sequence. Before B.C. 400 Democritus of Abdera discussed the vocabulary of Homer, and is even said to have compiled an Homeric dictionary. Clearchus of Soli, a pupil of Aristotle, prepared a treatise on the mathematical terms in Plato's Republic. Near the end of the fourth century B.C., Philetas of Cos, celebrated as a poet by Theocritus and Propertius, wrote a famous book, ἄτακτα or γλῶσσαι, on the meanings of words, especially of poetical and dialectic forms. His successors of the Alexandrian school of grammarians industriously compiled special dictionaries or glossaries, now to particular authors, as Homer, Plato, and the dramatists, now of the language of tragedy or comedy, again of dialectic conceptions, which encroached on the province of good Attic words, and even of the technical terms of particular arts. Thus Zenodotus of Ephesus, about B.C. 280, prepared an elaborate glossary (γλῶσσαι) to Homer; Artemidorus of Byzantium soon after made a dictionary of cookery (γλῶσσαι ὀψαρτυτικαί); and scores of others collected extensive word-lists of Plato's writings, of tragedy, of comedy, of history, of medicine. Didymus of Alexandria, an indefatigable compiler of the first century B.C., published at least twentyeight “books” (rolls?) on tragic diction (περὶ τραγῳδουμένης λέξεως), a work of similar extent on the language of comedy, seven “books” on words of ambiguous or doubtful meaning, and a treatise on corrupt expressions. Pollux and Athenaeus name twenty-one writers on terms peculiar to cookery. In short, through the many generations of grammatical activity which succeeded the creative period of Greek literature, the interpretation of words assumed ever greater prominence, until Zopyrion and Pamphilus, near the end of the reign of Augustus, attempted to bring together the rich materials thus furnished, in a comprehensive lexicon of the language (95 books, περὶ γλωσσῶν). An abridgment of this great work by Diogenianus of Heraclea (A.D. 130?) is said, on doubtful authority, to have been the basis of the dictionary ascribed to Hesychius of Alexandria (A.D. 380?), which is a principal source of information upon the Greek language and literature (best ed. by Moritz Schmidt, 4 vols. 4to, Jena, 1858-64). The important lexicon called that of Suidas, and ascribed to the eleventh century, is a miscellany of lexicographical and literary excerpts and comments made by many hands in successive ages (best editions by Gaisford, 3 vols. fol., Oxford, 1834; by Bernhardy, 4to, Halle, 1834). The first attempt systematically to explain Greek words in Latin was perhaps the glossary of Philoxenus, A.D. 550 (first printed, fol., Paris, 1573, included in Valpy's ed. of Stephens' Thesaurus, London, 1816), but for 800 years afterwards the Greek language was almost forgotten in Catholic Europe.

Upon the revival of learning an earnest demand for such helps was felt, and old vocabularies and glossaries were eagerly copied and enlarged. In 1483 the first Greek-Latin vocabulary was printed, that of John Crastenus. It passed through several editions, growing in size. In 1497 appeared a much more important work from the press of Aldus, Venice (Dictionarium Graecum Copiosissimum cum Interp. Lat.), and was rapidly followed by similar lexicons in the names of Julius Pollux, Budaeus, Münster, Gillius, Gessner, Grynaeus, Dasypodius, Constantine, and others. Each of these copied most of his work from his latest predecessor, but often with important, though irregular additions. Thus the dictionary of Budaeus (first published at Paris, 1529; reprinted at Basle, 1530; reëdited and much enlarged by Robert Stephens, Paris, 1548) was copious and exact in explaining legal and forensic terms. Montanus, in 1539, gave to scholars the first Latin-Greek vocabulary, for use in writing Greek. Robert Constantine's lexicon (Geneva, 1562: a marked improvement on earlier ones in accuracy) was especially valuable in illustrations of Thucydides. But in 1572 Henry Stephens published his Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (5 vols. fol., Paris), containing more than 100,000 Greek words, with references to authorities; a work of surpassing industry and scholarship, which remained unrivalled for nearly 250 years. It was reproduced in magnificent form, and with additions, by Valpy (London, 1816 foll.), and again by Hase and Dindorf (Paris, 1836 foll.). The Greek manuals of Scapula (Paris, 1579), Hederich (2 vols. 8vo, Leipzig, 1766), and others, in common use until the early years of this century, were hardly more than extracts of the great Thesaurus. Several special lexicons, however, such as those of Portus to Herodotus (Frankfort, 1603; reprinted London, 1825) and to Pindar (1606), of Seber to Homer (1604), of Damm to Homer and Pindar (1765- 1774), of Ernesti for the technical terms of rhetoric (1795), of Reiske to Theocritus (1765), of Sturz to Xenophon (1801-4), of Schweighäuser to Herodotus (1824), and of Wyttenbach to Plutarch (Oxford, 1843), collected the results of more accurate criticism in parts of the field. The first general lexicon which exhibited a marked improvement upon Stephens in method, and the first which defined Greek words in a modern language, was the critical Greek-German lexicon of Schneider (2 vols. 8vo, 1797-98). It passed through three editions, besides abridgments, and was then reconstructed with admirable skill by Passow (1819-23). The latest revision of Passow's Handwörterbuch, by Rost and five well-equipped associates (3 vols. 4to, 1841- 1857), is still the standard of Greek exegesis in Germany, though the rival works of Pape (1842- 1845; 3d ed. by Sengebusch, 1880), of Jacobitz and Seiler (1839-46), and of Suhle and Schneidewin (Leipzig, 1875), have peculiar merits and strong eulogists. Students whose mother-tongue was English had no trustworthy general dictionary of Greek until 1848, when Liddell and Scott published at Oxford their Greek-English lexicon, drawn mainly from Passow; which was improved and enlarged, first by Drisler (N. Y. 1850), and later by the original editors, aided by several American scholars, so that it now renders the student for most purposes independent of the Thesaurus and of special lexicons to the Greek classics (7th ed. London and New York, 1883). Of such special lexicons, the most complete and accurate are Ast's dictionary to Plato (3 vols. Leipzig, 1835-38), Bétant's to Thucydides (2 vols. 1843-49), the index of Bonitz to Aristotle (Berlin, 1870), the Lexicon Sophocleum of Ellendt (best ed. Berlin, 1872), Bindseil's Concordantia to Pindar (1875), the Lexicon Aeschyleum of Dindorf (1876), the Lexicon Theocriteum (1879), the Lexicon Pindaricum (1883) of Rumpel, and, above all, the Lexicon Homericum of Capelle and several associates (1874-83).

The lexicography of the Greek Testament and of ecclesiastical writers has long formed a distinct and very extensive branch of the science, important epochs in which have been marked by Pasor's Lexicon Graec.-Lat. in Novum Testamentum (1636; best ed. by Fischer, Leipzig, 1767); Suicer's Thesaurus Ecclesiasticus (Amsterdam, 1682; often reprinted and abridged); Wahl's Clavis Novi Testamenti (1819; translated by Robinson, New York, 1825; best ed. Leipzig, 1853); Schirlitz, Griech.-deutsches Wörterbuch zum N. T. (1851-58); Robinson's Lexicon of the New Testament (New York, 1836; rewritten, New York, 1850); Cremer's Biblisches-theologisches Wörterb. (3d and best ed. Gotha, 1881-82); Grimm's Lexicon zum Neuen Testament (Leipzig, 1862-68; best ed. 1879); translated and much improved by Thayer (New York, 1887). The Glossary of later and Byzantine Greek, by Sophocles (Cambridge, 1860), enlarged into a Greek lexicon of the Roman and Byzantine periods (Boston, 1870), is the standard in its department. By far the most complete and useful English-Greek lexicon is that by Yonge (London, 1849; best ed. New York, 1870).

The beginnings of Latin lexicography are ascribed to Verrius Flaccus, whom Augustus made the tutor of his grandsons. His great work, De Significatu Verborum, is supposed to have been abridged, some generations later, by Pompeius Festus, under the same title; and extensive fragments of the abridgment, besides unintelligent excerpts from it by Paulus Diaconus of the eighth century, are still preserved (best ed. by C. O. Müller, Leipzig, 1839; reprinted 1880). There are also curious remnants of verbal exegesis in the fragments of Nonius Marcellus (about A.D. 300; best eds. by Mercier, Leipzig, 1825; by Quicherat, Paris, 1871) and of Isidore (A.D. 600; best ed. by Arevalo, 7 vols. Rome, 1797-1803). Glossaries and vocabularies were common in the ages before printing; but were compiled as needed, copied, abridged, corrected, and enlarged, according to the knowledge or ignorance of each new compiler, or the special need to be met. None of them were regarded as literary works, to be studied and preserved, in deference to the author's authority, or in respect to his fame. Many of these remain in old libraries. One of the best, a glossary of the ninth century, in the national library at Paris, has been admirably edited, with a commentary containing the substance of twelve others, by Professor G. F. Hildebrand (Göttingen, 1854). A learned description of the works of this class, which were still unedited, was given by G. Löwe, in his Prodromus Glossariorum Latinorum (Leipzig, 1876), and much light was thrown by him upon their origin and value. His project for a collection of the extant glossaries has been carried on with energy since his death, under the auspices of the Royal Literary Society of Saxony, by George Goetz, who has published four volumes (Corpus Glossariorum Latinorum, II., III., IV., V., 1886-94) of the nine which are necessary to complete it. These vocabularies explained rare and obscure words, ambiguous terms, forms of doubtful authority, or of dialectic or foreign origin; and it was but slowly that the conception was formed of a complete vocabulary of the language. About A.D. 1063, Papias, the Lombard, finished his Elementarium Doctrinae Erudimentum (printed, Venice, 1491), intended for an encyclopaedia of instruction, a large part of which was devoted to defining words. A century later the monk Osborn of Gloucester followed with the Panorama, an attempt at an etymological dictionary (published in Mai's Classicorum Auctorum, tom. viii. Rome, 1836). About A.D. 1200, Hugutio, Bishop of Ferrara, wrote a Liber Derivationum. On the works of Papias and Hugutio was founded the famous Catholicon, by Balbi of Genoa (Joannes Januensis), finished A.D. 1286, and published at Mayence in 1460, containing, besides a manual of grammar, rhetoric, and criticism, a copious lexicon, especially of ecclesiastical Latin. Johann Reuchlin enlarged this in his Vocabularius Breviloquus (Basle, 1475), which passed through twentythree editions, the last in 1504. The Cornucopiae of Nicholas Perotti, though in form a commentary on Martial, is lexicographical in substance, and has an alphabetic index (1482 and often). In 1502 appeared at Reggio, in Italy, the Dictionarium of Ambrosius Calepinus, the first attempt to represent the classical language as a whole, with illustrative citations from the literature. Its fame grew rapidly. For many years labourers in this department of learning accepted it as a standard, and sought only to supply its omissions. Twenty editions were published within a generation, and “Calepinus” became the common name for a lexicon. In 1539 Jacobus Montanus added to the definitions the Greek equivalents. In 1546 a Calepinus Pentaglottus was issued at Venice; in 1581 a Calepinus Septem Linguarum at Leyden; and successive editors added new languages, until the Calepinus of 1603 was a parallel lexicon of eleven. Meanwhile, in 1531, Robert Stephens, princeps lexicographorum, gave to the world his Thesaurus Linguae Latinae; but used it as the basis of a far more comprehensive and accurate work under the same title, which he completed in 1548. This long remained the unrivalled storehouse of the language, and every important dictionary of classical Latin was substantially a reprint (3 vols. Venice, 1551; 4 vols. Leyden, 1573), or an abridgment of it. From the first edition was compiled the Promptuarium of Trebellius (Basle, 1545); from the second, the extensive Thesaurus Linguae Latinae of Caelius Secundus (Basle, 1561), the useful Thesaurus of Faber Soranus (Leipzig, 1571; 2d ed. 1587; abridged, Leipzig, 1594, and Heidelberg, 1608), the Lexicon Criticum of Pareus (Nuremberg, 1645), and many more. The most important original work of this period in lexicography was the Glossarium ad Scriptores Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis of DuCange (Paris, 1678), which has been several times reprinted (ed. by Hendschel, 7 vols. Paris, 1840- 1850; ed. by Favre, 10 vols. Niort, 1883-88; a good abridgment by Migne, Paris, 1866; and very important supplements by Diefenbach, Frankfurt, 1857 and 1867). (See DuCange.) An association of Cambridge scholars reëdited the great Thesaurus, at the end of its second century of preëminence, with large additions (4 vols. London, 1734-35). Antony Birrius recovered the collections Henry Stephens had made for a new edition of his father's work, and surpassed the English reprint in the accuracy of his reproduction (4 vols. Basle, 1740-43). Finally, J. M. Gessner, after preparing an enlarged edition of Faber (Leipzig, 1726), spent twelve years in revising the Thesaurus of Stephens, correcting and completing its classical citations, while excluding much ecclesiastical and semi-barbarous material (4 vols. Leipzig, 1749). But in Italy, Calepinus retained the primacy, undergoing many revisions and enlargements before that of Sartori (Padua, 1708), which brought its imperfections to the notice of two of the most eminent Latinists of the day, then at the University of Padua. With the supervision and aid of Facciolati, his pupil Forcellini devoted three years to its correction and extension (Septem linguarum Calepinus, hoc est Lexicon Latinum, variarum linguarum interpretatione adiecta, Pavia, 1718), and his important edition was eleven times reprinted. The last appearances of this lexicon, which held its place in the schools for nine generations, were at Venice, 1778, and at Pavia, 1779. But Forcellini's labours on Calepinus taught him the need of a more perfect dictionary, and he undertook to construct it mainly from the original texts. For forty years, with some interruptions from church-work, he toiled, with rare intelligence and persistence; and at his death, in 1768, left complete in manuscript the greatest contribution to this department of science ever achieved by a single hand (Totius Latinitatis Lexicon, 2 vols. fol. Padua, 1771). It has been several times reprinted (4 vols. Padua, 1805, etc.), sometimes with uncritical additions (ed. Bailey, London, 1827; ed. Schumann, Schneeberg, 1835), sometimes with diligence and literary skill (ed. Furnaletti, 4 vols. 4to, Padua, 1827-33; ed. De Vit, 5 vols. fol. Prato, 1858-75); but none of these editions has conformed the citations to the improved critical texts of the classical authors. The latest (ed. Corradini, Padua, 1864, completed to the word stellio, 1894) is by far the best in this respect, though still defective in etymology and arrangement. Scheller's Latin-German Lexicon (Leipzig, 1783) was at first an abridgment of Forcellini's, but was rapidly improved by the compiler in successive editions (3d ed. 5 vols. Leipzig, 1804). His condensed hand-lexicon (Leipzig, 1792) was reëdited many times by Lünemann, aided in the seventh edition (Leipzig, 1831) by Georges, who issued the eighth edition (Leipzig, 1837) alone, and then reconstructed the work, under his own name, in the Ausführliches Handwörterbuch der lateinischen Sprache, whose seventh edition (Leipzig, 1879-80) is the reliance and the delight of all who study Latin through German, though it omits, in most cases, specific local references to texts. Klotz's Handwörterbuch der lateinischen Sprache (2 vols. Brunswick, 1853-57) is distinguished for fulness of illustration in many articles, especially under the earliest letters of the alphabet; but it was hastily finished, and is defective in uniformity and in typographical accuracy. Freund's Handwörterbuch (4 vols. Leipzig, 1834), also founded on Forcellini, introduced a principle, the historical arrangement of meanings in each article, which has since been fruitful in all departments of lexicography. A revised translation by Andrews (New York, 1850), substantially reprinted as Dr. Smith's Latin Dictionary (London, 1853), was for many years the standard in the United States and Great Britain. An enlarged translation into French by Theil (2 vols. Paris, 1866) is valuable for its full notices of terms of natural history. The same work was revised and enlarged by Riddle and White (London, 1870), and entirely reconstructed by Lewis and Short (Harper's Latin Dictionary, New York, 1879). The best English-Latin dictionary is that of Smith and Hall (London, 1870; New York, 1871); the most complete and critical work in which a modern language is explained in Latin is the Deutsches-latein. Wörterbuch of Georges (6th ed. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1870). In recent years German scholars have shown new zeal in constructing complete word-books (concordances) to Latin classics. Merguet's Lexicon zu den Reden des Cicero (4 vols. 4to, Jena, 1877-84) has been followed by the full dictionaries to Caesar of Merguet (Jena, 1884- 1886), Menge and Preuss (Leipzig, 1884-90), and Meusel (Berlin, 1884-93); by that of Preuss to the pseudo-Caesarian books of Hirtius and others (Erlangen, 1884); while complete verbal indexes to the fragments of Plautus, the works of Sallust, and those of several minor poets have been added to recent editions of the texts. A complete lexicon to the philosophical writings of Cicero by Merguet (Jena, vols. i. ii. 1887-93, vol. iii. in the press), one by Gerber and Greef to Tacitus (fasciculi i. to xi. Leipzig, 1887-93), and one on an enormous scale to Livy by Fügner (fasciculi i. to vi. Leipzig, 1889-94) are slowly appearing. The principles and methods of constructing a complete thesaurus of the language have been actively discussed in Germany for two generations. In 1857 the king of Bavaria offered to contribute 10,000 gulden if the completion of such a work could be insured; Carl Halm of Munich, with Ritschl and Fleckeisen, undertook to organize an association of scholars, and Bücheler was selected as editor-in-chief; but political and military troubles smothered the scheme. The critical restoration of many texts, the reform of orthography, the multiplication of special lexicons, and the great advances made in philology and in the study of inscriptions have since vastly increased and improved the materials available for a Thesaurus. In 1884 E. Wölfflin announced his Archiv für lateinische Lexicographie und Grammatik . . . als Vorarbeit zu einem Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, and under the patronage of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences began its publication in quarterly numbers, containing collections, notices, reviews, and model articles, as contributions to the most complete digest of a great language ever planned. With the aid of many competent scholars, this periodical has been continued through eight years, and has done much to awaken interest in the subject. The last number for 1893 contained a plan, zur Begründung eines Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, in twelve volumes of 1000 large quarto pages each, under the auspices of the five great academies of science in Berlin, Göttingen, Leipzig, Munich, and Vienna, to be finished in twenty years, at an estimated cost of 605,000 marks (about $150,000). The five academies have sanctioned the plan, with Messrs. Bücheler, Wölfflin, and Leo as editorial directors, and there is reasonable hope of its success.

See also Gräfenhan, Gesch. d. klassischen Philologie im Alterthum, 3 vols. (1843 foll.); Mahn, Darstellung der Lexicographie nach allen ihren Seiten (Rudolstadt, 1817); Hübner, Grundriss zu Vorlesungen über die latein. Grammatik (2d ed. Berlin, 1880), and Grundriss zu Vorlesungen über Gr. Syntax (Berlin, 1883); Lexicographie der griechischen und lateinischen Sprache, by Drs. G. Autenrieth and F. Heerdegen (in Iwan Müller's Handbuch, Nördlingen, 1885); Pökel, Philolog. Schriftsteller-lexicon (1882); Ebert, Allgemeine Gesch. der Literatur des Mittelalters im Abendlande, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1884, 1880); De Vit, Preface to the Lexicon of Forcellini (Prato, 1879); Wölfflin, Archiv für latein. Lexicographie (Leipzig, 1884-93); “Greek Lexicography,” by J. E. B. Mayor, in the Journal of Philology, vols. vi., vii. (Cambridge, 1876-77); “Notes on Latin Lexicography,” by H. Nettleship, Journal of Philology, vol. xii. (Cambridge, 1883).