Dictionaries - Tools in Translation and Communication

According to Merriam Webster, a dictionary is "a reference source containing words usually alphabetically arranged along with information about their forms, pronunciations, functions, etymologies, meanings, and syntactical and idiomatic uses".

The word "dictionary" comes from the Latin "diction", meaning "word". Unsurprisingly, the first dictionary was written in Latin. It is entitled "On the meaning of words" and was compiled by Verrius Flaccus during the reign of the emperor Augustus.

The first English dictionary was compiled at the beginning of the seventeenth century and its creation is attributed by historians to Robert Cawdry.

The most complete dictionary of the English language is the Oxford English Dictionary which was first published in 1860 and, it has been periodically updated and enriched ever since.

During the past four centuries dictionaries have grown in popularity, have developed to encompass several domains, have changed their form and their appearance.

While in the beginning dictionaries were mainly bilingual and were meant to help people translate simple words from one language to another and to explain certain terms and phrases, nowadays one can find a vast range of dictionaries such as dictionaries of antonyms, synonyms, acronyms, biographical dictionaries, historical, geographical and so on.

The original printed form of dictionaries is starting to lose ground in favour of the electronic form. Electronic dictionaries can be now downloaded from the internet and are compatible with most systems. Although they are easier to use, electronic dictionaries are very seldom as comprehensive and complete as a printed dictionary.

The most common dictionaries are the bilingual ones and the explanatory dictionaries. Many of these dictionaries provide pronunciation information as well as etymological information about the word.

It goes without saying that dictionaries are most commonly used by translators. Translations have become more and more diversified, thus mirroring the complexity of the fields in everyday activities. Language follows the same pattern as we witness a multitude of new domains and implicitly new terminologies, a lot of neologisms .The translations are more specialised and so are the translators. Hence, for example, the technical dictionaries, those in IT terminology, or even the legal ones are permanently of great importance and of great help, as they keep us up-to-date with the latest entries.

Nevertheless, a good translation does not only imply finding the appropriate correspondent to a specific term in a dictionary. It requires specialised knowledge on the part of the translator, or even a certain experience in that specific field.

For the past two millennia dictionaries have facilitated communication between peoples, contributing to the cultural exchange among civilizations from different parts of the globe. Dictionaries are unlikely to come out of use as long as they provide vital information that helps people connect with each other.

Ioana Mihailas is a linguist for Ling24 translation service, a provider of quality technical translations.

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