• ristoril_zip@lemmy.zip
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    1 year ago

    So wait is the original meaning of dictionary more like “a way to translate from one language to another?”

    • SomeoneElseModOPM
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      1 year ago

      Bilingual word lists seem to have been first. I guess it depends on how you define what a dictionary is. The very earliest English one wasn’t even in alphabetical order, which seems pretty important for a dictionary imo!

      • ristoril_zip@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        Oh man looking a word up in that must’ve been frustrating. Like a definition book with a list of words just in the order the author thought of them… Hilarious.