dictionary的词源

英文词源

dictionary

dictionary: [16] The term dictionary was coined in medieval Latin, probably in the 13th century, on the basis of the Latin adjective dictionārius ‘of words’, a derivative of Latin dictiō ‘saying’, or, in medieval Latin, ‘word’. English picked it up comparatively late; the first known reference to it is in The pilgrimage of perfection 1526: ‘and so Peter Bercharius [Pierre Bercheur, a 15thcentury French lexicographer] in his dictionary describeth it’.

Latin dictiō (source also of English diction [15]) was a derivatives of the verb dicere ‘say’. Its original meaning was ‘point out’ rather than ‘utter’, as demonstrated by its derivative indicāre (source of English indicate) and words in other languages, such as Greek deiknúnai ‘show’, Sanskrit diç- ‘show’ (later ‘say’), and German zeihen ‘accuse’, which come from the same ultimate source.

Its past participle gave English dictum [16], and the derived verb dictāre ‘assert’ produced English dictate [17] and dictator [14]. It has been the basis of a wide range of other English words, from the more obvious derivatives like addict and predict to more heavily disguised offspring such as condition, index, and judge.
=> addict, condition, dictate, diction, ditto, index, indicate, judge, predict

dictionary (n.)

1520s, from Medieval Latin dictionarium "collection of words and phrases," from Latin dictionarius "of words," from dictio "word" (see diction). Probably first English use in title of a book was in Sir Thomas Elyot's "Latin Dictionary" (1538) though Latin Dictionarius was so used from early 13c. Grose's 1788 "Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue" has "RICHARD SNARY. A dictionary."

DICTIONARY, n. A malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic. This dictionary, however, is a most useful work. [Bierce]

中文词源

dictionary：字典

来自diction, 说话，措辞。后用来指字典。

该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：dictionary 词源，dictionary 含义。

dictionary：字典

一本字典，就是人们对词汇的发音、拼法、含义等所作的解释的记载，即人们是怎么“说”的。它来自拉丁语动语dico，意思是“说”、“讲”。

同出于dico 之源的还有不少英语词，如，ditto，意思“同上”、“同前”，即和上面所“说”的一样； contradiction（矛盾），contra是“相反”、“反对”的意思，全词的意思是“说话自相矛盾”； verdict（陪审团的裁决），vere是“真实地”，全词即“正确地评说”，dictator（独裁者），意即“我一个人说了算”。都和“说”有关。

dictionary：词典，字典

词根词缀： -dict-说,讲 + -ion名词词尾 + -ary名词词尾