Spanish dictionary

Twenty-second edition of the Spanish language dictionary

The Dictionary of the Spanish language is a Spanish language dictionary edited and prepared by the Royal Spanish Academy. The Academy itself also calls it Usual Dictionary. Until the 22nd edition, the RAE abbreviated it as DRAE (Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy), but since the 23rd it uses the acronym DLE (Dictionary of the Spanish language), because in its elaboration they participate now all the academies of the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language. It is considered the standard dictionary of the Spanish language. In 2020, its online edition received one billion queries.

The first edition of this dictionary dates back to 1780 and the most recent edition is the 23rd, of 2014. The 23rd was published on October 16, 2014, as a finale to the celebration of the III Centenary of the institution. It has 2,376 pages and was published in a single volume (18 × 26 centimeters), bound in cardboard with a slipcase. A two-volume version was also published, destined for America, and a special one for collectors. The number of articles rose to 93,111, compared to the 84,431 included in the previous edition. It was revised in 2017; its update, known as electronic version 23.2, is from 2018; its update, known as electronic version 23.3, is from 2019, and its update, known as electronic version 23.4, is from 2020.

Regarding its normative nature, the academy itself clarifies that the recommendations and judgments it makes are based on the normal use of language today, and that unity is sought among the many countries with their different norms. The dictionary includes words of widespread common use, at least in a representative area among those in which Spanish or Castilian is spoken, and also includes numerous archaisms and words now in disuse, to understand ancient Castilian literature. Since the 21st edition (1992) the number of meanings specific to Spanish-speaking countries has increased, whose Language Academies are part of the Association of Spanish Language Academies (ASALE), making clear the scope in which these are used.

Dictionary titles

• Castilian language dictionary composed of the Royal Spanish Academy, title between the 1st (1780) and the 4th edition (1803).
• Castilian language dictionary by the Royal Spanish Academy, title between the 5th (1817) and 14th edition (1914).
• Spanish language dictionary, title of the 15th edition (1925) onwards.

Origins and development of the dictionary

The elaboration of a Spanish or Castilian dictionary was one of the first tasks that the RAE set itself when it was founded in 1713, publishing first of all the "Dictionary of the Castilian language, in which the true meaning of the voices, their nature and quality, with the phrases or ways of speaking, the proverbs or sayings, and other things appropriate to the use of the language", known as Dictionary of authorities (1726 -1739) in six in-folio volumes.

In 1770 the first volume (letters A-B) of a frustrated new updated edition of the Dictionary appeared, in which the authorities also appeared. This edition was abandoned when the Academy decided to publish what was known as the "Usual Dictionary", more practical and economical.

Based on the Dictionary of authorities, the Dictionary of the Castilian language composed by the Royal Spanish Academy, reduced to one volume for easier use, known as & #34;Usual Dictionary", whose first edition dates from 1780. The reasons stated in the prologue for the publication of this dictionary were the need for the public to have access to a dictionary between the time of the first edition of the Dictionary of authorities and the delay in the publication of the second -frustrated- corrected and expanded edition of it, offering this alternative that is easier to use and lower cost. Twenty-three editions of this reduced version of the dictionary have been published.

The first edition of the dictionary in a single volume, dispenses with references to the authorities (as was done from 1780). It had new versions in 1783, 1791, 1803 and 1815. From this fifth edition it was simply titled Dictionary of the Castilian language, with editions in the xix of 1822, 1832, 1837, 1843, 1852, 1869, 1884 and 1899, with which the thirteenth was reached.

The xx century began with the 1914 edition. In the fifteenth publication, in 1925, the name of the Spanish language changed to become Dictionary of the Spanish language. Other editions of that century were those of 1936-1939, 1947, 1956, 1970 and 1984, which was the twentieth edition. The twenty-first edition, from 1992, is also published with a paperback binding in two volumes, in "pocket format", to which would be added its version on CD-ROM, which appeared in 1995. 2001 initiated xxi century versions of the DLE, offering an online searchable version. From its first version in one volume to the current one, the lexical repertoire has practically doubled its number.

The first edition of the usual dictionary in 1780 offered the etymologies of the words, but this information was dismissed in the edition three years later. The etymologies were reincorporated in the 1970 edition.

Editions (year and edition number)

A copy of the first edition of the Spanish language dictionary (1992). This edition commemorated the fifth centenary of the arrival of the conquerors to America as well as the fifth centenary of the Nebrija Grammar (1492-1992).

• 1780 (1.a)
• 1783 (2.a)
• 1791 (3rd)
• 1803 (4.a)
• 1817 (5th, online consultation)
• 1822 (6th, online consultation)
• 1832 (7.a, online consultation)
• 1837 (8.a)
• 1843 (9th)
• 1852 (10th)
• 1869 (11th)
• 1884 (12th, online consultation)
• 1899 (13th, online consultation)
• 1914 (14.a, online consultation)
• 1925 (15.a)
• 1936/1939 (16.a)
• 1947 (17.a)
• 1956 (18th)
• 1970 (19.a), the last of which retained inclusions of refranes in each article.
• 1984 (20.a)
• 1992 (21st)
• 2001 (22.a, online consultation)
• 2014 (23.a, online consultation)
• 2020 (electronic version 23.4, online consultation)

All the editions, from 1780 to 1992, can be consulted online at the New lexicographical treasure of the Spanish language.

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  Castilian language dictionary composed of the Royal Spanish Academy, reduced to a volume for easier use1780. Interior cover.

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  Dictionary of the Castilian language composed of the Royal Spanish Academy [...]. Prologue, one-page.

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  Dictionary of the Castilian language composed of the Royal Spanish Academy [...] Prologue, page 2.

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  Dictionary of the Castilian language composed of the Royal Spanish Academy [...]. Academics.

Supports used

Until the twenty-first edition (1992) the support used was paper. That year, in addition to its traditional book format, the dictionary was released on CD-ROM and also in two pocket books. On October 25, 1994, the web domain "rae.es" was registered with an expiration date of 2025. With the twenty-second edition (2001) a new contribution was added by introducing the dictionary on the Internet and freely accessible by all users. This digital version was somewhere between the twenty-first printed edition of 1992 and the twenty-third printed edition of 2014, and already anticipated definitions of words that were later modified in the 2014 edition. The twenty-third edition of the Diccionario de la lengua española was made available to the public through free consultation on October 21, 2015. On November 2, 2015, through its official Twitter account @RAEinforma it is invited to consult in Online the latest edition of the academic dictionary on your new web subdomain. Likewise, in said account they also report on facts or events related to their main web page, and cordially invite them to "take it into account for future access and to update the links published on external pages".

Editions

In the fourth edition of the dictionary (1803) the digraphs ch and ll were fixed and incorporated into the Spanish alphabet as separate letters and part of the alphabetical arrangement. Said decision changed in 1994 (X Congress of the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language), where the two digraphs were arranged in their corresponding place in the Latin alphabet. In 1803 the x was also changed to j when the spelling represented the velar phoneme /x/ (except in words such as Caxamarca, Mexico, Texas, etc., which retain it, although they correspond to /x/ in Spanish), and the circumflex accent (^) was eliminated.

The first editions are much more extensive, include the Latin translation of the words and, in some cases, give examples of their use, especially in the form of popular sayings, and review part of their evolution. A curious fact is that muger ("woman") appears following the custom of the time. The entry of the letter x is interesting and shows the richness of the first editions. Here is a fragment of what the 3rd edition of 1791 shows:

x. Twenty-third letter in the order of our alphabet, and the tenth octave of the consonants. It is semivocal, and taken from the Latins, between the quales had the value of two consonants; and sometimes force of c and sand others of g and s. In Spanish we keep the sound of c and sLike in exâmen, Formerbut that of the g and the s We made it a much stronger and gutural, so we don't distinguish it from the jor g strong; as in xamugas, Former. La X is used by transmutation instead of other lyrics in voices coming from other languages; like: S is moved in X in Latin voices vesica, inserereThat we come back vexiga. inxerirand both ss of the Italian bassThat we come back Baxo.

He mentions other transmutations: xaga into chaga and then into sore, and that of xapeo into shaping. Another piece of information that it offers is that the x is obtained by joining two v, which explains the value of ten (five plus five) in Roman numerals.

Criticism

Throughout its history, the dictionary of the Royal Academy has been the subject of many and varied criticisms. Among the various reasons for such criticism, the following can be cited:

• The researcher of CSIC Javier López Facal, in an interview of 2011, considered him an archaic dictionary in his approach and of inferior quality to others.
• The professor of ictiology Alfonso L. Red in his study of definitions related to fish of the 2001 dictionary finds "inconsistencies, incorrections, backwardness and errors".
• The leachographer Montserrat Alberte considers that, in terms of dictionaries, "the Academy, over the centuries, has been characterized more by what it announced and did not come to do, than by what it did effectively."
• The Spanish-language professor Esther Forgas criticizes the "ideological bias present in the definitions of the academic dictionary".
• Despite its pan-Hispanic ambition, some authors consider it a Hispanic-centric dictionary.
• Mexican lexicologist and journalist Raúl Prieto Rio de la Loza strongly criticized the centralism and definitions of the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy. He published several books on it.