The Oxford dictionary is called the definitive record of the English language. It is one of the most well-respected English language dictionaries in the world.

Oxford Dictionary

The Oxford dictionary first appeared over 100 years ago. It was founded in London in 1857. The Philological society determined that current English-language dictionaries weren’t complete. Their plan was to begin from square one. The project was much larger than they first thought.

In 1879 Oxford University press began work on what would become the Oxford dictionary. The New English Dictionary was the name they selected. It would contain 6400 pages in four volumes. The idea was to include all English vocabulary from 1150A.D onward. They had a ten year time line.

Five years into the creation of this early version of the Oxford dictionary they had only reached the word ant. It was time to adjust the schedule. English constantly changes. While working on new words they were constantly changing the descriptions of the old ones. That’s not easy while looking at seven centuries of language

The Oxford dictionary continued to develop over the next four decades. More people were brought in to help. Now the work had 10 volumes. It had over 400,000 entries. It quickly became the ultimate authority on the English language. It only took 40 years to complete.

It wasn’t even in people’s hands before the editors began revising the Oxford dictionary. A supplement published in 1933 expanded the dictionary to 12 volumes. The next revision came in 1957. That work went on until 1972 when four more volumes were added.

In 1982 editors decided to bring the Oxford dictionary into the computer age. The editors began transferring it from paper to electronic format. It took $13.5 million to accomplish this. It took five years to complete. The electronic version led to a second edition published in 1989. It’s 22,000 pages over 20 volumes.

Oxford Dictionary

Now the Oxford dictionary is available on the Internet. It’s come a long way from a simple idea.

A Hebrew dictionary is not a book about a guy who makes coffee. This could be a dictionary that describes different words in the way they looked in ancient and modern Hebrew. Or it might translate from some language to Hebrew.

Hebrew Dictionary

A Hebrew Research Center offers its own Hebrew dictionary. It contains ancient Hebrew words as well as modern words. It has a pronunciation guide. Then it gives the English translation. Av in Hebrew is the equivalent of father. Mother is eym. E-ven is stone.

There is another Hebrew dictionary on the web. It’s a Hebrew glossary. Once again this one shows the Hebrew words is written by their letters, the transliteration, the English word, but then adds a description of the meaning. In this one father is Abba. It’s not just father, but rather father in an endearing way like dear father. It contains more information than other dictionaries.

Another word from this Hebrew dictionary is Adam Kadmon. It’s a phrase meaning primordial man. This type of being was produced by the divine as an interim step between divine and human. It’s a god-like human.

Let’s continue to delve into words from this Hebrew dictionary. Mabul means flood More precisely it’s Noah’s flood. His name in Hebrew is closer to Noach.

The Hebrew dictionary has more words in it. Maggid means preacher. This is a specific type of preacher who tells stories where moral lessons are related. These types of stories have specific formats. The introduction comes at the beginning. The main body of the story is next. Then there’s a conclusion in which the moral lesson is described.

You can also read about makkot in the Hebrew dictionary. These are stripes. These aren’t the stripes you would find on clothing. These stripes come from being whipped. Courts ordered lashings for various crimes. Imagine if that could be done when people lie in courts in the present.

Here’s one more word from the Hebrew dictionary. It’s a common word. Rabbi is this word. That’s master. In the early days the Sanhedrin gave these men authority. The Babylonian version was Rav.

Hebrew Dictionary

There’s a lot more in the Hebrew dictionary. Any search engine can bring you to it.