Alexander Souter once wrote that he filled the margins of his Lewis and Short with additional meanings, citations, and corrections. When he filled up the available space, he said he went on to fill up the margins of a second copy too, and then a third. Insofar as the Oxford Latin Dictionary is thorough (I expect there’s some room for improvement, marvelous though it is), students of Classical Latin need not be bogged down by the same task, but I am working on the “Later Latin” of the Church Fathers, which is outside the scope of the OLD. Souter’s small Glossary of Later Latin is insufficient for my needs, and so for that matter is Albert Blaise’s slightly larger patristic Latin-Frech dictionary. Aparently I have to do some of the kind of work that Souter did on his Lewis and Short, and I want obviously to do it systematically. Can anyone point out to me some books, articles, or even web pages that might help me out? I’m looking for the principles, practice, and history of Latin-English Lexicography. There should be lots of stuff out there on this. I am grateful for any assistance. Thanks.
Are you familiar with Du Cange, Maigne d’Arnis, Niermeyer?
I have not heard of them before, no. Who are they? What did they write?
These are the authors of the three dictionaries I often use when I deal with medieval Latin (apart from the ones you have mentioned). You should definitely download Du Cange first. It is a legendary work.
http://standish.stanford.edu/bin/search/simple/process?query=du+cange
Many thanks for this wonderful link, and the advice. Medieval Latin is a bit late for my purposes (I’m wanting to make a case for an extended meaning of a term in St. Augustine in my MA thesis), but I will consult the du Cange anyway. Sometimes Roy Deferrari’s Dictionary of St. Thomas Aquinas is helpful for understanding Patristic latin writings (I use it cautiously for this, when I’m stuck), so perhaps the du Cange will be similarly useful.
I have a related question. Does the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae volume 9, part 1, with entries that start with “N,” exist anywhere, anyone?
Thanks again.
Nice link!
[bookmarking this topic]
It’s included in the CD version of TLL. What word are you trying to locate?
Wow, it exists! I need the entry for “numerus,” rather badly, specifically those parts of the entry where the word does not mean simply “number” or anything merely mathematical, but rather harmony, or proportionality, or great reputation, or high degree of proficiency, etc. If someone could copy and paste these parts to an e-mail or document (Word, WordPerfect, or OpenOffice) and send them to me at eternity at 4u (dot) net, I would be especially grateful.
Thanks for all the responses in this thread so far.
LW