Dictionaries of the Académie française (17th to 20th century)

ALL THE DICTIONARIES OF USAGE BY THE FRENCH ACADEMY FROM THE 17th TO THE 20th CENTURY

This Corpus gathers together all the thirteen dictionaries produced by the French Academy, since the beginnings in 1687 to the present day, thus representing linguistic policy in France since the 17th century.

The first edition may be regarded as the first linguistic manifestation of political power which sought, through the Academicians, the appropriate image to give of the French language. The choice fell on common language – ordinary, everyday words – excluding technical terms.
The next three editions (1718, 1740 and 1762) continued the work of the former Academicians with some modifications and innovations. The spelling was modified in 1740 and follows modern usage. In time, a few quotations appeared and, in 1762, the general outlook was influenced by Enlightenment philosophy. The 1798 edition, published at the time of the French Revolution, was governed by the concern to produce definitions in accordance with the new ideology.

With the 1835 edition, the Dictionaries of the French Academy entered into the modern era. It became the Bible of the best writers of the 19th century. The plan and nomenclature of the preceding editions were revised: this edition marks the change from monarchical language to republican language, the change from the old world to modernity. It is considered by specialists to be the most successful of the series des Dictionnaires de l’Académie française.
The 1878 edition will simply provide a supplement to this excellent edition with additional entries to reflect the evolution of the French language.
The edition published in 1932-1935 is the only complete edition du Dictionaries of the French Academy devoted to modern language. It is characterised by an ever more modern and well-founded art of definition and by the intention to give a faithful reflection of the 20^th century. The following edition is still being composed.

The Dictionnaire des Arts et des Sciences (Dictionary of Arts and Sciences) published in 1694 came to complete the Academic dictionary of usage in the fields of the arts, sciences and techniques. It was published in Paris under the direction of Thomas Corneille. The Complément du Dictionnaire de l’Académie (Addition to the Dictionary of the Academy), under the direction of Louis Barré, took over that role in 1842. Dictionary of the Academy thus became a «Universal Dictionary» (Préface, p. XVIII).

CONTENTS

• Le Dictionnaire de l’Académie françoise (from A to Aversion), pre-original edition [1], Francfort, 1687
• Le Dictionnaire de l’Académie françoise (from A to Confiture), pre-original edition [2], Francfort, 1687
• Le Dictionnaire de l’Académie françoise (from A to Neuf), pre-original edition [3], Paris, 1687
• Le Dictionnaire de l’Académie françoise dedié au Roy, Paris, 1694
• Nouveau Dictionnaire de l’Académie françoise dedié au Roy, Paris, 1718
• Le Dictionnaire de l’Académie françoise, Paris, 1740
• Le Dictionnaire de l’Académie françoise, Paris, 1762
• Le Dictionnaire de l’Académie françoise, Paris, 1798
• Dictionnaire de l’Académie française, Paris, 1835
• Dictionnaire de l’Académie française, Paris, 1879
• Dictionnaire de l’Académie française, Paris, 1932-1935

Additions for Sciences, Arts and Techniques
• Corneille (Thomas), Le Dictionnaire des Arts et des Sciences, 1694
• Barré (Louis), Complément du Dictionnaire de l’Académie française, 1842

FIELDS OF INTEREST

Science of dictionaries, lexicography, history, linguistic history, literature

EDITORIAL TEAM

Author of the databases: Claude Blum
Analysis and documentation: Susan Baddeley (University of Saint-Quentin en Yvelines); Simone Benhamou (Paris); Liselotte Biedermann-Pasques (CNRS-INALF); Jean Buffin (Paris); Michel Dessaint (INALCO); Bernard Quemada (Paris); Eugénia Roucher (Paris); Liliane Tasker (Paris)
With the collaboration of:
Philippe Derendinger (University of Basel); Laurence Plazenet (University of Paris-Sorbonne); Chantal Wionet (University of Avignon and METADIF, CNRS)