Diccionario de la lengua española de la Real Academia Española
Encyclopedia
The Diccionario de la lengua española de la Real Academia Española or DRAE is the most authoritative dictionary
of the Spanish language
. It is produced, edited, and published by the Real Academia Española
(RAE – Royal Spanish Academy); the first edition was published in 1780. The most current, twenty-second edition was published in 2001; an advance version of the 23rd edition has been available for online consultation since April 2005.
Historically, the decision to add, modify, or delete words from the dictionary has been by the RAE, in consultation with other language authorities (especially in Latin America
) when there was an uncertainty. This process continued between 1780 and 1992, but, since the 1992 edition, the RAE and the twenty-one discrete language academies of Latin America collaborate in producing the 'Dictionary of the Spanish Language of the Royal Spanish Academy'.
Editions of the DRAE (year, edition): 1780 (1ª) – 1783 (2ª) – 1791 (3ª) – 1803 (4ª) – 1817 (5ª) – 1822 (6ª) – 1832 (7ª)– 1837 (8ª)– 1843 (9ª) – 1852 (10ª) – 1869 (11ª) – 1884 (12ª) – 1899 (13ª) – 1914 (14ª) – 1925 (15ª) – 1936/1939 (16ª) – 1947 (17ª) – 1956 (18ª) – 1970 (19ª) – 1984 (20ª) – 1992 (21ª) – 2001 (22ª).
. The 2001 edition was offered on CD-ROM
and paper. The twenty-second edition was published in three formats, paper, CD-ROM, and on the Internet
with free access. The current, online version is hybrid of the most recent print edition, the twenty-second, and the future, twenty-third edition, incorporating modified definitions that will eventually constitute the twenty-third edition.
(che) and ll
(elle) to the Castilian alphabet as separate, discrete letters in alphabetic organization. That incorporation was overturned in 1994 (at the tenth meeting of the Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española) where they were re-ordered in concordance with the Latin alphabet
. Also in 1803, the letter "X" was replaced with "J" when its pronunciation
was identical to that of the guttural "J", and the circumflex accent (^) was eliminated.
The earliest editions were more extensive: they included Latin translations of the entry, in some cases gave usage
examples (especially in popular phrases), and summarized the word's etymology
; contemporary editions do so concisely. The earliest editions had "X" entries that no longer appear individually.
were racist and offensive. One definition of sinagoga (synagogue
) is: "a meeting for illicit ends"; the nominal definition of 'sinagogue' is given first, and the pejorative definition is so identified.
Yerba-buena, an association of Spanish Gitanos ("Gypsies" in English
), complains that one definition of Gitano: "one who practices deceit" or "one who tricks", is offensive and could encourage racism
; nevertheless, the word gitano does actually mean "trickster" in Spanish, and other Spanish dictionaries include this definition.
The Madrid
Gay, Lesbian Transsexual Collective has complained of offense by the definition of Marica:
Eulàlia Lledó believes that ajamonarse: "to become like a ham, become pregnant" is inherently sexist
. Galicians take offense to the definition of Gallego: "a Galician, dumb, stupid
or deaf." Some of these groups propose deletion of these pejorative definitions, while others feel that the entries should be flagged as offensive. This latter approach is similar to the policy of many English dictionaries; for example, the American Heritage Dictionary
includes the word nigger
, labelling it "offensive slang" and a "disparaging term."
The RAE dismissed the complaints as political correctness, saying "we simply photograph the landscape; we do not create it".
Dictionary
A dictionary is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon...
of the Spanish language
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
. It is produced, edited, and published by the Real Academia Española
Real Academia Española
The Royal Spanish Academy is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in twenty-one other hispanophone nations through the Association of Spanish Language Academies...
(RAE – Royal Spanish Academy); the first edition was published in 1780. The most current, twenty-second edition was published in 2001; an advance version of the 23rd edition has been available for online consultation since April 2005.
Origin and development
When the RAE was founded in 1713, one of its primary objectives was compiling a Castilian Spanish dictionary. Its first endeavor was the six-volume Diccionario de Autoridades (Dictionary of Authorities) from 1726 to 1739. Based on that work, the DRAE itself was compiled as an abridged version, and published in 1780. The full title of that first edition was the Diccionario de la lengua castellana compuesto por la Real Academia Española, reducido á un tomo para su más fácil uso ("Dictionary of the Castilian language composed by the Royal Spanish Academy, reduced to one volume for easier use"). Per the prologue, the DRAE was published for general public access to a dictionary during the long time between the publishing of the first and second editions of the exhaustive Authorities Dictionary, thus offering a cheaper reference book; by when the second DRAE edition was published, it had become the principal dictionary, superseding its ancestor; the last edition of the Diccionario de Autoridades was published in 1793.Historically, the decision to add, modify, or delete words from the dictionary has been by the RAE, in consultation with other language authorities (especially in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
) when there was an uncertainty. This process continued between 1780 and 1992, but, since the 1992 edition, the RAE and the twenty-one discrete language academies of Latin America collaborate in producing the 'Dictionary of the Spanish Language of the Royal Spanish Academy'.
Editions of the DRAE (year, edition): 1780 (1ª) – 1783 (2ª) – 1791 (3ª) – 1803 (4ª) – 1817 (5ª) – 1822 (6ª) – 1832 (7ª)– 1837 (8ª)– 1843 (9ª) – 1852 (10ª) – 1869 (11ª) – 1884 (12ª) – 1899 (13ª) – 1914 (14ª) – 1925 (15ª) – 1936/1939 (16ª) – 1947 (17ª) – 1956 (18ª) – 1970 (19ª) – 1984 (20ª) – 1992 (21ª) – 2001 (22ª).
Formats
Until the twenty-first edition, the DRAE was published exclusively on paperPaper
Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
. The 2001 edition was offered on CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
and paper. The twenty-second edition was published in three formats, paper, CD-ROM, and on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
with free access. The current, online version is hybrid of the most recent print edition, the twenty-second, and the future, twenty-third edition, incorporating modified definitions that will eventually constitute the twenty-third edition.
Interesting facts
The fourth DRAE edition (1803) introduced and incorporated the digraphs chCH
-Business:* Bemidji Airlines IATA code* Carolina Herrera, a fashion designer based in New York.-Entertainment and sports:* Channel * College Humor.com, a comedy website...
(che) and ll
Ll
Ll/ll is a digraph which occurs in several natural languages.-In English:In English, ll represents the same sound as single l:...
(elle) to the Castilian alphabet as separate, discrete letters in alphabetic organization. That incorporation was overturned in 1994 (at the tenth meeting of the Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española) where they were re-ordered in concordance with the Latin alphabet
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
. Also in 1803, the letter "X" was replaced with "J" when its pronunciation
Pronunciation
Pronunciation refers to the way a word or a language is spoken, or the manner in which someone utters a word. If one is said to have "correct pronunciation", then it refers to both within a particular dialect....
was identical to that of the guttural "J", and the circumflex accent (^) was eliminated.
The earliest editions were more extensive: they included Latin translations of the entry, in some cases gave usage
Usage
Usage is the manner in which written and spoken language is used. H. W. Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage "defines usage as 'points of grammar, syntax, style, and the choice of words'". The Oxford Dictionary of English defines usage as "the way in which a word or phrase is normally and...
examples (especially in popular phrases), and summarized the word's etymology
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
; contemporary editions do so concisely. The earliest editions had "X" entries that no longer appear individually.
Titles throughout history
- Diccionario de la lengua castellana compuesto por la Real Academia Española, title of the first (1780) through fourth (1803) editions.
- Dictionary of the Castilian language composed by the Spanish Royal Academy
- Diccionario de la lengua castellana por la Real Academia Española, title of the fifth (1817) though fourteenth (1914) editions.
- Dictionary of the Castilian language by the Spanish Royal Academy
- Diccionario de la lengua española, fifteenth edition (1925) onward.
- Dictionary of the Spanish language
Inaccuracy
Some entries in the dictionary do not reflect current scientific understanding. A clear example is its definition of dinosaurio ("dinosaur"), which refers only to sauropodomorphs.Racism and homophobia accusations
In 2006, The Spanish Federation of Jewish Communities complained that some of the dictionary's entries and definitions about JudaismJudaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
were racist and offensive. One definition of sinagoga (synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
) is: "a meeting for illicit ends"; the nominal definition of 'sinagogue' is given first, and the pejorative definition is so identified.
Yerba-buena, an association of Spanish Gitanos ("Gypsies" in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
), complains that one definition of Gitano: "one who practices deceit" or "one who tricks", is offensive and could encourage racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
; nevertheless, the word gitano does actually mean "trickster" in Spanish, and other Spanish dictionaries include this definition.
The Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
Gay, Lesbian Transsexual Collective has complained of offense by the definition of Marica:
- f. urraca (English: "magpie")
- [. . .]
- m. colloquial. effeminate, weak man.
Eulàlia Lledó believes that ajamonarse: "to become like a ham, become pregnant" is inherently sexist
Sexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
. Galicians take offense to the definition of Gallego: "a Galician, dumb, stupid
Stupidity
Stupidity is a lack of intelligence, understanding, reason, wit, or sense. It may be innate, assumed, or reactive - 'being "stupid with grief" as a defence against trauma', a state marked with 'grief and despair...making even simple daily tasks a hardship'....
or deaf." Some of these groups propose deletion of these pejorative definitions, while others feel that the entries should be flagged as offensive. This latter approach is similar to the policy of many English dictionaries; for example, the American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language is an American dictionary of the English language published by Boston publisher Houghton Mifflin, the first edition of which appeared in 1969...
includes the word nigger
Nigger
Nigger is a noun in the English language, most notable for its usage in a pejorative context to refer to black people , and also as an informal slang term, among other contexts. It is a common ethnic slur...
, labelling it "offensive slang" and a "disparaging term."
The RAE dismissed the complaints as political correctness, saying "we simply photograph the landscape; we do not create it".