Tanums store rettskrivningsordbok is a Norwegian

Norwegian language

Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...

 dictionary

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...

. It was first published by the publishing house Johan Grundt Tanums forlag in 1940 as Norsk Rettskrivningsordbok. The 9th and latest edition was published in 2005.

Initial edition

The work was initiated by philologist Jakob Sverdrup

Jakob Sverdrup (philologist)

-Personal life:He was born in Leikanger as a son of the bishop and politician Jakob Liv Rosted Sverdrup . He was a brother of Georg Johan Sverdrup, uncle of historian Jakob Sverdrup, a first cousin of Harald Ulrik Sverdrup and Leif Sverdrup, a nephew of Georg Sverdrup and Edvard Sverdrup, grandson...

 in 1936, who edited the dictionary until his death in 1938. After his death linguist and educator Marius Sandvei

Marius Sandvei

Marius Sandvei was a Norwegian linguist, educator and language politician. He is particularly known for his long-term editing of the Norwegian normative dictionary Tanums store rettskrivningsordbok....

 took over the responsibility as editor. The first edition of the dictionary was published in 1940 by the publishing house Johan Grundt Tanums forlag, with the title Norsk Rettskrivningsordbok.

Later editions

Later editions of the dictionary are called Tanums store rettskrivningsordbok, and are also referred to as Tanum or Sverdrup-Sandvei. Co-editor from 1974 was Bernt Fossestøl, who died in 1988. Sandvei died in 1993. Boye Wangensteen was responsible for the 8th edition from 1996.
He was also responsible for the 9th edition from 2005. The dictionary contains around 300,000 words, including compound words, foreign words, geographical names and technical terms. The latest edition is updated according to the normative changes which were effective from 1 July 2005, and is vetted by the Norwegian Language Council

Norwegian Language Council

The Norwegian Language Council was the regulation authority for the Norwegian language. It has been superseded by The Language Council of Norway .The council had 38 members, and created lists of acceptable word forms...

. From 1983 the dictionary has been issued by the publishing house Kunnskapsforlaget

Kunnskapsforlaget

Kunnskapsforlaget is a Norwegian publishing company based in Oslo that concentrates on encyclopedias, encyclopedic books, textbooks, and dictonaries. The company, created in 1975, is owned by Gyldendal Norsk Forlag and Aschehoug ....

, along with other dictionaries such as Bokmålsordboka

Bokmålsordboka

Bokmålsordboka is a dictionary of the Norwegian written language called Bokmål . It is published by the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Oslo in cooperation with the Norwegian Language Council. The work on the dictionary commenced in 1974 and the first edition...

, Norsk ordbok

Norsk ordbok (Riksmål)

Norsk ordbok is a dictionary of written Norwegian . It was first published in 1993 under the title Norsk illustrert ordbok...

and Norsk Riksmålsordbok

Norsk Riksmålsordbok

Norsk Riksmålsordbok is a Norwegian dictionary. The work was initiated by Riksmaalsvernet around 1920. Its first edition was completed in 1957, and was printed in four volumes. Two extra volumes were issued in 1995. Editors for volume 1, 2 and 3 were Trygve Knudsen and Alf Sommerfelt, and volume 4...

, and the encyclopedia Store Norske Leksikon

Store norske leksikon

Store norske leksikon, abbreviated SNL, is currently the second most comprehensive contemporary Norwegian language encyclopedia. The SNL was created in 1978 when the two publishing houses Aschehoug and Gyldendal merged their encyclopedias and created the company Kunnskapsforlaget. The name...

. The dictionary is recommended by the Norwegian Ministry of Culture as a consultative help when making new official names of Governmental bodies, institutions or companies. The dictionary has a long-term record as an important aid, almost a must, for solvers of crossword

Crossword

A crossword is a word puzzle that normally takes the form of a square or rectangular grid of white and shaded squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the answers. In languages that are written left-to-right, the answer...

 puzzles, and also for puzzle makers. The 8th edition from 1996 was accompanied with a 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....

version of the dictionary. The electronic version was also included on the CD-ROM Norsk Språk, along with other dictionaries.