Grammar Girl: For Writers and Language Lovers. The ‘Tale of Two Dictionaries,’ with Peter Sokolowski
Mar 19, 2026
Peter Sokolowski, editor-at-large at Merriam-Webster and dictionary historian, traces the word "dictionary" to a 1502 Latin work by Calepino. He explores how that book became a pan-European reference and spawned early English and French dictionaries. The talk follows links to Shakespeare, the Mayflower, Reformation-driven vernaculars, and the rise of monolingual dictionaries.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Calepino Created the European Dictionary Model
- The modern concept and term dictionary trace back to Calepino, a 1502 monk whose Latin Dictionarium became Europe's standard reference.
- Calepino's work was translated into many vernaculars and his name (Calepino/Calpin) became synonymous with a polyglot dictionary across Europe.
Two Cities, One Source Sparked Vernacular Dictionaries
- Translations of Calepino's definitions (not just headwords) in Paris and London produced the first vernacular dictionaries within a year of each other.
- Thomas Eliot published the first English-titled Dictionary in 1538 and Robert Estienne published Dictionnaire in French in 1539, both from Calepino's text.
The Reformation Drove Dictionary Development
- The Reformation and desire for vernacular Bibles created political and cultural pressure to standardize and expand vernacular vocabularies.
- Protestant printers and scholars like Robert Estienne and Thomas Eliot translated Calepino to support reading the Bible in French and English.
