Oxford LibGuides: Classics and Ancient History: Dictionaries

Classical Dictionaries, Thesauri and Encyclopedias

There are a number of online dictionaries and thesauri that are helpful to Classicists. A selection are listed below:

Database of Latin Dictionaries This link opens in a new window

Click the "Enter databases" button when you get there.
The purpose of this Database of Latin Dictionaries is to produce for scholars and students an online database comprising a large number of Latin dictionaries. The database will: continue to grow gradually and will comprise three kinds of dictionaries:
* dictionaries to assist translation from Latin into modern languages
* dictionaries providing semantic and etymological explanations in Latin of Latin words
* historical Latin dictionaries.
The aim of the database is not only to integrate different types of Latin dictionaries, whether modern, medieval or early-modern, but also to build in links between these different tools.
Please note that we only have a three user licence for the online version so please exit when you have finished!
Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources

Alternative name:
DMLBS

The Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources (DMLBS), the first fascicle of which appeared in 1975 and the 17th and last in 2013, is “the most comprehensive dictionary of Medieval Latin to have been produced and the first ever to focus on British Medieval Latin”. Covering a particularly long period stretching from Gildas (fl. 540) to William Camden (1600), it is “wholly based on original research”, that is to say on the close reading of thousands of Medieval Latin texts. This has been carried out specifically for the purpose of recording their distinctive lexical characteristics, and, as far as possible, using the best available sources, whether original manuscripts or modern critical editions. It is also based on systematic searches within computer databases, including the Library of Latin Texts (LLT-A and LLT-B), where many of the texts can be found that make up the sources for the DMLBS.
Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek Language and Linguistics This link opens in a new window

Alternative name: EAGLL

The Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek Language and Linguistics (EAGLL) is a unique work that brings together the latest research from across a range of disciplines which contribute to our knowledge of Ancient Greek. It is an indispensable research tool for scholars and students of Greek, of linguistics, and of other Indo-European languages, as well as of Biblical literature.
Lexicon des Mittelalters Online This link opens in a new window

* the standard encyclopædia for medieval studies. It deals with all branches of Medieval Studies and covers the period from 300 to 1500 AD/CE for the whole of Europe and parts of the Middle East and North Africa
* 36,700 signed articles by 3000 authors, providing unrivalled coverage of the European Middle Ages from the world's leading encyclopædia (published 1977-1999)
* full searching by headwords, subjects; free word-searching; fully exportable
* multilingual interface in English, French and German
* Metzler updates to the original printed edition will be integrated into LexMA-Online
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Please note that we only have a three user licence for the online version so please exit when you have finished!
Oxford Classical Dictionary

Alternative name: OCD

As an authoritative one-volume guide to all aspects of the ancient world, OCD has no competitor in any language. At one and the same time it offers, across the whole range of the study of the ancient world, both information presented in a form accessible to non-specialists and factual material and bibliographies detailed and specific enough to be valuable to the professional reader. No other single-volume work of reference remotely approaches OCD in the sheer quality of factual detail contained.
The new and largely rewritten edition gathers 6,250 contributions written by an international team of 364 scholars between 1991 and 1994.
Thesaurus Linguae Graecae
This resource requires you to register before use.

Alternative name: TLG

The TLGTM Digital Library now contains virtually all ancient Greek texts surviving from the period between Homer (8th century B.C.) and A.D. 600, and a large number of texts deriving from the period between A.D. 600 and 1453, in excess of 80 million words.
In addition to its extensive collection of texts, the TLG has compiled the Canon of Greek Authors and Works, a comprehensive database of all known ancient Greek and Byzantine authors, together with bibliographies of existing critical editions of their extant works.
Thesaurus Linguae Latinae

Alternative names: TLL ; Thesaurus Linguae Latinae Online

The new digital online versions of the Thesaurus linguae Latinae (TLL) and the Bibliotheca Teubneriana Latina (BTL) replace the former CD-Rom versions of BTL 4 and TLL 5. They offer both an extension of the data, and a fundamentally remodelled user interface, which – for the first time – allows to search both databases (if you have subscribed to the combined product of BTL + TLL online). The user interface is largely self-explanatory. The help function offers support with special queries of the application. Additionally, an extensive introduction to the Thesaurus linguae Latinae is offered in its Praemonenda, to be found at the beginning of its table of contents.
The Bibliotheca Teubneriana Latina (BTL) online comprises the data of BTL 4, supplemented by the texts of all Latin editions of the Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana printed by 2008. This means that formerly omitted texts from BT editions of the 19th and 20th centuries are now included, especially those of scholia and grammarians. The extension ranges around 1 million word forms, so that the BTL Online now includes approximately 13 million word forms in total.
The data of Thesaurus linguae Latinae (TLL) Online has been enlarged by the fascicles published in 2007 and 2008 and now comprises the letters A–M, O, P–pomifer, porta–pulsio.