Medieval Latin Dictionary from British Sources

The Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources is a unique work of historical reference, based upon the largest
corpus of named authors and the largest archive of literary, archival, and epigraphic sources anywhere in Europe. It
covers not only the usages of the Classical Latin and Late Latin periods (from the beginnings to AD 200 and 200-600),
but the entire period of the Middle Ages: the 1100 years from the sixth century to the sixteenth. It records in the standard
format of the Oxford English Dictionary and the Oxford Latin Dictionary head-words, etymologies, definitions, and
quotations that illustrate usage, documenting a complete range from high literary to archival and even demotic registers,
incorporating words borrowed from a uniquely wide variety of other languages / Greek, Semitic, Celtic, Germanic, and
Romance. As the Dictionary often illustrates use in Latin of vernacular words hundreds of years before their recorded use
in vernacular texts, the work is essential to the study of medieval and modern languages and literatures as well as the
long history of Latin. Even before its completion the Dictionary has established itself as pre-eminent, with widely
acknowledged usefulness to students of language, literature, history, philosophy, genealogy, music, art and architecture,
numismatics, onomastics, topography, and to editors and translators of texts.
Its completion and online availability by 2014 by a combination of AHRC and Packard Humanities Institute funding will be an achievement of
international importance. The Dictionary will be able to cover specific British vocabularies not dealt with in other editions.
It will serve as primary and essential reference volume to the academy.

The impact of the Dictionary on a public more inclusive than the academic world has been considerable, and it will continue to be extensive. The expertise of the editorial staff has been required for translations of legal documents, and members of staff have served as experts in courts of law dealing with property and mineral rights. They have responded to requests for interpretations of artefacts in collections of national and local museums and to requests from members of the public for translations of varied documents. They have made major contributions to series of documentary films, videos, and CDs about great national figures such as Saint Patrick, comprehensive histories of invasions from Roman times to the Vikings, and specialized subjects such as the history of games in Britain from Roman times to the modern period. They have supplied evidence and texts for the invention of polyphonic music in these islands and Insular contributions to the golden age of medieval motets, also evidence and commentaries for the restorations and inventions of national instruments, such as Welsh and Irish harps, and participated in inaugural performances. Most members of staff have engaged in popular teaching outside the academy. All members of staff have impressive records of publications on a wide variety of subjects, some academic editions, some serious popular translations, some wider disseminations of national cultural and intellectual history, all of them grounded in the basic lexicographical work of the Dictionary, and all of them dedicated to enrichment of national cultural life in ways that can be widely understood and appreciated. All are keenly aware of the need to make specialized linguistic and lexicographical knowledge available in varied media.