A Latin Dictionary
| Author | Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short |
|---|---|
| Original title | Harpers' Latin Dictionary: A New Latin Dictionary Founded on the Translation of Freund's Latin-German Lexicon Edited by E. A. Andrews |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Published | 1879 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 2019 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 1063568 |
| Text | at |
A Latin Dictionary (or Harpers' Latin Dictionary, often referred to as Lewis and Short or L&S) is a popular English-language lexicographical work of the Latin language, published by Harper and Brothers of New York in 1879 and printed simultaneously in the United Kingdom by Oxford University Press.
The work is usually referred to as Lewis and Short after the names of its editors, Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short. It was derived from the 1850 English translation by Ethan Allen Andrews of an earlier Latin-German dictionary, Wörterbuch der Lateinischen Sprache, by the German philologist Wilhelm Freund, in turn based on I.J.G. Scheller’s Latin–German dictionary of 1783. The Andrews translation was partially revised by Freund himself, then by Henry Drisler, and was finally edited by Short and Lewis.
The division of labour between the two editors was remarkably unequal. Short, a very thorough but slow worker, produced material for the letters A through C, but B and C were lost by Harpers, meaning that his work now only appears in the letter A (216 pages), while Lewis was solely responsible for the entries beginning with the letters B through Z (1803 pages), who worked on his spare time from his law practice. In 1890 Lewis published a heavily abridged version the dictionary, entitled An Elementary Latin Dictionary, for the use of students. Sometimes called the Elementary Lewis, it is still in print today.
The adoption of the book by Oxford University Press was the result of the failure of its own project to create a new Latin-English dictionary in 1875. Henry Nettleship and John Mayor had been commissioned to produce a new Latin dictionary based on a fresh reading of the sources, but after Mayor withdrew from the project, Nettleship was unable to complete it on his own; he eventually published his research as notes on Lewis and Short. While the Press had earlier published John Riddle’s 1835 translation of Scheller’s Latin–German dictionary, this was a much more expensive book. The Press thus adopted Harpers' Latin Dictionary as a stopgap measure, paying Harper and Brothers 10 per cent royalties. Harper and Brothers sold its rights to the American Book Company in 1899, shortly before its bankruptcy.
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