Research Guides: Classics: Language dictionaries

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Latin Dictionaries

Oxford Latin Dictionary by P. G. W. Glare (Editor)
Call Number: Reference - 2nd floor PA2365.E5 O9 1996
Publication Date: 1983
The OLD is a more recent dictionary, and better researched, designed, and suited for the study of classical antiquity, than Lewis and Short’s below. It is not freely accessible online. (EXCEPTION: Davidson has a subscription to Oxford Scholarly Editions Online. If you are reading a Latin text via that platform, you can highlight a Latin word and get the option of seeing the definition in the OLD. You can then search freely for any Latin words within that popup window.)

Lewis & Short, Harper's Latin Dictionary
Also available in print in 1st floor Reference stacks: R 473.2 A56f1
Publication Date: 1879
Front matter available through: Wikisource A Latin Dictionary
Within this front matter are a couple of abbreviations that are taken for granted:
ob. = obiit (“died”)
fl. or flor. = floruit (“flowered,” i.e. reached the peak of their career)
Thesaurus linguae Latinae (TLL)
Also available in print in 2nd floor Reference stacks: PA2361 .T4
Publication Date: 1900-present
"The Thesaurus linguae Latinae is the most authoritative dictionary of ancient Latin." See an overview about what a word’s entry (entirely in Latin) generally offers. Be sure also to explore the User Tools, so you know what you’re dealing with in a given entry. Finally, keep in mind that the TLL (in both print and digital form) is still a work in progress, offering entries for all words beginning with A-M and O-P, and for some words beginning with N and R.

Greek Dictionaries

A Greek-English Lexicon by H. G. Liddell; R. Scott; Henry Stuart Jones
Call Number: Reference - 1st Floor R 483.2 L71g9
Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon (9/e 1940) is the most comprehensive and up-to-date ancient Greek dictionary in the world. The main dictionary covers every surviving ancient Greek author and text discovered up to 1940, from the Pre-Classical Greek of the 11C - 8C BC (for example Homer and Hesiod), through Classical Greek (7C - 5C BC) to the Hellenistic Period, including the Greek Old and New Testaments. Entries list irregular inflections, and together with the definition, each sense includes citations from Greek authors illustrating usage. The 1996 supplement is also included. The Lexicon is Greek into English only, as are other ancient Greek dictionaries.

See also The Online Liddell-Scott-Jones Greek-English Lexicon (1961 ed.) This edition includes links to the front matter and abbreviations of the authors and titles.
The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek by Franco Montanari; Madeleine Goh;Chad Schroeder (Editors)
Call Number: Reference - 2nd floor PA445.E5 M66 2015
Publication Date: 2015
The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek brings together 140,000 headwords taken from the literature, papyri, inscriptions and other sources of the archaic period up to the 6th Century CE, and occasionally beyond.
The Cambridge Greek Lexicon by James Diggle
Call Number: PA445 .E5 C36 2021
Publication Date: 2021
The Cambridge Greek Lexicon is based upon principles differing from those of existing Greek lexica. Entries are organised according to meaning, with a view to showing the developing senses of words and the relationships between those senses. The editors have systematically re-examined the source material and have made use of the most recent textual and philological scholarship.
A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature by W. Bauer, F. W. Danker, W. F. Arndt, and F. W. Gingrich (Editors)
Call Number: Reference - 2nd floor R 487.4 D187g
Publication Date: 2000
The new edition lists more than 25,000 additional references to classical, intertestamental, Early Christian, and modern literature.