Langenscheidt () is a German publishing company that specializes in language

reference work A reference work is a work, such as a paper, book or periodical (or their electronic equivalents), to which one can refer for information. The information is intended to be found quickly when needed. Such works are usually ''referred'' to ...

s. In addition to publishing monolingual

dictionaries A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, ...

, Langenscheidt also publishes

bilingual dictionaries A bilingual dictionary or translation dictionary is a specialized dictionary used to translate words or phrases from one language to another. Bilingual dictionaries can be ''unidirectional'', meaning that they list the meanings of words of one la ...

and travel phrase-books. Langenscheidt has language-to-language dictionaries in many languages, including:

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Greek,

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

, Chinese and Croatian, and in varying sizes, ranging from small travel pocket dictionaries to large desk sized ones.

History

The Langenscheidt Publishing Group was founded on 1 October 1856 by

Gustav Langenscheidt Gustav Langenscheidt (October 21, 1832 – November 11, 1895) was a German language teacher, book publisher, and the founder of Langenscheidt Publishing Group. Life Gustav Langenscheidt was the son of Johann Ludwig Langenscheidt, a decorator ...

, in response to other publishers' refusal to publish his self-study materials for learning

, which he subsequently published under the title „ Unterrichtsbriefe zur Erlernung der französischen Sprache“ ("Teaching letters for learning the French language"). These learning materials became very popular and were widely read so much so that even today, Langenscheidt can be considered the "Father of

distance education Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...

". From 1867, Langenscheidt Publishing Group had its own

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...

. From 1869 Langenscheidt worked with Karl Sachs and Césaire Villatte on the ''Encyklopädisches französisch-deutsches und deutsch-französisches Wörterbuch'' ("Encyclopedic French-German and German-French dictionary") and published it in 1880. In 1874, Langenscheidt was awarded the title of professor. In 1891, in close collaboration with Eduard Muret and Daniel Sanders, he started working on the English equivalent, the ''Encyklopädisches englisch-deutsches und deutsch-englisches Wörterbuch'' ("Encyclopedic English-German and German-English dictionary"). Langenscheidt did not live to see its publication; his son Carl, his successor, published it in 1901. In 2019, Langenscheidt was acquired by Klett, owner of the competing dictionary Pons.

Dictionary structure

The structure for most Langenscheidt dictionaries is the same. Most pocket dictionaries include around 55,000 references designed for tourists or people studying beginning or intermediate foreign languages, while larger desk sized interlanguage dictionaries include around 220,000 references. After the two languages' references conclude, grammatical assistance appears in the Appendix section, including helpful abbreviations, geographical regions, currency values, temperature conversions, and numerical values.

References

External links

Official Site (in English)German Site (in German, focus is on dictionaries)
{{Authority control Book publishing companies of Germany Dictionaries Publishing companies established in 1856 Reference publishers

History

Dictionary structure

See also

References

External links