''Dictionary of the Irish Language: Based Mainly on Old and Middle Irish Materials'' (also called "the ''DIL''"), published by the

Royal Irish Academy The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the natural sciences, arts, literature, and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned society and one of its le ...

, is the definitive

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...

of the origins of the

Irish language Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( ), is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family. It is a member of the Goidelic languages of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous ...

, specifically the

Old Irish Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic (, Ogham, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ; ; or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic languages, Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive written texts. It was used from 600 to 900. The ...

Middle Irish Middle Irish, also called Middle Gaelic (, , ), is the Goidelic language which was spoken in Ireland, most of Scotland and the Isle of Man from AD; it is therefore a contemporary of Late Old English and Early Middle English. The modern Goideli ...

, and

Early Modern Irish Early Modern Irish () represented a transition between Middle Irish and Modern Irish. Its literary form, Classical Gaelic, was used in Ireland and Scotland from the 13th to the 18th century. Classical Gaelic Classical Gaelic or Classical Irish ( ...

stages up to c. 1700; the modern language is not included. The original idea for a comprehensive dictionary of early Irish was conceived in 1852 by the two pre-eminent Irish linguists of the time,

John O'Donovan John O'Donovan may refer to: *John O'Donovan (scholar) (1806–1861), Irish language scholar and place-name expert *John O'Donovan (politician) (1908–1982), Irish TD and Senator *John O'Donovan (police commissioner) (1858–1927), New Zealand pol ...

and

Eugene O'Curry Eugene O'Curry (, 20 November 179430 July 1862) was an Irish philologist and antiquary. Life He was born at Doonaha, near Carrigaholt, County Clare, the son of Eoghan Ó Comhraí, a farmer, and his wife Cáit. Eoghan had spent some time as a ...

; however, it was more than sixty years until the first fascicle (the letter D as far as the word , compiled by Carl J. S. Marstrander) was published in 1913. It was more than sixty years again until the final fascicle (only one page long and consisting of words beginning with H) was published in 1976 under the editorship of E. G. Quin. The full dictionary comprises about 2500 pages, but a compact edition (four original pages photoreduced onto one page) was published in 1983 (), and the decision was made to discontinue printing the full-size edition.

''eDIL''

A web site has been established to permit scholars to submit annotations for the ''DIL''. As a result of a project started in 2003,University of Ulster, eDIL: Progress (Updated 27 April 2006)
/ref> the online edition, known as the ''electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language'' (or ''eDIL''), was launched in the

on the 27 June 2007. The launch was organised by the Foclóir na Nua-Ghaeilge team in the academy.

References

{{reflist

External links

DIL, the Dictionary of the Irish Language
Irish dictionaries 1976 non-fiction books Online dictionaries