The Oxford Latin Dictionary

Extract

The dictionary compiled by Ælfric, who became Abbot of Eynsham, was perhaps the first work to which the title Latin—English Dictionary can be given. Before A.d. 1000 there had been many glossaries explaining difficult Latin words in simpler or contemporary Latin words; the arrangement had regard to subjects. There had also been lists rendering selected words into a language other than Latin, e.g. the St. Gall manuscript which rendered Latin words into Old High German; the arrangement is in groups, though an alphabetical index is provided in an appendix. But Ælfric's dictionary was probably the first to offer the framework of what we should require in a Latin—English dictionary.