Oxford LibGuides: Legal history: England & common law tradition: Dictionaries

Anglo-Saxon

Dictionary of Old English
Alternative names: Dictionary of Old English Corpus ; DOE ; DOEC

The Dictionary of Old English was conceived by Angus Cameron, its founding editor, as an historical dictionary in the tradition established by Sir James Murray for the Oxford English Dictionary. The Dictionary of Old English is based on records written in English between 600 and 1150 A.D.
Please note that this version which runs in a web browser has no search facility - you just have to browse alphabetically.
Dictionary of Old English Corpus
Alternative names: Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus ; DOE ; DOEC

The Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus is an online database consisting of at least one copy of every Old English text. In some cases, more than one copy is included if it is significant because of dialect or date. As such, the DOE Web Corpus represents about four million words of Old English and another million words of Latin, or about six times the collected works of Shakespeare. It has been compiled as part of the Dictionary of Old English project at the University of Toronto, and is fully searchable.

A Thesaurus of Old English
Open Access hosted by Glasgow University
" ... conceptually arranged, and presents the vocabulary of Anglo-Saxon England within ordered categories. This allows the user to approach the materials of the Thesaurus by subject ... . The provision of brief indications of meaning at all levels of this scheme allows word-senses to follow on from ideas explained, so that this thesaurus incorporates information about word meaning and could be described as an inside-out dictionary, with meanings first and then words."
Glossary I
Free resource. Part of ORB's Medieval Sourcebook:
The Anglo-Saxon Dooms, 560-975 "Greg Rose [greg@bronze.lcs.mit.edu] provided ... a glossary of the [unfamiliar] terms. This glossary should be prefaced by noting that not all the definitions provided are uncontroversial, since a number of the issues underlying some of these terms are still very much a matter of scholarly debate (also, a number of the terms are combinations of modern English and old English)"
Glossary II Anglo-Saxon Laws and Customs: Vocabulary From Thatcher edition
Free resource. Part of ORB's Medieval Sourcebook:
The Anglo-Saxon Dooms, 560-975
(Oliver J. Thatcher, ed., The Library of Original Sources (Milwaukee: University Research Extension Co., 1907), Vol. IV: The Early Medieval World, pp. 209-211)

Dictionaries of the languages of early common law

Law French & Law Latin

For background see 'The three languages of the common law' in Baker, The Common law tradition: lawyers, books and the law (Legal Hist. B167d) and the sources mentioned in the footnotes.

Baker’s Manual of Law French at KL44.BAK 1990 is the best guide for anyone needing to translate from the original.

Latin (in a post-classical form) was the usual language of writs and court rolls until 1731 (4 Geo. II, c.26).

Anglo-Norman Dictionary
Open Access Project of Aberystwiyh University funded by AHRC.

Some examples of early legal dictionaries are available via links below.

First edition of Stroud's Dictionary (The judicial dictionary of words and phrases judicially interpreted) was published in 1890.

Expositiones terminoru[m] legu[m] angloru[m] ....
Requires Oxford SSO for remote access. From EEBO First law dictionary printed in England. [[London] : Impressum [by John Rastell], xv. die Iulij. anno d[omi]ni M.v.C.xxvii. [1527]]
Usually attrib. to William Rastell (printer's son) STC (2nd ed.), 20703
An exposition of certaine difficult and obscure wordes, and termes of the lawes of this realme, newly set foorth & augmented, both in French and English, for the helpe of such yonge studentes as are desirous to attaine the knowledge of the same ... Requires Oxford SSO for remote access From EEBO In ædibus Richardi Tottelli. 1579. STC (2nd ed.), 20706.5
The interpreter: or Booke containing the signification of vvords wherein is set foorth the true meaning of all, or the most part of such words and termes, as are mentioned in the lawe vvriters, or statutes of this victorious and renowned kingdome, ...
Requires Oxford SSO for remote access. From EEBO. aka Cowell's Interpreter
(At Cambridge : Printed by Iohn Legate, Anno 1607)
STC (2nd ed.) / 5900
Nomo-lexikon, a law-dictionary
Requires Oxford SSO for remote access. Via EEBO. By Thomas Blount (1670) Wing B3340
Nomenclatura clericalis, or, The young clerk's vocabulary in English and Latine
Oxford SSO required for remote access. By G. Meriton (1685) a handy book of "words Latinised which you cannot find any Latin for in a dictionary."
A new law-dictionary: containing, the interpretation and definition of words and terms used in the law; and also the whole law, and the practice thereof, ...
Requires Oxford SSO for remote access. Via ECCO. By Giles Jacob (1729) English Short Title Catalog, ESTCT 137460.
Law Latin and English Law
Remote access requires Oxford SSO for remote access. Article by Roger Fisher in Brill’s Encyclopaedia of the Neo-Latin World
Differences between Medieval and Classical Latin
Open Access TIps from staff at the National Archives
Learn medieval Latin
Free resource. Online tutorial from The National Archives. atin was the official language of many documents written in England before 1733. This step-by-step beginners’ guide to medieval Latin, created by our experts, will help you gain the necessary skills to read documents from this period.