On the applicability of the dictionaries of Old English to linguistic research

Abstract

The aim of this article is to review the standard dictionaries of Old English from the perspective of the evolution from traditional lexicography to electronic lexicography. An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (Bosworth and Toller 1973), The student’s Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon (Sweet 1976), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (Hall 1996) and The Dictionary of Old English in Electronic Form A-G (Healey et al. 2008) are discussed with respect to headword, alternative spellings and cross-references, vowel quantity and textual evidence.