Lexicography is an important branch of linguistics, which covers the theory and practice of compiling dictionaries. The history of lexicography of the English language goes as far back as the Old English period where its first traces are found in the form of the glosses of religious books with interlinear translation from Latin. Regular bilingual English-Latin dictionaries already existed in the 15th century.
The first unilingual English dictionary, explaining words appeared in 1604. Its aim was to explain difficult words. Its title was A Table Alphabetical, containing and teaching true writing and understanding of hard usual English words borrowed from the Hebrew, Greek, Latin or French. The volume of 120 pages explaining about 3000 words was compiled by Robert Cawdrey, a schoolmaster.
The first attempt at a bigger dictionary including all the words of the language, not only the difficult ones, was made by Nathaniel Bailey. He published the first edition of Universal Etymological English Dictionary in 1721. It was the first to include pronunciation and etymology.
The first big explanatory dictionary A dictionary of the English language in which the words...
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