| Revision as of 02:28, 12 May 2010 view sourceHi878 (talk | contribs)Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers11,728 editsm Reverted edits by 98.231.5.228 to last version by Legobot II (IG)← Previous edit | Revision as of 02:29, 12 May 2010 view source 98.231.5.228 (talk) ←Replaced content with '{{About|the type of reference work}}k'Next edit → | ||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| {{About|the type of reference work}} | {{About|the type of reference work}}k | ||
| {{pp-move-indef|small=yes}} | |||
| ] in 1902]] | |||
| An '''encyclopedia''' (also spelled '''encyclopaedia''' or '''encyclopædia''') is a type of ], a ] holding ] from either all branches of ] or a particular branch of knowledge.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://library.rcc.edu/riverside/glossaryoflibraryterms.htm#e |title="Encyclopedia." |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20070803182506/http://library.rcc.edu/riverside/glossaryoflibraryterms.htm#e |archivedate=2007-08-03}} Glossary of Library Terms. Riverside City College, Digital Library/Learning Resource Center. Retrieved on: November 17, 2007.</ref> | |||
| Encyclopedias are divided into ]s. The articles in an encyclopedia are usually accessed alphabetically by article name (or sometimes by theme). Unlike ] entries which are about the often many ], ] and usage aspects of their entry's ] or ], each encyclopedia article's ] is a single ] that is referred to by the article name. | |||
| Encyclopedias have existed for around 2,000 years; the oldest still in existence, '']'', was written in Roman times by ]. The modern encyclopedia evolved out of dictionaries around the 17th century. Historically, some encyclopedias were contained in one ], but some, such as the '']'', became huge multi-volume works. Some modern encyclopedias are electronic and are often freely available. | |||
| The word '']'' comes from the ] "ἐγκυκλοπαιδεία"<ref>, | |||
| Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', at Perseus project</ref>, from ] {{polytonic|"ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία"}}<ref>, Quintilian, ''Institutio Oratoria'', 1.10.1, at Perseus project</ref>, transliterated "enkyklios paideia": "enkyklios" (''ἐγκύκλιος''), meaning "circular, round"<ref>, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', at Perseus project</ref> + "paideia" (''παιδεία''), meaning "education, rearing of a child"<ref>, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', at Perseus project</ref>. Together, the phrase literally translates as a "well rounded education" or "general knowledge". | |||
| {{quote|Indeed, the purpose of an encyclopedia is to collect knowledge disseminated around the globe; to set forth its general system to the men with whom we live, and transmit it to those who will come after us, so that the work of preceding centuries will not become useless to the centuries to come; and so that our offspring, becoming better instructed, will at the same time become more virtuous and happy, and that we should not die without having rendered a service to the human race in the future years to come.<ref>Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert University of Michigan Library:Scholarly Publishing Office and DLXS. Retrieved on: November 17, 2007</ref>| ]}} | |||
| ==History== | |||
| ===Pliny the Elder=== | |||
| ] | |||
| One of the earliest encyclopedic works to have survived to modern times is the ] of ], a ] statesman living in the first century AD. He compiled a work of 37 chapters covering natural history, art and architecture, medicine, geography, geology and all aspects of the world around him. He stated in the preface that he had compiled 20,000 facts from 2000 different works by 200 authors, and added many others from his own experience. The work was published in 80 AD{{Fact|date=January 2010}}, although he probably never finished proofing the work before his death in the eruption of ] in 79 AD. | |||
| The scheme of his great work is vast and comprehensive, being nothing short of a compendium of learning and of art so far as they are connected with nature, or draw their materials from nature. He admits that | |||
| <blockquote>My subject is a barren one – the world of nature, or in other words life; and that subject in its least elevated department, and employing either rustic terms or foreign, many barbarian words that actually have to be introduced with an apology. Moreover, the path is not a beaten highway of authorship, nor one in which the mind is eager to range: there is not one of us who has made the same venture, nor yet one Greek who has tackled single-handed all departments of the subject.</blockquote> | |||
| And he admits the problems of writing such a work: | |||
| <blockquote>It is a difficult task to give novelty to what is old, authority to what is new, brilliance to the common-place, light to the obscure, attraction to the stale, credibility to the doubtful, but nature to all things and all her properties to nature.</blockquote> | |||
| Although there were earlier works of a similar nature, by ] for example, Pliny's was the only one to survive the ]. It became very popular in the Roman world, and survived, with many copies being made and distributed in the western world. It was one of the first classical manuscripts to be printed in 1470, and has remained popular ever since as a source of information on the ] world, and especially ], ] and ]. It is also a recognised source for ], ], ], ], ], ] and many other topics not discussed by other classical authors. Among many interesting entries are those for the ] and the ] snail, the much sought-after source of ] dye. | |||
| Although his work has been criticized for the lack of candor in checking the "facts", some of his text has been confirmed by recent research, like the spectacular remains of Roman ] in Spain, especially at ], which Pliny probably saw in operation while a ] there a few years before he compiled the encyclopedia. Although many of the ] methods are now redundant, such as ] and ], it is Pliny who recorded them for posterity, so helping us understand their importance in a modern context. Pliny makes clear in the preface to the work that he had checked his facts by reading and comparing the works of others, as well as referring to them by name. Many such books are now ] and remembered only by his references, much like the lost sources mentioned in the work of ] a century earlier. | |||
| ===Middle Ages=== | |||
| ]), title page of book 14 (''de terra et partibus''), illustrated with a ].]] | |||
| ], one of the greatest scholars of the early Middle Ages, is widely recognized as being the author of the first known encyclopedia of the Middle Ages, the ] (around 630), in which he compiled a sizable portion of the learning available at his time, both ancient and modern. The encyclopedia has 448 chapters in 20 volumes, and is valuable because of the quotes and fragments of texts by other authors that would have been lost had they not been collected by Saint Isidore. | |||
| ]' ''De proprietatibus rerum'' (1240) was the most widely read and quoted encyclopedia in the ]<ref name="dotma">See "Encyclopedia" in '']''.</ref> while ]'s '']'' (1260) was the most ambitious encyclopedia in the late-medieval period at over 3 million words.<ref name=dotma/> | |||
| The Suda or Souda (Greek: Σοῦδα) is a massive 10th century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Suidas. It is an encyclopedic lexicon, written in Greek, with 30,000 entries, many drawing from ancient sources that have since been lost, and often derived from medieval Christian compilers. | |||
| ===Arabic and Persian=== | |||
| The ] in the Middle Ages included many comprehensive works, and much development of what we now call ]{{Fact|date=May 2010}}, ]{{Fact|date=May 2010}}, and ]{{Fact|date=May 2010}}. About year 960, the ] of ]<ref>P.D. Wightman (1953), ''The Growth of Scientific Ideas''</ref> were engaged in their ]. Notable works include ]'s encyclopedia of science, the ] ]'s prolific output of 270 books, and ]'s medical encyclopedia, which was a standard reference work for centuries. Also notable are works of ] (or sociology) from ]s, ], ], ]'s '']'', ], ], and ], whose ] contains cautions regarding trust in written records that remain wholly applicable today. These scholars had an incalculable influence on methods of research and editing, due in part to the Islamic practice of ] which emphasized fidelity to written record, checking sources, and skeptical inquiry. | |||
| ===China=== | |||
| {{Main|Chinese encyclopedia}} | |||
| The enormous encyclopedic work in China of the '']'', compiled by the 11th century during the early ] (960–1279), was a massive literary undertaking for the time. The last encyclopedia of the four, the '']'', amounted to 9.4 million ] in 1,000 written volumes. There were many great encyclopedists throughout Chinese history, including the scientist and statesman ] (1031–1095) with his '']'' of 1088, the statesman, inventor, and agronomist ] (active 1290–1333) with his ''Nong Shu'' of 1313, and the written ''Tiangong Kaiwu'' of ] (1587–1666), the latter of whom was termed the "]" by British historian ].<ref name="needham volume 5 part 7 102">Needham, Volume 5, Part 7, 102.</ref> | |||
| The ] ] of the ] oversaw the compilation of the ], one of the largest encyclopedias in history, which was completed in 1408 and comprised over 370 million Chinese characters in 11,000 handwritten volumes, of which only about 400 remain today. In the succeeding dynasty, emperor ] of the ] personally composed 40,000 poems as part of a 4.7 million page library in 4 divisions, including thousands of essays, called the ] which is probably the largest collection of books in the world. It is instructive to compare his title for this knowledge, ''Watching the waves in a Sacred Sea'' to a Western-style title for all knowledge. Encyclopedic works, both in imitation of Chinese encyclopedias and as independent works of their own origin, have been known to exist in Japan since the ninth century CE. | |||
| These works were all hand copied and thus rarely available, beyond wealthy patrons or monastic men of learning: they were expensive, and usually written for those extending knowledge rather than those using it.<ref name="dotma"/> | |||
| ===17th–19th centuries === | |||
| ], 1773]] | |||
| The beginnings of the modern idea of the general-purpose, widely distributed printed encyclopedia precede the 18th century ]s. However, ]' '']'' (1728), and the '']'' of Diderot and D'Alembert (1751 onwards), as well as '']'' and the '']'', were the first to realize the form we would recognize today, with a comprehensive scope of topics, discussed in depth and organized in an accessible, systematic method. It is worth noting that Chambers, in 1728, was possibly following the still earlier lead of John Harris' '']'', of 1704 and later editions (see also below); this was also by its title and content "A Universal English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences: Explaining not only the Terms of Art, but the Arts Themselves". | |||
| Much encyclopaedism of the ] was based upon the notion of not including every fact known to humans, but only that knowledge that was necessary, where necessity was judged by a wide variety of criteria, leading to works of greatly varying sizes. ] laid the foundation for his encyclopaedic works in a ] entitled ''Les cognoissances nécessaires'' for example. Often, the criteria had moral bases, such as in the case of ]'s ''L'Académie française'' and ]'s ''Bref sommaire des sept vertus &c.''. Encyclopaedists encountered several problems with this approach, including how to decide what to omit as unnecessary, how to structure knowledge that resisted structure (often simply as a consequence of the sheer amount of material that deserved inclusion), and how to cope with the influx of newly discovered knowledge and the effects that it had on prior structures.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Palace of Secrets: Beroalde de Verville and Renaissance Conceptions of Knowledge|author=Neil Kenny|pages=12–13|year=1991|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0198158629}}</ref> | |||
| The term encyclopaedia was coined by 15th century humanists who misread copies of their texts of ] and ], and combined the two Greek words "''enkyklios paideia''" into one word. | |||
| The English physician and philosopher, Sir ], specifically employed the word ''encyclopaedia'' as early as 1646 in the preface to the reader to describe his '']'' or ''Vulgar Errors'', a series of refutations of common errors of his age. Browne structured his encyclopaedia upon the time-honoured schemata of the Renaissance, the so-called 'scale of creation' which ascends a hierarchical ladder via the mineral, vegetable, animal, human, planetary and cosmological worlds. Browne's compendium went through no less than five editions, each revised and augmented, the last edition appearing in 1672. ''Pseudodoxia Epidemica'' found itself upon the bookshelves of many educated European readers for throughout the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries it was translated, for many years it was not thought compatible with the French and Dutcheze, into the French, ] and German languages as well as ]. | |||
| ]'', title page of 2nd edition, 1708]] | |||
| ] is often credited with introducing the now-familiar alphabetic format in 1704 with his English ''Lexicon Technicum: Or, A Universal English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences: Explaining not only the Terms of Art, but the Arts Themselves'' – to give its full title. Organized alphabetically, its content does indeed contain explanation not merely of the terms used in the arts and sciences, but of the arts and sciences themselves. ] contributed his only published work on chemistry to the second volume of 1710. Its emphasis was on science—and conformably to the broad 18th-century understanding of the term 'science', its content extends beyond what would be called science or technology today, and includes topics from the humanities and fine arts, e.g. a substantial number from law, commerce, music, and heraldry. At about 1,200 pages, its scope can be considered as more that of an encyclopedic dictionary than a true encyclopedia. Harris himself considered it a dictionary; the work is one of the first technical dictionaries in any language.{{Fact|date=July 2009}} | |||
| ] published his '']'' in 1728. It included a broad scope of subjects, used an alphabetic arrangement, relied on many different contributors and included the innovation of cross-referencing other sections within articles. Chambers has been referred to as the father of the modern encyclopedia for this two-volume work. | |||
| A French translation of Chambers' work inspired the '']'', perhaps the most famous early encyclopedia, notable for its scope, the quality of some contributions, and its political and cultural impact in the years leading up to the ]. The ''Encyclopédie'' was edited by ] and ] and published in 17 volumes of articles, issued from 1751 to 1765, and 11 volumes of illustrations, issued from 1762 to 1772. Five volumes of supplementary material and a two volume index, supervised by other editors, were issued from 1776 to 1780 by ]. | |||
| The ''Encyclopédie'' represented the essence of the ].<ref>{{cite book | |||
| | last = Himmelfarb | |||
| | first = Gertrude | |||
| | title = The Roads to Modernity: The British, French, and American Enlightenments | |||
| | publisher = Alfred A. Knopf | |||
| | year = 2004 | |||
| | isbn = 9781400042364}}</ref> The prospectus stated an ambitious goal: the ''Encyclopédie'' was to be a systematic analysis of the "order and interrelations of human knowledge."<ref>Jean le Rond d'Alembert, "Preliminary Discourse," in ''Denis Diderot's The Encyclopédie: Selections'', ed. and trans. Stephen J. Gendzier (1967), cited in Hillmelfarb 2004</ref> Diderot, in his , went further: "to collect all the knowledge that now lies scattered over the face of the earth, to make known its general structure to the men among we live, and to transmit it to those who will come after us," to make men not only wiser but also "more virtuous and more happy."<ref>Denis Diderot, ''Rameau's Nephew and Other Works,'' trans. and ed. Jacques Barzun and Ralph H. Bowen (1956), cited in Himmelfarb 2004</ref> | |||
| Realizing the inherent problems with the model of knowledge he had created, Diderot's view of his own success in writing the ''Encyclopédie'' were far from ecstatic. Diderot envisioned the perfect encyclopedia as more than the sum of its parts. In his own article on the encyclopedia, Diderot also wrote, "Were an analytical dictionary of the sciences and arts nothing more than a methodical combination of their elements, I would still ask whom it behooves to fabricate good elements." Diderot viewed the ideal encyclopedia as an index of connections. He realized that all knowledge could never be amassed in one work, but he hoped the relations among subjects could be. | |||
| The ''Encyclopédie'' in turn inspired the venerable ''],'' which had a modest beginning in Scotland: the first edition, issued between 1768 and 1771, had just three hastily completed volumes – A–B, C–L, and M–Z – with a total of 2,391 pages. By 1797, when the third edition was completed, it had been expanded to 18 volumes addressing a full range of topics, with articles contributed by a range of authorities on their subjects. | |||
| The ] '']'' was published at ] from 1796 to 1808, in 6 volumes. Paralleling other 18th century encyclopedias, its scope was expanded beyond that of earlier publications, in an effort at comprehensiveness. It was, however, intended not for scholarly use but to provide results of research and discovery in a simple and popular form without extensive detail. This format, a contrast to the '']'', was widely imitated by later 19th century encyclopedias in Britain, the United States, France, Spain, Italy and other countries. Of the influential late-18th century and early-19th century encyclopedias, the ''Conversations-Lexikon'' is perhaps most similar in form to today's encyclopedias. | |||
| ] for the ''Nouveau Larousse illustré'' (France, 1898–1907)]] | |||
| The early years of the 19th century saw a flowering of encyclopedia publishing in the United Kingdom, Europe and America. In England '']'' (1802–1819) contains an enormous amount in information about the industrial and scientific revolutions of the time. A feature of these publications is the high-quality illustrations made by engravers like ] of art work supplied by specialist draftsmen like ] Encyclopaedias were published in Scotland, as a result of the ], for education there was of a higher standard than in the rest of the United Kingdom. | |||
| The 17-volume '']'' and its supplements were published in France from 1866 to 1890. | |||
| ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' appeared in various editions throughout the century, and the growth of ] and the ], spearheaded by the ] led to the production of the '']'', as its title suggests issued in weekly numbers at a penny each like a ]. | |||
| In the early 20th century, the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' reached its eleventh edition, and inexpensive encyclopedias such as '']'' and '']'' were common. | |||
| ===20th century=== | |||
| ]'', the oldest and one of the largest contemporary English encyclopedias.]] | |||
| Popular and affordable encyclopaedias such as ] and the ] appeared in the early 1920s. | |||
| In the United States, the 1950s and 1960s saw the introduction of several large popular encyclopedias, often sold on installment plans. The best known of these were '']'' and '']''. | |||
| The second half of the 20th century also saw the publication of several encyclopedias that were notable for synthesizing important topics in specific fields, often by means of new works authored by significant researchers. Such encyclopedias included ''The Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (first published in 1967 and now in its second edition), and ''Elsevier's Handbooks In Economics''<ref></ref> series. Encyclopedias of at least one volume in size exist for most if not all ]s, including, typically, such narrow topics such as ] and ]. | |||
| By the late 20th century, encyclopedias were being published on ]s for use with personal computers. ]'s '']'', launched in 1993, was a landmark example as it had no printed equivalent. Articles were supplemented with video and audio files as well as numerous high-quality images. After sixteen years, Microsoft discontinued the Encarta line of products in 2009.<ref> (MSN Encarta). 2009-10-31.</ref> | |||
| Traditional encyclopedias are written by a number of employed text writers, usually people with an ], and distributed as ] content. | |||
| Encyclopedias are essentially derivative from what has gone before, and particularly in the 19th century, ] was common among encyclopedia editors. However, modern encyclopedias are not merely larger compendia, including all that came before them. To make space for modern topics, valuable material of historic use regularly had to be discarded, at least before the advent of digital encyclopedias. Moreover, the opinions and world views of a particular generation can be observed in the encyclopedic writing of the time. For these reasons, old encyclopedias are a useful source of historical information, especially for a record of changes in science and technology.<ref>Kobasa, Paul A. "Encyclopedia." World Book Online Reference Center. 2008. 13 Jan. 2008 <http://www.worldbookonline.com/wb/Login?ed=wb&tu=%2Fwb%2FArticle%3Fid%3Dar180800></ref> | |||
| As of 2007, old encyclopedias whose ], such as the 1911 edition of Britannica, are also the only ] English encyclopedias released in print form. However, works such as the ], which were created in the public domain, exist as free content encyclopedias in other languages. | |||
| ==== 💕s ==== | |||
| {{See also|History of wikis#Post-Misplaced Pages (2001-present)}} | |||
| ] is one of the first "]" encyclopedias.]] | |||
| The concept of a new 💕 began with the ] proposal on ] in 1993, which outlined an Internet-based ] to which anyone could submit content and that would be freely accessible. | |||
| Early projects in this vein included ] and ]. | |||
| In 1999, ] proposed the ], an online encyclopedia which, similar to the ], would be a "generic" resource. | |||
| The concept was very similar to Interpedia, but more in line with Stallman's ] philosophy. | |||
| It was not until ] and later ] that a stable 💕 project was able to be established on the Internet. | |||
| The English Misplaced Pages became the world's largest encyclopedia in 2004 at the 300,000 article stage<ref>, ''Linux Reviews'', 2004 July 7.</ref> and by late 2005, Misplaced Pages had produced over two million articles in more than 80 languages with content licensed under the ] ]. As of August 2009, Misplaced Pages has over 3 million articles in English and well over 10 million combined in over 250 languages. Since 2003, other 💕s like ] and ] have appeared. | |||
| ===21st century=== | |||
| ] visual browser, an example of 21st century encyclopedias.]] | |||
| The encyclopedia's hierarchical structure and evolving nature is particularly adaptable to a ]-based or on-line ] ], and all major printed multi-subject encyclopedias had moved to this method of delivery by the end of the 20th century. Disk-based, typically ] or ] format, publications have the advantage of being cheaply produced and easily portable. Additionally, they can include ] which are impossible to store in the printed format, such as ]s, ] and ]. ]ing between conceptually related items is also a significant benefit, although even Diderot's encyclopedia had cross-referencing. On-line encyclopedias offer the additional advantage of being dynamic: new information can be presented almost immediately, rather than waiting for the next release of a static format, as with a disk- or paper-based publication. Many printed encyclopedias traditionally published annual supplemental volumes ("yearbooks") to update events between editions, as a partial solution to the problem of staying up-to-date, but this of course required the reader to check both the main volumes and the supplemental volume(s). Some disk-based encyclopedias offer subscription-based access to online updates, which are then integrated with the content already on the user's hard disk in a manner not possible with a printed encyclopedia. | |||
| Information in a printed encyclopedia necessarily needs some form of hierarchical structure. Traditionally, the method employed is to present the information ordered alphabetically by the article title. However with the advent of dynamic electronic formats the need to impose a pre-determined structure is less necessary. Nonetheless, most electronic encyclopedias still offer a range of organizational strategies for the articles, such as by subject, area, or alphabetically. | |||
| CD-ROM and Internet-based encyclopedias also offer greater search abilities than printed versions. While the printed versions rely on indexes to assist in searching for topics, computer accessible versions allow searching through article text for keywords or phrases. | |||
| ==Characteristics== | |||
| <!-- "Encyclopedia article" redirects to this section; See 'what links here' and change redirects if the section title is changed. --> | |||
| The modern encyclopaedia was developed from the ] in the 18th century. Historically, both encyclopaedias and dictionaries have been researched and written by well-educated, well-informed content ]s, but they are significantly different in structure. A dictionary is a linguistic work which primarily focuses on alphabetical listing of ] and their ]. ]ous words and those related by the subject matter are to be found scattered around the dictionary, giving no obvious place for in-depth treatment. Thus, a dictionary typically provides limited ], ] or background for the word defined. While it may offer a definition, it may leave the reader lacking in ] the meaning, significance or limitations of a ], and how the term relates to a broader field of knowledge. | |||
| To address those needs, an encyclopaedia article is typically non linguistic, and covers not a word, but a ''subject or ]''. As well as defining and listing synonymous terms for the topic, the article is able to treat it in more depth and convey the most relevant accumulated knowledge on that subject. An encyclopaedia article also often includes many ]s and ]s, as well as ] and ]. | |||
| Four major elements define an encyclopaedia: its subject matter, its scope, its method of organization, and its method of production: | |||
| *Encyclopaedias can be general, containing articles on ]s in every field (the English-language '']'' and German '']'' are well-known examples). General encyclopaedias often contain guides on how to do a variety of things, as well as embedded dictionaries and ]s.{{Fact|date=February 2010}} There are also encyclopaedias that cover a wide variety of topics but from a particular cultural, ethnic, or national perspective, such as the '']'' or '']''. | |||
| *Works of encyclopedic scope aim to convey the important accumulated knowledge for their subject domain, such as an encyclopaedia of medicine, philosophy, or law. Works vary in the breadth of material and the depth of discussion, depending on the ]. (For example, the produced by A.D.A.M., Inc. for the U.S. ].) | |||
| *Some systematic method of organization is essential to making an encyclopaedia usable as a work of reference. There have historically been two main methods of organizing printed encyclopaedias: the ] method (consisting of a number of separate articles, organised in alphabetical order), or organization by ] categories. The former method is today the most common by far, especially for general works. The fluidity of electronic media, however, allows new possibilities for multiple methods of organization of the same content. Further, electronic media offer previously unimaginable capabilities for search, indexing and cross reference. The epigraph from ] on the title page of the 18th century ''Encyclopédie'' suggests the importance of the structure of an encyclopaedia: "What grace may be added to commonplace matters by the power of order and connection." | |||
| *As modern multimedia and the information age have evolved, they have had an ever-increasing effect on the collection, verification, summation, and presentation of information of all kinds. Projects such as ], ], ], and ] are examples of new forms of the encyclopaedia as information retrieval becomes simpler. | |||
| Some works entitled "dictionaries" are actually similar to encyclopaedias, especially those concerned with a particular field (such as the '']'', the '']'', and '']''). The ''],'' Australia's national dictionary, became an ] after its first edition in recognition of the use of proper nouns in common communication, and the words derived from such proper nouns. | |||
| There are key differences between an encyclopedia and dictionary. In an encyclopedia the titles are nouns such as common nouns, proper nouns and noun phrases, whereas dictionaries cover all types of words. In addition, because an encyclopedia article's name is only used to ] the topic, it can take many synonymous forms, even in different languages; whereas a dictionary entry, which is specifically ''about the entry's name in one particular language'', that name cannot be translated to a synonymous term, and thus dictionary entries are not ''fully'' translatable, but encyclopedia articles may be.<ref></ref> | |||
| ==Etymology== | |||
| ] | |||
| {{See also|American and British English spelling differences#Simplification of ae and oe}} | |||
| The word "encyclopaedia" comes from the ]<ref>{{cite book | |||
| | title = The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, Volume I A-O | |||
| | publisher = Oxford University Press | |||
| | year = 1971 | |||
| | page=861 | |||
| }}</ref> ] {{polytonic|"ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία"}}, transliterated "enkyklios paideia"; "enkyklios" meaning "cyclical, periodic, or ordinary", and "paideia" meaning "education". Together, the phrase literally translates as a "rounded education", meaning "general knowledge". Copyists of Latin manuscripts took this phrase to be a single Greek word, "enkuklopaedia", with the same meaning, and this spurious Greek word became the New Latin word "encyclopaedia", which in turn came into English. Though the notion of a compendium of knowledge dates back thousands of years, the term was first used in the title of a book in 1541 by ], ''Lucubrationes vel potius absolutissima kyklopaideia'' (Basel, 1541). The word ''encyclopaedia'' was first used as a noun in the title of his book by the Croatian ] ] in his ''Encyclopaedia seu orbis disciplinarum tam sacrarum quam prophanarum epistemon'' (Encyclopaedia, or Knowledge of the World of Disciplines, Basel, 1559).{{Dubious|date=September 2009}} One of the oldest vernacular uses was by ] in his ''Pantagruel'' in 1532.<ref>{{cite conference|booktitle=Pre-Modern Encyclopaedic Texts: Proceedings of the Second Comers Congress, Groningen, 1 – July 4, 1996|year=1997|publisher=BRILL|pages=213|author=Bert Roest|title=Compilation as Theme and Praxis in Franciscan Universal Chronicles|id=ISBN 9004108300|editor=Peter Binkley}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Pliny's Catalogue of Culture: Art and Empire in the Natural History|author=Sorcha Carey|pages=17|chapter=Two Strategies of Encyclopaedism|year=2003|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0199259135}}</ref> | |||
| Several encyclopaedias have names that include the suffix ''-p(a)edia'', e.g., ] (on matters relevant for Bengal). | |||
| In British usage, the spellings ''encyclopedia'' and ''encyclopaedia'' are both current.<ref>, Chambers Reference Online; , AskOxford.</ref> Although the latter spelling is considered more "proper" by British speakers, the former is becoming increasingly common in British English, in part due to the spread of American English. In American usage, only the former is commonly used.<ref>, Bartleby.com; , Merriam Webster.</ref> The spelling ''encyclopædia''—with the '']'' ]—was frequently used in the 19th century and is increasingly rare, although it is retained in product titles such as '']'' and others. The '']'' (1989) records ''encyclopædia'' and ''encyclopaedia'' as equal alternatives (in that order), and notes the ''æ'' would be obsolete except that it is preserved in works that have Latin titles. '']'' (1997–2002) features ''encyclopedia'' as the main headword and ''encyclopaedia'' as a minor variant. In addition, ''cyclopedia'' and ''cyclopaedia'' are now rarely-used shortened forms of the word originating in the 17th century. | |||
| ==See also== | |||
| {{div col}} | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| {{div col end}} | |||
| ==Notes== | |||
| {{reflist|colwidth=30em}} | |||
| ==References== | |||
| {{refbegin|colwidth=60em}} | |||
| * | |||
| *{{cite book|title=Lexicography at a Crossroads: Dictionaries and Encyclopedias Today, Lexicographical Tools Tomorrow|editor=Bergenholtz, H., Nielsen, S., Tarp, S.|publisher=Peter Lang|year=2009|isbn=978-3-03911-799-4}} | |||
| *{{cite book|last=Blom|first=Phillip|title=Enlightening the World: Encyclopédie, the Book that Changed the Course of History|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=New York; Basingstoke|year=2004|isbn=9781403968951|oclc=57669780}} | |||
| *{{cite book|last=Collison|first=Robert Lewis|title=Encyclopaedias: Their History Throughout the Ages|publisher=Hafner|location=New York, London|year=1966|edition=2nd|oclc=220101699}} | |||
| *{{cite book|last=Darnton|first=Robert|title=The business of enlightenment : a publishing history of the Encyclopédie, 1775–1800|publisher=Belknap Press|location=Cambridge|year=1979|isbn=0-674-08785-2}} | |||
| *{{cite book|title=Notable encyclopedias of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: nine predecessors of the Encyclopédie|editor=Kafker, Frank A.|publisher=Voltaire Foundation|location=Oxford|year=1981|isbn=9780729402569|oclc=10645788}} | |||
| *{{cite book|title=Notable encyclopedias of the late eighteenth century: eleven successors of the Encyclopédie|editor=Kafker, Frank A.|publisher=Voltaire Foundation|location=Oxford|year=1994|isbn=9780729404679|oclc=30787125}} | |||
| *{{cite book|last=Needham|first=Joseph|title=Science and Civilization in China|publisher=Caves Books Ltd.|location=Taipei|year=1986|volume=5 – Chemistry and Chemical Technology|chapter=Part 7, Military Technology; the Gunpowder Epic|isbn=9780521303583|oclc=59245877}} | |||
| *{{cite journal|last=Rosenzweig|first=Roy|authorlink=Roy Rosenzweig|date=June 2006|title=Can History Be Open Source? Misplaced Pages and the Future of the Past|journal=Journal of American History|volume=93|issue=1|pages=117–46|issn=1945-2314|url=http://chnm.gmu.edu/essays-on-history-new-media/essays/?essayid=42}} | |||
| *{{cite book|last=Walsh|first=S. Padraig|title=Anglo-American general encyclopedias: a historical bibliography, 1703–1967|publisher=Bowker|location=New York|year=1968|pages=270|oclc=577541}} | |||
| *{{cite book|last=Yeo|first=Richard R.|title=Encyclopaedic visions : scientific dictionaries and enlightenment culture|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, New York|year=2001|isbn=9780521651912|oclc=45828872|url=http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521651913}} | |||
| {{refend}} | |||
| ==External links== | |||
| {{Commons category|Encyclopedias}} | |||
| {{Wiktionary|encyclopedia|encyclopaedia|encyclopedic}} | |||
| * (includes Misplaced Pages) | |||
| * <!-- Is this important enough to include in this article? --> | |||
| * – Biographical errors in encyclopedias and almanacs | |||
| * – Diderot's article on the Encyclopedia from the original ]. | |||
| * | |||
| * – First Renaissance encyclopedia | |||
| * – Online Comprehensive Science Encyclopedia | |||
| * | |||
| * – ] article | |||
| * – a list of encyclopedias online | |||
| * University of Wisconsin – Stout listing by category | |||
| * , 1728, with the 1753 supplement | |||
| * ( 2009-10-31) | |||
| * , 1851, ] ed. (Boston: Mussey & Co.) at the University of Michigan Making of America site | |||
| * , articles and illustrations from 9th ed., 1875–89, and 10th ed., 1902–03. | |||
| * , 11th ed., 1911, at the LoveToKnow site. | |||
| * | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
Revision as of 02:29, 12 May 2010
This article is about the type of reference work. For other uses, see Encyclopedia (disambiguation).k