When the RAE was founded in 1713, one of its primary objectives was compiling a Castilian Spanish dictionary. Its first endeavor was the six-volume Diccionario de Autoridades from 1726 to 1739. Based on that work, an abridged version was published in 1780, the full title of which was Diccionario de la lengua castellana compuesto por la Real Academia Española, reducido á un tomo para su más fácil uso. According to its prologue, the dictionary was published for general public access during the long time between the publishing of the first and second editions of the exhaustive Diccionario de Autoridades, thus offering a cheaper reference book. By the time the second edition was published, it had become the principal dictionary, superseding its ancestor. The last edition of the Diccionario de Autoridades was published in 1793. The fourth edition of the dictionary introduced the digraphs "ch" and "ll" to the Spanish alphabet as separate, discrete letters. "Ch" was alphabetized between "c" and "d", while "ll" was alphabetized between "l" and "m". Also in 1803, the letter "x" was replaced with "j" when it had the same pronunciation as "j", and the circumflex accent was eliminated. In 1994, it was decided at the 10th Congress of the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language to use the universal Latin alphabet, which does not include "ch" and "ll" as letters. The earliest editions were more extensive: they included Latin translations of the entry, in some cases gave usage examples, and summarized the word's etymology; contemporary editions do so concisely. The earliest editions had "x" entries that no longer appear individually. Historically, the decision to add, modify, or delete words from the dictionary has been made by the RAE, in consultation with other language authorities when there was an uncertainty. This process continued between 1780 and 1992, but, since the 1992 edition, the RAE and the other discrete language academies forming the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language collaborate in producing the Dictionary of the Spanish Language.
Editions of the ''DLE''
Edition
Year
1
1780
2
1783
3
1791
4
1803
5
1817
6
1822
7
1832
8
1837
9
1843
10
1852
11
1869
12
1884
13
1899
14
1914
15
1925
16
1936/1939
17
1947
18
1956
19
1970
20
1984
21
1992
22
2001
23
2014
Formats
Until the twenty-first edition, the DLE was published exclusively on paper. The 2001 edition was offered on CD-ROM and paper. The twenty-second edition was published in three formats, paper, CD-ROM, and on the Internet with free access. The freely-accessible online version as of October 2017 is the 23rd edition.
Previous titles
From the first edition through the fourth edition, the dictionary was known as the Diccionario de la lengua castellana compuesto por la Real Academia Española. From the fifth edition through the fourteenth edition, it was known as the Diccionario de la lengua castellana por la Real Academia Española. Starting with the fifteenth edition, it has been known as the Diccionario de la lengua española.
Criticism
Inaccuracy
Some entries in the dictionary do not reflect current scientific understanding. An example is the definition of , which refers only to sauropodomorphs.
Pejoratives
In 2006, The Spanish Federation of Jewish Communities complained that some of the dictionary's entries and definitions about Judaism were racist and offensive. One definition of sinagoga is: "a meeting for illicit ends"; the nominal definition of 'synagogue' is given first, and the pejorative definition is so identified. On November 2014Gypsies in Spain informed against RAE at the European Court of Human Rights. Yerba-buena, an association of Spanish Gitanos, complains that one definition of Gitano: "one who practices deceit" or "one who tricks", is offensive and could encourage racism; nevertheless, the wordgitano does actually mean "trickster" in Spanish, and other Spanish dictionaries include this definition. Although the RAE dismissed the complaints as political correctness, saying "we simply photograph the landscape; we do not create it", in November 2014 it was announced they were going to modify the term, and in October 2015 it was changed. RAE also defined "woman" as "weak sex". On November 2017 the term was examined and one month later it was changed.
