DEM GENEIGTEN LESER DEN FEHDEHANDSCHUCH HINWERFEN – HISTORISCHE WÖRTERBÜCHER ALS FECHTPLATZ
THROWING DOWN THE GAUNTLET TO THE READER – HISTORICAL DICTIONARIES AS A DUELLING ARENA

Summary/Abstract: Engaging with historical dictionaries leads to a wide range of questions. This broad field of study has seen lively interest since the 1990s, with particular focus being placed on the technical presentation of the dictionaries, the underlying semantic theories on which the describing of headwords (lemmata) is based, and the cultural paradigm of reference works. In light of their recognized normative structure and ideological orientation, dictionaries have also been used as tools to launch polemics against individuals, social groups, or language usage itself.This article focuses on identifying the various facets of such polemics in German dictionaries of the Humanist revival, the Baroque and the Age of Enlightenment. Historical dictionaries are analyzed chronologically to examine how they construct otherness and delineate social groups from one another based on linguistic criteria. For instance, an entry like ‘Bauchdiener’ („belly servant") in the dictionary of Petrus Dasypodius reflects the religious conflicts of his time, while as later entries like ‘Frauenzimmerbriefstellerin’ (somewhat translatable through „lady letter writer”) point to a different, bygone social structure. Many prefaces of reference works also contain direct judgments about social groups based on their use of language. For example, according to Adelung (1785), affectionate forms like ‘Fred’ instead of ‘Friedrich’, ‘Frank’ instead of ‘Franciscus’, or ‘Hans’ instead of ‘Heinrich’ are to be found solely among the „lower social classes”.

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