History of the Text

The 5th edition of the Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française was published in 1798, following the 1st (1694), 2nd (1718), 3rd (1740), and 4th (1762) editions. Composition of the 5th edition had been completed by 1793, but the Academy was suppressed by the Convention Nationale on 8 August 1793, thus delaying actual publication of the work. The work was finally distributed in 1798, but not by members of the Academy. This task, including formulation of the "Supplément contenant les mots nouveaux en usage depuis la Révolution", was entrusted, rather, to "des Hommes-de-Lettres, que l'Académie Françoise auroit reçus parmi ses Membres, et que la Révolution a comptés parmi ses partisans les plus éclairés" (p. x). With changes in Academy, reformed as the 2e classe of the Institut National before reassuming its original name, the 6th edition did not appear until 1835.

According to tradition, and in André Morellet's words, the Academy dictionary was intended to define the correct, common usage of words in non-technical French: "[...] Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie est un témoin de l'usage qui gouverne la langue française, de celui qui est le plus général parmi les personnes qui parlent correctement et purement." But the violent political upheaval of the Revolution troubled this vision of the Dictionary's function, and it quickly assumed great political significance. In debates at the time, political thinkers attributed great importance to the role of words in the formation of political thought; the language of the monarchy was thus suspect. In many cases, there was a desire for linguistic reform and purification that would second the political transformation of the nation. Rather than completely rewriting the Academy dictionary, however, it was finally concluded that the strong influence of the "esprit philosophique" among the Academicians during the second half of the century had led to considerable progress. The 5th edition came to be viewed as a transitional document between the language of the Old Regime and the new Republic. As Dominique Joseph Garat states in the "Discours préliminaire", "[...] Il a été fini à l'instant où la Monarchie finissoit elle-même; et [...] par cela seul, il sera pour tous les Peuples et pour tous les Siècles la ligne ineffaçable qui tracera et constatera, dans la même Langue, les limites de la Langue Monarchique et de la Langue Républicaine" (p. x).

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