The earliest records of dictionaries in Great Britain can be found in the year 1200. It was a short collection of words written by a Medieval grammarian, Johannes de Garlandia, also known as John of Garland. This book, titled "Dictionarius," was written to help his students learn and distinguish the terms used for different trades and tradesmen working in Paris.
The Dictionarius was written in Latin, with the interlinear glossed text written in French. The word "dictionarius" is believed to be the origin of the English term "dictionary," as well as of many similar words used in other modern languages.
Another well-known example of an early dictionary is "Elementarie" by Richard Mulcaster in 1582. This was a non-alphabetical list of 8000 English words, written as a pedagogical guide to make English a more accessible and respected language. This publication was an attempt to elevate the English language compared to Latin, which was the dominant learning language at the time.
In 1604, an English schoolteacher, Robert Cawdrey, published "A Table Alphabeticall." This book is considered to be the first purely English alphabetical dictionary. Although this dictionary and the numerous other works that copied its format and content were not regarded as trustworthy resources for learning the language, they nonetheless represented a significant advancement in the creation of a dependable and expertly edited English dictionary.
The 16th century saw several other disrupted attempts in the form of "Glossographia" by Thomas Blount, "The New World of English Words: Or a General Dictionary" by Edward Phillips, which was basically a plagiarized version of Thomas Blount's publication, "Real Character and a Philosophical Language" by John Wilkins, and "English Dictionary" by Elisha Coles.
However, it wasn't until 1755 that a well-received and reliable dictionary, "A Dictionary of the English Language," by Samuel Johnson, was published. Johnson's masterpiece is considered the first to combine all of the elements required in an intelligible dictionary, making it the first modern dictionary.
Until the publication of the "Oxford English Dictionary" by Oxford University Press almost one and a half centuries later, Samuel Johnson's dictionary remained the most used and trusted English-language standard.
The modern "Oxford English Dictionary" was initially published in a collection of 12 volumes in 1828. Its second edition, containing 20 volumes, was published in 1989, and since then, it has been revised and updated every three months by a team of dedicated editors. The third edition is currently almost halfway through. However, it is doubtful to be published in the printed version. According to the Chief Executive of Oxford University Press, it will most likely be released in electronic form only.