300 Legal Dictionaries!
Posted on June 30, 2017 Updated on June 30, 2017
By Ken Fox
Once again, HeinOnline has added to its digital offerings, this time with legal dictionaries – & yes, almost 300 of them. You may be wondering, how could there be so many? Well, the answer is that they are spread out across legal subject areas, historical periods (back to the 1500s), and legal jurisdictions.
Most of these dictionaries are not intended for everyday use – but for historical terms used in the common law, for cross-jurisdictional research, for foreign or technical terms, and for many other exceptional cases, you will find something here that will help.
And needless to say, if you are a legal scholar or curioso, this is a bibliographical feast.
Just to whet your appetite, here are a few included titles that caught my eye:
5000 Criminal Definitions, Terms and Phrases, 4th ed (Fricke, Charles W. Los Angeles: Legal Book Store, 1961)
Australasian Judicial Dictionary (Bedwell, CEA. Sydney: The Law Book Co. of Australasia Ltd, 1920)
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, new rev ed (Boston: Boston Book Co, 1897)
Criminal Slang: The Vernacular of the Underworld Lingo, Rev ed (Monteleone, Vincent Joseph. Boston: Christopher, 1949; Clark, NJ: Lawbook Exchange, 2003)
Cyclopedic Law Dictionary Defining Terms and Phrases of American Jurisprudence, of Ancient and Modern Common Law, International Law, Civil Law, the French and Spanish Law, and Other Juridical Systems, 3d ed (Shumaker, Walter A. Chicago: Callaghan and Co., 1940)
De Verborum Significatione: The Exposition of the Termes and Difficill Vvordes, conteined in the Fovre Bvikes (Edinbvrgh: Printed be Robert VValde-graue, Printer to the Kingis Majestie, 1597)
Dictionary of Canon Law, 2nd ed, rev (Trudel, P. St Louis: B Herder, 1920)
Dictionary of Contemporary International Law (Diliman, Quezon City: College of Law, University of the Philippines, 2011)
Dictionary of the Underworld, British & American. Being the Vocabularies of Crooks, Criminals, Racketeers, Beggars and Tramps, Convicts, the Commercial Underworld, the Drug Traffic, the White Slave Traffic, Spivs (Partridge, Eric. New York: Macmillan, 1950)
Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature & General Information; the Three New Supplementary Volumes Constituting with the Volumes of the Latest Standard Edition, 13th ed (London: The Encyclopaedia Britannica Co, Ltd, 1926)
Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law (Berger, Adolf. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1953)
English Dictionary: Explaining the Difficult Terms That Are Used in Divinity, Husbandry, Physick, Phylosophy, Law, Navigation, Mathematicks, and Other Arts and Sciences (Coles, Elisha. London: Printed by Samuel Crouch, 1676; Clark, NJ: Lawbook Exchange, 2006)
Glossary of HIV/AIDS-Related Terms (Rockville: Dept of Health & Human Services, 1995)
Glossary of Mediaeval Welsh Law: Based upon the Black Book of Chirk (Lewis, Timothy. Manchester: University press, 1913; Clark, NJ: Lawbook Exchange, 2006)
Law-French Dictionary Alphabetically Digested; Very Useful for All Young Students in the Common Laws of England: To Which Is Added, the Law-Latin Dictionary, photo reprint (Clark, NJ: Lawbook Exchange, 2004)
Legal Terms and Obligations Common to the Farm Business (Weeks, Silas B. Ithaca, NY: New York State College of Agriculture, 1957)
Military Law Dictionary (Dahl, Richard C; Whelan, John F. New York: Oceana Publications, 1960)
Quote It: Memorable Legal Quotations Data, Epigrams, Wit and Wisdom from Legal and Literary Sources (Gerhart, Eugene C. New York: C Boardman Co, 1969)
Ragbag of Legal Quotations (Albany: M Bender, 1960)
Selection of Legal Maxims, Classified and Illustrated (Broom, Herbert. Philadelphia: T & JW Johnson, 1845)
Verborum Significatione: The Exposition of the Termes and Difficill Wordes, Conteined in the Foure Buiks of Regiam Maiestatem (Skene, John. London: Printed by EG, 1641)
To access this remarkable collection, log in to HeinOnline (through the Members Section, if you are a Saskatchewan lawyer). Look for grey menu strip near the top of the screen and click on the word "Databases" at the far left. Then, under "Browse Databases by Name," click on "Legal Dictionaries." You can browse by title or by country.
For more information, or to request research assistance, contact the library.
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