English
antidictionary
Antidictionary comes from Middle English dixionare ‘dictionary’, and goes back to Medieval Latin dictiōnārium.
- Medieval Latinmoderndictiōnārium1
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500dixionare1‘dictionary’
- English1500–presentdictionary1
- Englishearliest quotation 2010antidictionary1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English antidictionary
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2010, David Salomon, Giovanni Motta: “An antidictionary method is based on an inverse kind…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Medieval LatinmoderndictiōnāriumWiktionary, English antidictionary
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500dixionareWiktionary, English antidictionary‘dictionary’
- English1500–presentdictionaryWiktionary, English antidictionary
- Englishearliest quotation 2010antidictionaryWiktionary, English antidictionary. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2010, David Salomon, Giovanni Motta: “An antidictionary method is based on an inverse kind…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- ‘to point out, to show’
teach, toe, token, digit, syndicate, indicative, syndicalism, tache, 31 more
through Proto-Italic *deikō ‘to show, indicate’
contradiction, indexation, interdiction, 15 more
through Latin dīcō ‘to say, talk, speak, utter, mention’
index, indicate, preach, indicator, predict, indication, dedication, dictator, dedicate, addict, ditto, dictate, predicament, contradictory, contradict, predicate, ditty, dictum, interdict, indicia, dict, 23 more
through Latin dictiō ‘a saying, speaking, speech, talk, oratory’
Today it means
noun The set of all words of minimal length that never appear in a particular string.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “antidictionary”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Medieval Latin dictiōnārium / antidictionary