The Dictionnaire de l'Académie française is the official dictionary of the French language. The Académie française is France's official authority on the usages, vocabulary, and grammar of the French language, although its recommendations carry no legal power. Sometimes, even governmental authorities disregard the Académie's rulings.
Publication
A special Commission composed of several of the members of the Académie undertakes the compilation of the dictionary. It has published thirteen editions of the dictionary, of which three were preliminary, eight were complete, and two were supplements for specialised words. These include: Preliminary editions:
Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie françoise, pre-edition, Frankfurt am Main, 1687
Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie françoise, pre-edition, Frankfurt am Main, 1687
Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie françoise, pre-edition, Paris, 1687
Complete editions:
Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie françoise dedié au Roy, Paris, 1694
Nouveau Dictionnaire de l’Académie françoise dedié au Roy, Paris, 1718
Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie françoise, Paris, 1740
Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie françoise, Paris, 1762
Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie françoise, Paris, 1798
Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, Paris, 1835
Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, Paris, 1879
Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, Paris, 1932–1935
Supplementary editions for the sciences, arts, and technology:
Corneille, Thomas, Le Dictionnaire des Arts et des Sciences, Paris, 1694
Barré, Louis, Complément du Dictionnaire de l’Académie française, Paris, 1842
In 1778, the Académie attempted to compile a "historical dictionary" of the French language. The project was later abandoned, having failed to progress beyond the letter "A". The 8th edition of 1935 contained approximately 35,000 words. The Académie continues work on the ninth edition, begun in 1986, of which the first volume was published in 1992, the second in 2000, and the third in 2011. As the work goes on, additional parts of the Dictionnaire are published in the Documents administratifs of the Journal Officiel, and posted online. The finalised ninth edition is expected to contain about 28,000 new words. In part because the current edition dates from 1935, other dictionaries are more commonly used as everyday reference sources than the Académie's.
