The new 14th edition of the Van Dale Woordenboek Van De Nederlandse Taal (Van Dale Dictionary Of The Dutch Language) was released today, or the dikke Van Dale, as it is more colloquially and lovingly known here. This definitive dictionary of the Dutch language appears in a new edition only once every six to eight years.
I bought the 12th edition when it came out in 1992, but passed on the 13th in 1999. After all, it’s an expensive, three volume set and doesn’t change that much from one edition to the other. Since I no longer own that copy of the 12th edition, I was eager to purchase the new 14th edition upon its release today. I’m enough of a linguistic nerd that I’d actually been looking forward to this event since earlier this year, when I was still living in California and heard that a new edition would be released in the autumn.
For the first time, the dikke Van Dale has been released in two different versions, a limited version and a plain (for want of a better word) version. The limited version contains an extra volume, the Grote Spellingsgids, a comprehensive spelling guide. I’ve only glanced at this volume so far, but it looks very useful, so I’m happy I chose to purchase this version of the set. The limited edition also comes with a numbered certificate, which contains a code that can be entered on-line and used to order a personalised certificate. Unfortunately, that bit doesn’t seem to work for me. Perhaps Van Dale hasn’t got that part working properly yet or maybe the code on my certificate is a dud.
This edition of the dictionary also contains a digital version of the contents on CD-ROM. Previously, the CD-ROM was only available as a separate, expensive product. As a nice extra touch, the publisher has scanned and made available on the CD-ROM the very first edition of the dictionary, dating from 1864.
One neologism that has made it into the dictionary this time around is googelen, the Dutch version of ‘to google’, which is defined as ‘to search on the Internet, to use information to perform research via the Internet’ (the translation to English is obviously mine). The etymological data (printed in blue for the first time in this edition — I told you I’m a nerd) gives the derivation of the word as coming from th ‘English to google, which in turn is derived from Google, the name of a popular search-engine.
It’s interesting to see that the trend seen in English, namely to use the word for the general act of searching for information, not just using Google, is paralleled in at least one other European language. I smell more work for the trademark lawyers, as they swim against the current of linguistic evolution and attempt to stop their privately owned word from becoming another sellotape, hoover, aspirin or spam.