The European Dictionary

It is a common observation, that the world has been changing, and, along with it, the way of studying languages.

We Europeans are rediscovering our common past, and the reasons for our cultural unity.

This dictionary is intended to show what European
tradition is. Its basic principle is that words must be understood through their history. It is based on `historical' principles; hence the relevance of etymology, which is the history of a word and of its meaning, departing from its oldest known origin.

So far dictionaries have been `national' and bilingual; from now onwards they must be `European', both for the history and for the future of European and Western civilization.