Lisān al-ʿArab
لسان العرب
Ibn Manẓūr · 630–711 AH / 1232–1311/12 CE · Compendium of five works
Ibn Manẓūr claimed almost nothing in the Lisān al-ʿArab as his own. He took five earlier works — three dictionaries, one scholar's corrections to one of them, and a glossary of the rare words of hadith — and merged them, root by root, into a single book, keeping, he said, their wording. An entry reads less like one author's definition than like a room of authorities speaking in turn, so keep asking: who is speaking now?
All the classical dictionaries