Monier-Williams, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, 1st ed. (MW72)
MW72 is the 1872 first edition of Monier Williams' Sanskrit-English Dictionary — a
distinct, earlier text from the much larger 1899 edition that the site serves as
MW. It is valuable for seeing how the standard dictionary read in its first form, and
for entries or wordings that later changed. Glosses are in English.
At a glance
| Code | MW72 (GitHub repo MW72) |
| Full title | A Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1st edition) |
| Author | Monier Williams |
| Year / size | 1872 · ~1186 pages |
| Direction | Sanskrit → English |
| Accents | No |
| Source | csl-orig/v02/mw72/ |
| Open | Basic · List · Advanced · Mobile |
| Data | Downloads |
| csl-doc | mw72.rst |
MW72 is the 1872 first edition. The site's main MW is the 1899 new,
greatly enlarged edition — a different (and much fuller) text. Use MW72 to study the earlier
recension; use MW for everyday lookup.
When to use it
Reach for MW72 for textual history — comparing the 1872 and 1899 treatments of a word —
or when a citation references the first edition. For general lookup prefer MW (1899)
or Apte (AP90).
Looking up a word
Open the Basic display, pick your input/output transliteration (see Encoding & Transliteration), and type the headword. The List and Advanced displays browse and search inside entries — see Search & Display.
Reading an entry
MW72 sets headwords and cues in {%…%} (italic) and gives English glosses. The entry aṃśa
(csl-orig/v02/mw72/mw72.txt):
<L>9<pc>0001-a<k1>aMSa<k2>aMSa
{%Aṃśa, as,%}¦ m. a share, portion, part, party;
partition, inheritance; a share of booty; earnest
money; a fraction; the denominator of one; a
degree of lat. or long.; N. of an Āditya; …
| In the source | Meaning |
|---|---|
<pc>0001-a | page-column reference (p. 1, col. a) |
{%Aṃśa, as,%} | the headword with its nominative aṃśas (italic; search key <k1> is SLP1) |
m. | grammatical category (masculine) |
| the run of glosses | the English meanings, separated by semicolons |
See Data Formats for the markup reference.
What makes it distinctive
- The first edition (1872). A separate text from the 1899
MW— the standard dictionary in its original form. - Textual comparison. Lets you track how Monier-Williams' treatment of a word evolved.
Headword key conventions
<k1> = <k2> = SLP1 stem (no accents — MW72 carries none). The headword in the entry body is in IAST with its nominative form given immediately after in italic {%…%} — a 19th-century convention dropped in the 1899 edition.
| Convention | Marker / form | Example | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search key | SLP1, no accent | aMSa | k1 = k2; no accent marks anywhere |
| Body form | IAST + nominative, italic | {%Aṃśa, as,%} | The printed headword with its nominative ending (masc. as) |
| No accents | — | — | Unlike the 1899 MW, MW72 carries no Vedic accent marks |
Abbreviations
Abbreviations 154
Show first 60 of 154 abbreviations
| A. | Ātmane-pada ; the long mark over the A. has been omitted for convenience in printing. |
| abl. or abl. c. | ablative case. |
| acc. or acc. c. | accusative case. |
| accord. | according. |
| Adi-p. | Ādi-parvan of the Mahā-bhārata. |
| adj. | adjective. |
| Æol. | Æolic. |
| alg. | algebra. |
| Angl. Sax. | Anglo-Saxon. |
| anom. | anomalous, irregular. |
| Aor. | Aorist. |
| arith. | arithmetic. |
| Arab. | Arabic. |
| Armen. or Armn. | Armenian or the language of Brittany. |
| Armen. | Armenian. |
| astrol. | astrology. |
| astron. | astronomy. |
| Atharva-v. | Atharva-veda, edited by Roth and Whitney. |
| Bhāgavata-P. | Bhāgavata-Purāṇa, Burnouf's edition, or Bombay edition for the later books. |
| Bhaṭṭi-k. | Bhaṭṭi-kāvya, Calcutta edition. |
| Boh. or Bohem. | Bohemian. |
| B. R. | Böhtlingk and Roth. |
| Br. | Brāhmaṇa. |
| Bret. | Breton. |
| Buddh. | Buddhist. |
| c. | case. |
| Cambro-Brit. | the language of Wales. |
| Caus. | Causal. |
| cf. | confer, compare. |
| chap. | chapter. |
| cl. | class. |
| Class. | Classical. |
| col. cols. | column, columns. |
| comm. | commentator or commentary. |
| comp., compd. | compound, compounds. |
| compar. | comparative. |
| compar. degree | comparative degree. |
| Cond. or Condit. | Conditional. |
| cons. | consonant. |
| dat. or dat. c. | dative case. |
| defect. | defective. |
| Desid. | Desiderative. |
| dimin. | diminutive. |
| Dor. | Doric. |
| du. | dual number. |
| ed. or edit. | edition. |
| e.g. | exempli gratiā. |
| Eng. | English. |
| Ep. or ep. | Epic, i.e. as works at the Mahā-bhārata, Rāmāyaṇa, &c. |
| epith. | epithet. |
| esp. | especially. |
| etym. | etymology. |
| explet. | expletive. |
| f. or fem. | feminine. |
| fr. | from. |
| Fut. | Future. |
| Gael. | Gaelic. |
| gen. or gen. c. | genitive case. |
| gend. | gender. |
| geom. | geometry. |
+ 94 more — see the full list in the source file
See also
- Monier-Williams 1899 (MW) — the enlarged standard edition · Apte (AP90) · Wilson (WIL)
- The full catalog of all 43 dictionaries
- csl-doc mw72.rst