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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​

CodeMW72 (GitHub repo MW72)
Full titleA Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1st edition)
AuthorMonier Williams
Year / size1872 · ~1186 pages
DirectionSanskrit → English
AccentsNo
Sourcecsl-orig/v02/mw72/
OpenBasic · List · Advanced · Mobile
DataDownloads
csl-docmw72.rst
MW72 vs MW

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 sourceMeaning
<pc>0001-apage-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 glossesthe 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.

See also​