In 1875 the Delegates of the Oxford University Press proposed to me that I should undertake the compilation of a new Latin-English Lexicon, of something the same compass as the Greek-English Lexicon of Liddell and Scott. I acceded to the proposal in the expectation, for which I had at the time what appeared to be good grounds, that I should obtain adequate assistance in the work. My hopes were, however, disappointed. With the exception of some isolated contributions from friends, which will be mentioned in their place, I failed to get anything like the amount of steady co-operation which I had looked for, and without which it would have been madness to put my hand to such a task.

By the summer of 1887 I had completed nearly all the letter A (a tenth part of the whole work), and had also written a number of articles and notes under the other letters. The Delegates of the Press then made a second proposal, that I should publish, in a volume of moderate size, such parts of my manuscript as appeared to me to contain additions to, or improvements upon, what may be found in the current Latin-English dictionaries.

It is necessary to recapitulate these facts, in order to explain the fragmentary character of the present work. The volume contains about half of what I had written under the letter A, and most of my notes and articles under the other letters.