从古代起人们就一直在编写词典,并且最迟从十九世纪初起学者们就开始论述有关词典的编写问题,但词典学作为一门专门的学问却是在二十世纪发展起来的。这篇论文概述了自1925年来北美有关词典学的发展进程。在北美讲授的第一门有关词典学的课程,看来是威廉·克雷吉先生于1925年秋设置的,课程名称是“词典编纂”(Making a Dictionary),他招收 People have been writing dictionaries since ancient times, and scholars began to talk about the preparation of dictionaries at the latest from the beginning of the nineteenth century. However, as a specialized science, lexics developed in the twentieth century. This essay summarizes the development of lexicography in North America since 1925. The first course on lexicography taught in North America appeared to have been set by William A. Craig in the fall of 1925 under the name of Making a Dictionary,