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An encyclopedia or encyclopaedia (also spelled encyclopædia, see spelling differences) is a type of reference work or compendium holding a comprehensive summary of information from either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Encyclopedia. ) Glossary of Library Terms. Riverside City College, Digital Library/Learning Resource Center. Retrieved on: November 17, 2007.〕 Encyclopedias are divided into articles or entries, which are usually accessed alphabetically by article name. Encyclopedia entries are longer and more detailed than those in most dictionaries.〔 Generally speaking, unlike dictionary entries, which focus on linguistic information about words, encyclopedia articles focus on factual information concerning the subject for which the article is named.〔Béjoint, Henri (2000). (''Modern Lexicography'' ), pp. 30–31. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-829951-6〕 Encyclopedias have existed for around 2,000 years; the oldest still in existence, ''Naturalis Historia'', was written starting in ca. AD 77 by Pliny the Elder and was not fully revised at the time of his death in AD 79. The modern encyclopedia evolved out of dictionaries around the 17th century. Historically, some encyclopedias were contained in one volume, whereas others, such as the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', the ''Enciclopedia Italiana'' (62 volumes, 56,000 pages) or the world's largest, ''Enciclopedia universal ilustrada europeo-americana'' (118 volumes, 105,000 pages), became huge multi-volume works. Some modern encyclopedias, such as Wikipedia, are electronic and often freely available. ==Etymology== The word ''encyclopedia'' comes from the Koine Greek ,〔(Ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία ), Quintilian, ''Institutio Oratoria'', 1.10.1, at Perseus project〕 transliterated ''enkyklios paideia'', meaning "general education" from ''enkyklios'' (ἐγκύκλιος), meaning "circular, recurrent, required regularly, general"〔(Ἐγκύκλιος ), Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek–English Lexicon'', at Perseus project〕 and ''paideia'' (παιδεία), meaning "education, rearing of a child";〔(Παιδεία ), Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek–English Lexicon'', at Perseus project〕 it was reduced to a single word due to an error〔According to some accounts, such as the (''American Heritage Dictionary'' ), copyists of Latin manuscripts took this phrase to be a single Greek word, ''enkyklopaidia''.〕 by copyists of Latin manuscripts. Together, the phrase literally translates as "complete instruction" or "complete knowledge". Copyists of Latin manuscripts took this phrase to be a single Greek word, ''enkyklopaidia'', with the same meaning, and this spurious Greek word became the New Latin word "encyclopaedia", which in turn came into English. Though the notion of a compendium of knowledge dates back thousands of years, the term was first used in the title of a book in 1517 by Johannes Aventinus: ''Encyclopedia orbisque doctrinarum, hoc est omnium artium, scientiarum, ipsius philosophiae index ac divisio'', and in 1538 by Joachimus Fortius Ringelbergius, ''Lucubrationes vel potius absolutissima kyklopaideia'' (Basel, 1538). The word ''encyclopaedia'' was first used as a noun in the title of his book by the Croatian encyclopedist Pavao Skalić in his ''Encyclopaedia seu orbis disciplinarum tam sacrarum quam prophanarum epistemon'' (Encyclopaedia, or Knowledge of the World of Disciplines, Basel, 1559). One of the oldest vernacular uses was by François Rabelais in his ''Pantagruel'' in 1532. Several encyclopedias have names that include the suffix ''-p(a)edia'', e.g., Banglapedia (on matters relevant for Bengal). In British usage, the spellings ''encyclopedia'' and ''encyclopaedia'' are both current.〔("encyclopaedia" ), Chambers Reference Online; ("encyclopaedia" ), AskOxford. 〕 In American usage, only the former is commonly used.〔("encyclopaedia" ), Bartleby.com; ("Encyclopaedia" ), Merriam Webster. 〕 The spelling ''encyclopædia''—with the ''æ'' ligature—was frequently used in the 19th century and is increasingly rare, although it is retained in product titles such as ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' and others. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (1989) records ''encyclopædia'' and ''encyclopaedia'' as equal alternatives (in that order), and notes the ''æ'' would be obsolete except that it is preserved in works that have Latin titles. ''Webster's Third New International Dictionary'' (1997–2002) features ''encyclopedia'' as the main headword and ''encyclopaedia'' as a minor variant. In addition, ''cyclopedia'' and ''cyclopaedia'' are now rarely used shortened forms of the word originating in the 17th century. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Encyclopedia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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