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Description
This article discusses an important Icelandic lexicographic work published in the nineteenth century. Dönsk orðabók með íslenzkum þýðingum was compiled and edited by Konráð Gíslason (1808-1891), an Icelandic scholar and language purist. The printed dictionary is described in some detail, with particular attention to its structural characteristics and the ways in which purist ideals shaped many of its entries. Loanwords were systematically avoided and explanatory paraphrases were preferred whenever no suitable native Icelandic equivalent was available. The discussion then turns to recent efforts to produce a digital edition of the dictionary. We account for the workflow implemented in order to turn this complicated printed book into a functioning searchable edition where the content has been marked-up and XML-encoded. The process illustrates some of the issues involved and addresses challenges encountered when producing the new digital edition of the dictionary.