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Description
This paper presents a methodology for the diachronic study of legal lexical units related to criminal law in a nineteenth-century general-language dictionary, the twelfth edition of the Diccionario de la lengua castellana of the by the Real Academia Española (DRAE 1884), as analyzed through its critical and digital edition (e-DRAE 1884). The study combines a lexicographical examination of how these units are defined, structured and interconnected with their contextualization within the legal, social and ideological framework of nineteenth-century Spain, drawing on the sociocognitive theory of ideology and on the notion of the dictionary as discourse. Selected case studies from the criminal lexicon illustrate continuities and ruptures between the inherited juridical tradition and the emerging liberal order. The paper finally discusses the methodological advantages that the e-DRAE 1884 environment offers for research on specialized lexis in historical dictionaries.