Academic Dictionary of Lithuanian

[1] When he returned from Russia to Lithuania in 1920, he started writing a dictionary that would contain all known Lithuanian words as well as hydronyms, toponyms, and surnames.

[5] Būga collected about 600,000 index cards with words, but Juozas Balčikonis, who was selected by the Ministry of Education to continue the work on the dictionary in 1930,[1] realized that more data is needed and organized a campaign to collect additional words from literary works as well as the spoken language.

[5] The revised dictionary excluded proper nouns, infrequently used barbarisms, etymological and historical notes.

[1] Būga used to leave the explanation in the language that it was originally recorded; therefore the words could be explained in German, Russian, Polish or even Latin.

These two volumes were attacked by the communists as the words and sample sentences reflected "reactionary clerical phraseology" and not the "Lithuanian revolutionary press and the present Soviet Socialist reality.

[10] Juozas Balčikonis realized that the index was not comprehensive and organized a wide effort to collect more words.

He encouraged members of the intelligentsia, teachers, even students to submit cards with new words, particularly from the living dialects of the village.

[10] After World War II, the card index was expanded by adding Soviet and communist terminology as well as international words.

From 1963, editors of the dictionary organized expeditions to different regions of Lithuania to collect words from the spoken language.

Some of the prominent figures who contributed to the card index include Presidents of Lithuania Kazys Grinius and Antanas Smetona, archbishop Jurgis Matulaitis-Matulevičius, ophthalmologist Petras Avižonis, and many others.