[2] It was one of the two dictionaries the academy planned to publish from its founding in 1932, the other being Al-Mu'jam al-Wasīt [ar], intended to serve students.
[1] The academy sought go beyond Fischer's interest in the semantic development of individual words to focus on a more comprehensive analysis and description of Arabic vocabulary.
[1] The project suffered from a lack of funding, but Volume I, Part 1, covering hamza to " ʾ ḫ y ", was published in 1956.
[1] As von Grunebaum summarizes: The difficulties facing the authors derive from the fact that of all living languages Arabic has had the longest productive life; the history of its development and spread has however been only imperfectly explored.
The language was transplanted from the desert to various urban milieus and has in its unusually varied history acquired a unique complexity and richness of vocabulary.