Srpski rječnik

[1] Karadžić began collecting words of the Serbian vernacular in 1815, as suggested by Slovene linguist Jernej Kopitar.

The first published edition of the dictionary came out in 1818, and contained 26.270 words which Karadžić had heard in the common speech.

While at the time there were no printing presses present in Serbia, printing such a work in Austria required the permission of Metropolitan Stefan Stratimirović, who saw Karadžić's work in orthography as a threat to the Serbian Orthodox Church and its habits of educating Serbs with the so-called Slavonic-Serbian language, an adaptation of the Church Slavonic language.

Jacob Grimm showed a distinct interest in profanity within the Serbian language and in his correspondence with Karadžić he requested their equivalent in German.

Attacks held against the dictionary did not cease even after 1847, which was considered to be the year of victory for Karadžić's reforms.