The work was initiated by philologist Jakob Sverdrup in 1936, who edited the dictionary until his death in 1938.
[1] After his death linguist and educator Marius Sandvei took over the responsibility as editor.
[1] The latest edition is updated according to the normative changes which were effective from 1 July 2005,[4][5] and is vetted by the Norwegian Language Council.
[6] The dictionary is recommended by the Norwegian Ministry of Culture as a consultative help when making new official names of Governmental bodies, institutions or companies.
The electronic version was also included on the CD-ROM Norsk Språk, along with other dictionaries.