author
Emile Littré
1801–1881
Best known for the monumental French dictionary that still bears his name, he brought together a doctor's training, a philosopher's curiosity, and a lifelong love of words. His work helped shape how generations of readers understood the history and texture of the French language.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Paris in 1801, Émile Littré trained in medicine before turning more fully toward scholarship, journalism, and the study of language. He became widely respected as a philologist, translator, and thinker, with interests that ranged from classical texts to contemporary intellectual life.
His lasting fame rests on the Dictionnaire de la langue française, published across the 1860s and early 1870s. Often simply called Le Littré, it was admired not just as a dictionary but as a major record of the history, meanings, and usage of French words.
Littré was also active in public and intellectual life beyond lexicography. He translated Hippocrates, wrote on philosophy, contributed to leading journals, and was later elected to the Académie française. He died in Paris in 1881, but his name remains closely tied to one of the great achievements of French reference literature.