Andrew Crawfurd began to collect materials for this dictionary in 1812, four years after the first publication of John Jamieson's 'Etymological dictionary of the Scottish language' (Edinburgh, 1808), and, in his preface (placed at the beginning of each volume), he shows how he was inspired to do this through the omissions and mistakes of that work. It does not appear to have been utilized in the later editions of and supplements to Jamieson.