The paper is a historical overview of world lexicography, focusing on selected cases of lexicographic works of the past. Starting from the antiquity (Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, India, Greece) it runs through the Middle Ages (Arabs, Byzantium, Western Europe) to end with Modern Age (from the Renaissance on). The emphasis is on European lexicography, while special reference is made to Modern Greek lexicography. By selecting a number of specific lexicographic works it is attempted to point out that the compilation of dictionaries has been and still is a socio-historical process, which meets social needs of both inter-language contact and language standardization. The types of dictionaries produced in each historical era for each language are intimately related to the kind of social needs they are called upon to meet, as well as the ideological context that dominates in each period as regards the symbolic value of language and its words.