Dictionary form on Wiktionary

[yong321]

Unlike other dictionaries, Wiktionary.org does not use the infinitive as its dictionary form of a verb (lemma). For example, on page
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dicere#Latin
you don't see the definition of dicere, but have to go to the page for dico to see it. Is there any good reason for Wiktionary to do this?

 

[Dantius]

Most dictionaries do this as far as I can tell. The 1st person sg. is traditionally the first principal part of verbs in the dictionary entry (dico, dicere, dixi, dictus) so most dictionaries list the principal parts in that order and thus use the 1st person sg. as the lemma form.

 

[yong321]

Thanks! So it looks like it's just a convention or custom some dictionaries happen to adopt. There's no inherent reason for doing so.

I tried the first few links given by the Google search for "latin dictionary". Some provide the definition for the infinitive and some others do not.
These do:
http://www.latin-dictionary.net/search/latin/dicere
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=dicere&la=la
http://latindictionary.wikidot.com/verb:dicere
http://archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wordz.pl?keyword=dicere
https://glosbe.com/la/en/dicere
These do not:
https://www.online-latin-dictionary.com/latin-english-dictionary.php?parola=dicere
https://www.math.ubc.ca/~cass/frivs/latin/latin-dict-full.html#D

 

[Quasus]

Some provide the definition for the infinitive and some others do not.
These do:
http://www.latin-dictionary.net/search/latin/dicere
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=dicere&la=la
http://latindictionary.wikidot.com/verb:dicere
http://archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wordz.pl?keyword=dicere
https://glosbe.com/la/en/dicere
https://glosbe.com/la/en/dicere

I’d rather say they support inflected form search. For instance, Glosbe finds ‘dicis’ as well, but ‘dico’ is the main entry.

The only exception is the third one, latindictionary.wikidot.com, which is really weird. Listing Latin verbs by infinitives is just as uncommon as listing English ones by past participles. Anyway, it seems to be a personal compilation, and with 1024 entries it isn’t much of a dictionary.