Developed in the late 1960s the purpose of such a dictionary was originally simply to assist in the maintenance of large-scale data-processing systems. The idea was further developed in the 1970s with the advent of special-purpose software systems to main

Developed in the late 1960s the purpose of such a dictionary was originally simply to assist in the maintenance of large-scale data-processing systems. The idea was further developed in the 1970s with the advent of special-purpose software systems to maintain such dictionaries. . . . ¶ The term data dictionary is sometimes used misleadingly by software vendors to refer to the alphabetical listings of names automatically produced when database schema and data manipulation coding is being processed and compiled. . . .