How Pali-English dictionaries are made?

After reading a post mentioning Maragaret Cone’s Pali-English dictionary, I started to realize that I don’t really know how such dictionaries are actually made.

So my question is, what is the methodology and what are the textual sources used to create Pali-English dictionaries and find the best meanings of terms?

I was also wondering, how is Margaret Cone’s Pali-English dictionary viewed (in term of quality/accuracy) by:

  1. early Buddhist scholars? (I’d guess rather well from the few comments by Bhante Sujato on this forum…, if so, I’d be curious to understand why)
  2. more traditional Sri Lankan, Burmese, Thai and other Theravadin scholars?

And what is the level of interaction about between Margaret Cone and the Theravadin scholar monks/nuns? I’m just fascinated by the fact that she’s been working (seemingly) on her own on this huge task for such a long time and I’m curious to know how integrated it is with the Pali community as a whole.

Thanks in advance for any insights on these matters :pray: :slightly_smiling_face:

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