It is hoped the online site will be of use to students and academics

The project has incorporated the 12 volumes of the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue and all 10 of the Scottish National Dictionary.

It is said to be the most comprehensive and accessible resource of its kind.

Those behind the Dundee University venture hope students, lecturers and other interested people throughout the world will use the new dictionary.

The resource, which was three years in the making, has also included snippets of speeches from the closing session of the Scottish Parliament in 1707 and the words spoken at the Declaration of Arbroath.

English lecturer Victor Skretkowicz, who led the project with lexicographer Susan Rennie Victor, said: "For nearly a century, successive editors of the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue and the Scottish National Dictionary laboured to create a historical and cultural record of Scots, from 1200 to 1976.

Both dictionaries are essential resources for scholars of the language, history, and culture of Scotland John Simpson Oxford English Dictionary

"The 22 volumes contain hundreds of thousands of quotes describing all walks of life but now through a process of virtual integration the Dictionary of the Scots Language brings their linguistic, historical and cultural records together and facilitates rapid searching of their contents."

The online dictionary was awarded �320,000 by research funding body the Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB).

John Simpson, chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), welcomed the dictionary.

He said: "The University of Dundee and the AHRB are to be congratulated on the online publication of the Scottish National Dictionary and the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue.

"Both dictionaries are essential resources for scholars of the language, history, and culture of Scotland.

"The Oxford English Dictionary was first edited by a Scot, James Murray, and today we use the two great Scots dictionaries to update the OED's picture of English worldwide."