This work analyzes the initial lexical materials sent by corresponding American academics to the Real Academia Espaola (RAE) in order to determine their treatment in the twelfth edition of the dictionary, the DRAE 1884.Through these initial lists of words, the aim is to understand the different ideological approaches that guide the lexical selection and to examine how the lexical norm begins to be constructed at the onset of the institutionalization of collaboration with the American academies.