dict_index_open: Too many open files

[Helmut Wollmersdorfer]

Expanding my dicts from 152 to 283 + 2 languages (each language has two
dicts) I got the following error message after start:

Jan 22 15:54:22 localhost dictd[15953]: :I: 15953 starting dictd
1.10.2/rf on Linux 2.6.16-2-486 Mon Jan 22 15:54:22 2007
Jan 22 15:54:22 localhost dictd[15953]: :I: using locale "en_US.utf-8"
Jan 22 15:54:22 localhost dictd[15953]: Cannot open index file
"/nomen-new/nomen/www.nomen.at/dict/la-tog.index"
Jan 22 15:54:22 localhost dictd[15953]: dict_index_open: Too many open files

Obviously there is a limit at ~512 dicts.
Question: Is this limit specific to dictd or to my operating system
(Linux Debian)?

Solution?
Workaround?

TIA

Helmut Wollmersdorfer