Best large Spanish English dictionary?
April 3, 2007 11:24 AM Subscribe
Best large Spanish-English dictionary? Also best dictionary for Cervantes era spanish? (Reasons why best a bonus.) Many thanks.
Response by poster: Large as large can be. I'm looking quality, extensivity, and obscure terms.
posted by IndigoJones at 11:55 AM on April 3, 2007
posted by IndigoJones at 11:55 AM on April 3, 2007
I'm sure bigger dictionary-nerds than I will be around shortly, but at least form me, the Larousse Spanish-English is heartily seconded, and I've used a lot of these dictionaries
+ logical connection between what you look up and idioms you didn't know existed
+ good descriptions for when you need to differentiate between different uses of a word you never though had different intents
+ I like the boxes that describe use. They're pretty accurate and always interesting.
+ price always seems low given how much I use and love this dictionary
+ even the "pocket" Larousse (the $7 one) has had an amazing amount of the random obscure things I wanted to know in engineering, agriculture, and abstract concepts in social sciences. The "unabridged" version is lots, lots bigger.
° do you care if it uses UK spellings in English?
° the non-US versions seem more durable (heavier paper; thicker cover. But they are made for native Spanish speakers, so the grammar stuff in front is different. If you already know Spanish, you probably don't care.)
- the newer editions (red cover) have lighter paper than the old ones (dark blue cover)
- the "pocket" one won't fit in most pockets. the unabridged certainly doesn't.
But if your Spanish is good enough to be reading that kind of text, you will really be happier with a Spanish dictionary. And though I have used fewer of those, I'll still recommend Larousse unless you want to go full-out with the Real Academia or something equally ridiculous.
Spanish-English dictionaries I've used and liked a lot less than Larousse: University of Chicago (incredibly non-intuitive with the idioms); Vox (not enough of anything - sentences, phrases, etc.); Langenscheidt (I can't really pin it down, but I've only really liked the German and Vietnamese from them...).
posted by whatzit at 12:01 PM on April 3, 2007
+ logical connection between what you look up and idioms you didn't know existed
+ good descriptions for when you need to differentiate between different uses of a word you never though had different intents
+ I like the boxes that describe use. They're pretty accurate and always interesting.
+ price always seems low given how much I use and love this dictionary
+ even the "pocket" Larousse (the $7 one) has had an amazing amount of the random obscure things I wanted to know in engineering, agriculture, and abstract concepts in social sciences. The "unabridged" version is lots, lots bigger.
° do you care if it uses UK spellings in English?
° the non-US versions seem more durable (heavier paper; thicker cover. But they are made for native Spanish speakers, so the grammar stuff in front is different. If you already know Spanish, you probably don't care.)
- the newer editions (red cover) have lighter paper than the old ones (dark blue cover)
- the "pocket" one won't fit in most pockets. the unabridged certainly doesn't.
But if your Spanish is good enough to be reading that kind of text, you will really be happier with a Spanish dictionary. And though I have used fewer of those, I'll still recommend Larousse unless you want to go full-out with the Real Academia or something equally ridiculous.
Spanish-English dictionaries I've used and liked a lot less than Larousse: University of Chicago (incredibly non-intuitive with the idioms); Vox (not enough of anything - sentences, phrases, etc.); Langenscheidt (I can't really pin it down, but I've only really liked the German and Vietnamese from them...).
posted by whatzit at 12:01 PM on April 3, 2007
Come to think of it, I actually have both the Larousse Spanish-English and the Larousse Spanish-Spanish, as I like to call it. I often consult both for the same word -- the bilingual dictionary gives me the basic meaning, and the monolingual dictionary expands the definition.
posted by footnote at 12:07 PM on April 3, 2007
posted by footnote at 12:07 PM on April 3, 2007
velazquez is the standard. especially if you're reading cervantes, you want the velazquez by your side.
and that new one looks nice. i've got an old one i inherited, but that new one looks pretty snazzy to me.
velazquez, indigojones; its the bilingual OED of the mundo hispanohablante. only the RAE's diccionario is more authoritative, and that's spanish-spanish.
so repeat after me: velazquez, velazquez, velazquez . . .
posted by deejay jaydee at 12:16 PM on April 3, 2007
and that new one looks nice. i've got an old one i inherited, but that new one looks pretty snazzy to me.
velazquez, indigojones; its the bilingual OED of the mundo hispanohablante. only the RAE's diccionario is more authoritative, and that's spanish-spanish.
so repeat after me: velazquez, velazquez, velazquez . . .
posted by deejay jaydee at 12:16 PM on April 3, 2007
Best answer: The Collins Unabridged and the Oxford are both superb; I'm not familiar with the Velazquez but I simply don't believe it's significantly better. If I were you I'd try to find a store that has all three and flip through comparing how each handles the same word (I used to use set for this, and bought one dictionary because it was the only one that had the phrase set an alarm clock). When you get to the point where you can use a Spanish-Spanish dictionary, the Real Academia's Diccionario de la lengua española is online free, which is a tremendous blessing.
posted by languagehat at 1:51 PM on April 3, 2007
posted by languagehat at 1:51 PM on April 3, 2007
Oh, and I'm sure the Larousse is great too (I don't have the Spanish, but I have the French equivalent, and it's amazing), so I should have said "find a store that has all four." And take the time to find the one that's right for you; it's like buying a mattress—it's a significant investment, and everybody has different needs and preferences.
posted by languagehat at 1:53 PM on April 3, 2007
posted by languagehat at 1:53 PM on April 3, 2007
Response by poster: Online? For free? Top marks for that piece of information alone. A thousand thanks, and also for all others who cared enough to respond.
posted by IndigoJones at 5:18 PM on April 3, 2007
posted by IndigoJones at 5:18 PM on April 3, 2007
Response by poster: (Now I'm hopelessly curious. What dictionary included set an alarm clock?)
posted by IndigoJones at 5:20 PM on April 3, 2007
posted by IndigoJones at 5:20 PM on April 3, 2007
This is a bit late, but I've got the mid-size Larousse, and find it to be a better Sp-En dictionary than most, and particularly good for Latin American regional idioms. ...Not that that would help much for Cervantes. The Real Academia Espanola dictionary that Languagehat mentioned (and listen to him, I stumbled onto his linguistics blog ages ago, and he knows his stuff) would probably be better for Spain-Spanish, but I'm not sure exactly how it handles archaic words and usages. The RAE is basically THE organization in charge of the official word on what is and isn't real or correct Spanish.
And by the by, if free and online is good for you, I've actually found times when wordreference.com's Sp-En has even beat the Larousse, if only because of the integration of its forums - often, when a word is lacking an official definition, there will be a link on the page to one or more forum discussions where an English speaker is looking for a translation, and people from various Spanish-speaking countries help out (or vice-versa), and it can cover some pretty obscure stuff! (Plus, if you use Firefox or IE7, you can set up the search bar to look up a word there directly.)
posted by stleric at 7:16 PM on April 9, 2007
And by the by, if free and online is good for you, I've actually found times when wordreference.com's Sp-En has even beat the Larousse, if only because of the integration of its forums - often, when a word is lacking an official definition, there will be a link on the page to one or more forum discussions where an English speaker is looking for a translation, and people from various Spanish-speaking countries help out (or vice-versa), and it can cover some pretty obscure stuff! (Plus, if you use Firefox or IE7, you can set up the search bar to look up a word there directly.)
posted by stleric at 7:16 PM on April 9, 2007
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by footnote at 11:45 AM on April 3, 2007