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  Tags: Dictionaries
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Lojlag
Newbie
Spain
Joined 5528 days ago

2 posts - 2 votes
Speaks: English

 
 Message 1 of 8
06 October 2009 at 1:57am | IP Logged 
I hope anyone has post anything about this yet. I was wondering if someone knows if it exists a dictionary which word is in one language for example Spanish and the definition is in other, for example English.

eg. espada: metal object with a blade ...

Thanks in advanced.
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newyorkeric
Diglot
Moderator
Singapore
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1598 posts - 2174 votes 
Speaks: English*, Italian
Studies: Mandarin, Malay
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 Message 2 of 8
06 October 2009 at 2:17am | IP Logged 
Those type of dictionaries are very common. You can find them in any bookstore and on the web.

Am I misunderstanding your question?

Edited by newyorkeric on 06 October 2009 at 2:19am

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tommus
Senior Member
CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5866 days ago

979 posts - 1688 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Dutch, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish

 
 Message 3 of 8
06 October 2009 at 4:06am | IP Logged 
newyorkeric wrote:
Those type of dictionaries are very common. You can find them in any bookstore and on the web.

Am I misunderstanding your question?

I think you are. If I understand correctly, the question was about a dictionary that gave the word in one language and the "definition" in the second language, not the equivalent word in the second language.

Espanda is a sword, but sword wasn't given in the example, just the definition.

I don't know of any such dictionary that omits the actual translated word and just puts the definition. Some may put both.

Why would anyone want such a dictionary? To try to guess the translation?

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newyorkeric
Diglot
Moderator
Singapore
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1598 posts - 2174 votes 
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 Message 4 of 8
06 October 2009 at 4:19am | IP Logged 
Yup, that explains it, thanks. My only excuse is a lack of caffeine...
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Volte
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Switzerland
Joined 6439 days ago

4474 posts - 6726 votes 
Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian
Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese

 
 Message 5 of 8
06 October 2009 at 10:26am | IP Logged 
Lojlag wrote:
I hope anyone has post anything about this yet. I was wondering if someone knows if it exists a dictionary which word is in one language for example Spanish and the definition is in other, for example English.

eg. espada: metal object with a blade ...

Thanks in advanced.


I doubt it. Who wants to end up thinking that espada means spade/shovel, or knife?


1 person has voted this message useful



roncy
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 5917 days ago

105 posts - 112 votes 
Speaks: French*, English, German, Spanish, Latin

 
 Message 6 of 8
06 October 2009 at 7:17pm | IP Logged 
Volte wrote:
Lojlag wrote:
I hope anyone has post anything about this yet. I was wondering if someone knows if it exists a dictionary which word is in one language for example Spanish and the definition is in other, for example English.

eg. espada: metal object with a blade ...

Thanks in advanced.


I doubt it. Who wants to end up thinking that espada means spade/shovel, or knife?

I would certainly have thought of "spade". Logic, English words starting with st or sp are often just slightly changed but prefixed with an e: spade -> espada.

I think if there were such a dictionary it would be called "Misleading Dictionary for Dummies" or some other such name. Better fun even than sudoku or cross-word puzzles, because it could be played as a party game, see who comes up with the wackiest translations fitting misleading definitions.
Other than that it would be pretty useless, except maybe as weight for pressing down on freshly glued collages. Though I can think of a lot of other, cheaper ways of doing that.


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Lojlag
Newbie
Spain
Joined 5528 days ago

2 posts - 2 votes
Speaks: English

 
 Message 7 of 8
11 October 2009 at 7:58pm | IP Logged 
During my experience as a learner i've got into many situations where I was looking for the meaning of a word and the only thing I got was an equivalent word in anoteher language, and the usual unilingual-dictionary had a not simple enough definition leading in many cases to misconceptions. A dcitionary with the equivalent words and a definition would solve any doubts of the correct word definiton and thats what i'm looking for.
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XGargoyle
Bilingual Triglot
Groupie
Spain
Joined 5956 days ago

42 posts - 93 votes 
Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan*, EnglishB2
Studies: GermanA2, Japanese, Russian

 
 Message 8 of 8
14 October 2009 at 1:43pm | IP Logged 
Why don't you use a Thesaurus? It will provide you a list of synonyms for your target language and it's assumed that one of these words will be an already-known one, meaning you don't need an extra definition in your language. Just my two cents...




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