Some books I have been reading lately have a lot of Latin terms in them. A few of them I can figure out but most I can't. Does anyone know of a good online Latin dictionary or another good way to find out what I'm reading?
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
Instead of a latin dictionary, you should probably just hunt down a source that compiles latin words seen in common use. This is especially useful these days considering that 'latin peppering' is a well abused pseudo-erudition.
However if you are reading a book that frequently has unknown latin terms in them the best solution is to be sitting near a computer. Wikipedia is only a click away!
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
pro quid quo! *stab*
Posted by adenam (Member # 11902) on :
Thanks!
Posted by romanylass (Member # 6306) on :
The Oxford Pocket Latin dictionary. I cannot tell you how many times we have watched Buffy or Angel with the remote and that little gem at our sides.
Posted by Eaquae Legit (Member # 3063) on :
The New College Latin-English Dictionary is my favourite pocket one. It's good with idioms.
Whittaker's Words is a FANTASTIC dictionary program which you can use online or download. Highly, highly recommended.
Posted by Carrie (Member # 394) on :
Got to ditto the Whitaker. It's one of the easier and more useful online Latin (single-word) translating sources.
Posted by adenam (Member # 11902) on :
Eaquae Legit, your link is complete gibberish for me. What is it?
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
I'm trying to learn Russian now. I'm reading an online dual language version of Crime and Punishment, which is one of my favorite books, and then I'm looking up the Russian words one by one using google language tools translator. I'm making a document that takes the book paragraph by paragraph, first the Russian, then a transliterated version of the Russian, then a word by word translation, then then full paragraph in English. I think by the time I finish the book I'll know Russian. I'm still in chapter 1 as of now, since this is incredibly tedious and time-consuming to copy and paste word by word into the google language box.
Does anyone know of a good online Russian dictionary, to help me with words google doesn't know and to flesh out the possible meanings of ambiguous words?
Can anyone think of a faster way to generate the part of the text that translates word by word? That is the hardest and slowest part to do.
Posted by Audeo (Member # 5130) on :
Tufts hosts an excellent classics website (including the complete Lewis and Short Latin Dictionary that is generally regarded as an excellent resource for undergraduate Latin students). http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ The downside is that because it is hosted by a small university the server is sometimes slow. The upside is that you don't have to download a program, it's all online.
Another option is that a lot of 'common' Latin phrases have made their way so thoroughly into English that many online English dictionaries should be able to translate a phrase better than looking up individual words. Latin grammar is complex enough that the meaning of a phrase can change a lot by changing the last two letters in a word (us to i, or a to ae) and for someone without the grammar background it can be hard to understand the whole phrase correctly.
Posted by Carrie (Member # 394) on :
(Also, I've got to warn against Perseus, since it's sometimes pretty inaccurate. Whitaker's the way to go, for sure, and you don't have to download a thing.)
Posted by adenam (Member # 11902) on :
![[Smile]](smile.gif)