Harrap's New Standard French and English Dictionary I-II [antikvár]

Preface THIS work is a completely revised and greatly enlarged edition of Harrap's Standard French and English Dictionary and represents research work carried out over many years by a whole team of collaborators. As the card index of the original edition was destroyed during World War II, a new one was compiled after 1945 by the wearisome task of cutting up copies of the 1940 edition and pasting each headword on a separate card. These cards already formed an index of considerable dimensions, but it did not remain static, and in a very short space of time thousands of new cards had been added, representing words not appearing in the original dictionary and new acceptations of existing words. The new material was derived from a number of sources: the examination of the most modern unilingual dictionaries; the reading of periodicals and recently published books; suggestions sent in by users of the dictionary; and words or expressions gleaned quite fortuitously in the course of conversation. Our friends are no longer astonished to hear, " What did you say? I don't think we have that in our dictionary. Do you mind if I make a note of it in my little book?" In fact our research has gone much beyond the existing dictionaries in both languages. By 1950 enough material had been gathered to publish a supplement, of which the second and third augmented editions appeared in 1955 and 1961. It was then evident that the additional material being collected was too extensive to make the publication of a fourth supplement a practical solution, so activities were directed towards the preparation of a completely new edition of the French-English part of the dictionary, which should not only incorporate the 1961 supplement and include further additional words and expressions, but should also comprise a complete revision of existing articles. Both the English and French languages have evolved rapidly over the last thirty to forty years, but not always in the same direction or at the same pace, so it stands to reason that what in 1934 was the best translation of a given expression is not necessarily the best translation today. In particular, many expressions which in the inter-war years were Americanisms have now become the standard English of the British Isles, and have superseded the expressions currently used in the twenties or thirties. Moreover, the French used in some of the examples relating to everyday conversation now appears stilted or old fashioned, so in these cases the more current expression has been substituted. This must not be taken to mean that all words or expressions (including colloquialisms or even slang) no longer in current use have been deleted. This dictionary is intended not only for the user who requires an extensive vocabulary of modern French, but also for one who may be reading literature or scientific or technical works published in the past. Purely literary words or expressions are consequently marked Lit:; obsolete or archaic ones A:; and obsolescent ones, used currently largely by the older generations, O:. It is also important to point out the distinction between A. preceding a category indication and A: following one; for example, the name of a ship no longer used (e.g. galion, s.m. galleon) would be labelled A.Nau:, while an expression indicating a nautical operation which has now been replaced by a more modern expression would be labelled Nau: A:.