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Let’s take a look first at the more popular type of German dictionary, a translator such as is run by Google or AltaVista. These translators generally accommodate a great number of languages. They can translate from one to the other. They can translate your webpages if necessary. Some people find it extremely useful. Google is generally superior to Babelfish as far as translation.

But the type of German dictionary fewer people know is one that not only translates but does it both ways at once. In other words an English word can be typed in and then both English alternatives and the German translations would appear. It’s fun to put words in this type of dictionary and see what returns.

Typing nothing into this type of German dictionary brings up a number of English phrases. One of these is nothing doing. This is a phrase that means not only no but oh heck no. It’s a very strong way to say no. It could also mean you don’t agree to something. For example: my boss said I should work for free, I said nothing doing. The German phrase for this is nichts zu machen. It can also translate to no chance. It comes from the German word nichts, meaning nothing.

Type blimp into this German dictionary for it to return kleinluftschiff. Another alternative to this is zeppelin which is the same in English and German. It’s an airship, like the Goodyear blimp. One of the most famous airships was the Hindenburg. In 1937 the Hindenburg caught fire. It was completely destroyed in about one minute. 35 of the 97 people on board were killed. Many people are familiar with its spectacular newsreel coverage of it. It featured Herbert Morrison and his famous phrase ?oh, the humanity!? This footage can still be found today. Look it up on YouTube.

The primary reason the Hindenburg caught fire is still debated. It won’t be found in a German dictionary. Some people believe it was sabotage. Some people believe that there was a build up of static on the skin which ignited the hydrogen or the outer skin. Others think lightning struck the airship. The hydrogen in this craft would normally not ignite. But during landing hydrogen would be vented where it mixed with air. That could ignite. The Philadelphia Inquirer carried an article on the 70th anniversary of the accident. The author postulated that perhaps the engine exhaust caused sparks which then ignited. Whatever the cause, it was a terrible disaster.

A German dictionary can lead to a lot of knowledge.

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Some people believe that there needed to be average Joe versions of a medical dictionary. That is, something aimed at the regular person. A number of popular websites have been developed along these lines. They contain not only the definitions of many medical terms, but searches of conditions based on symptoms. Someone could look up headache and runny nose, for example, to determine that they have a common cold.

But some of these plain person versions of a medical dictionary can be tricky. Diagnosing a condition takes a lot of knowledge and practice. Some common symptoms can apply to a variety of different diseases. It’s very easy to make a mistake. For example someone may think that a pain in the chest is a heart attack. It could be a pulled muscle. However, it’s always wise to seek medical attention if you do have chest pain.

Incorrect conclusions drawn from this type of medical dictionary could lead people to panic. It could also lead people to having arguments with doctors. But it is good to have some information, and to be familiar with the things that your doctor might be thinking or doing to treat you.

A traditional medical dictionary contains phrases in terms for medicine. Many people kept copies of these dictionaries so that they could look things up either before going to a doctor or the place of going to a doctor. In this matter this type of dictionary was very much like the online sites.

Looking at a medical dictionary we can define and learn about many medical terms. For example the term headache returns a very straightforward definition ? a pain in the head. No kidding! Look up the term cancer and the definition is a malignant tumor or unlimited growth which expands by invasion and by metastasis. These would be definitions found in a very basic medical dictionary.

For cancer, for example, a more detailed medical dictionary will have a much more detailed results. There are many types of cancers, they have many different causes and many different treatments. For example there is a cancer cluster. This is when a group of people in a geographic area in a specific period of time have more cases of cancer than would be expected. If such a cancer cluster exists then medical personnel begin looking for outside causes.

A medical dictionary can be good or bad. Use it in addition to interactions with medical professionals.

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The Oxford dictionary has been around for over 100 years. It began in London in 1857. The Philological society determined that current English-language dictionaries weren’t complete. They decided to completely re-examine the language. Little did they know the size of the project they had just undertaken.

The development of the Oxford dictionary had taken a big step in 1879 when the society made an agreement with the Oxford University press to begin work on a new dictionary of the English language. At that time it was known as being New English Dictionary. It was planned to be four volumes, 6400 pages. The idea was to include all English vocabulary from 1150A.D onward. They thought it would take 10 years to complete.

Five years into the creation of this early version of the Oxford dictionary they had only reached the word ant. It was time to adjust the schedule. Part of the reason that it was taking so long was that the English language constantly evolves. They had to keep track of new words as well as the new meanings of old words. All this had to be done when they continued to look at words from the previous seven centuries.

The Oxford dictionary continued to develop over the next four decades. Many new editors joined the project. The dictionary had expanded from the original concept of four volumes to 10 volumes. It encompassed over 400,000 words. It quickly became the ultimate authority on the English language. 40 years later the initial mission was accomplished.

As soon as this first version of the Oxford dictionary was finished work began on a new version. In 1933 a supplement was published in the dictionary had expanded to 12 volumes. This remained until 1957. A new supplement was finally finished and published from 1972 through 1986 in four volumes.

In 1982 the task of bringing the Oxford dictionary into the modern world began. The editors began transferring it from paper to electronic format. The cost of this project is $13.5 million. It took five years to complete. The result of this electronic transfer was a second edition published in 1989. This printed version is 20 volumes containing a total of 22,000 pages.

The Oxford dictionary later was published on CD-ROM, and is now available online. What an interesting journey from concept to the present.

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You’ve heard of Wikipedia. But what about the Webopedia? It’s an online computer dictionary. It contains everything you need to know about computers.

Not only does this online computer dictionary of a search to locate almost any computer term, it has a number of features to help people learn about computers. These features are all contained on a handy left side menu. We’ll take a look at some of them.

One of the sections on this online computer dictionary is term of the day. People can either see this on the website or subscribe to receive it via e-mail. If a person is interested in the term of the day, and thinks some of their friends might be too, they can e-mail it to their friends with the click of a button. There is also a complete archive of the terms of the day.

A typical term of the day on this computer dictionary is skyscraper ad. It’s defined as a banner that’s taller than a standard 120 x 240 pixel vertical banner ad. On Halloween of 2008 the word of the day was zombie. No its not an undead person. Zombie is a computer that has been planted with a small program that allows a hacker to take control. These zombies are then used by hackers to launch attacks against websites. Many well-known sites including Amazon had been brought down by zombie attacks. These are sometimes also known as a zombie ants. That’s because they’re tiny programs that do a great deal of work without rest.

Another term defined in this computer dictionary is end-user. This term goes back a long time. It refers to an individual who uses a product after all the bugs have been worked out. It distinguishes between users may use a product for development and users who needed to be bug free. An end-user usually doesn’t have a great deal of computer knowledge. Or at least that’s what must be assumed by the software developer. Most people who aren’t programmers or engineers are end-users.

The website that’s a computer dictionary also has a did you know section. This section has a lot of interesting facts about a variety of computer subjects. For example many people don’t know the difference between a virus a worm and a Trojan horse. A virus attaches itself to a program or file which has to be executed by a person. A worm is similar to a virus but works and spreads without human interaction. A Trojan horse is an apparently useful piece of software that encourages a user to execute it. Once opened it can deliver a variety of problem programs.

A computer dictionary is a very useful tool in this age. Look one up online.

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A Spanish English dictionary is a valuable tool for people who want to look up the English equivalents of Spanish words. Many Spanish students in high school and college have a copy of this dictionary. As the Internet has grown, many of these have popped up. Generally they are considered translation services. But the idea is the same.

AltaVista came up with the first version of a Spanish English dictionary online as a translator. It was like having the science fiction Star Trek’s Universal translator Right at your fingertips. It was easy to translate words, phrases, sentences or even entire websites with the click of a button.

But this Spanish English dictionary had some problems. Oftentimes the translations weren’t very good. Sometimes they were nonsense. Generally someone could tell that the resulting text and output via translator.

For some people this issue with the Spanish English dictionary was actually a feature. They could use it to create alternate versions of a block of text. This is how it was done. Enter the text to translate from Spanish to English. Then reenter the English text and translated back into Spanish. Very often the result would be different than what was originally entered. With a little bit of editing it would be passable.

Since that time many sites have come up with a better Spanish English dictionary. Google is amongst them. When text is entered there to be translated to a new language, the result can be processed through the service again with the same text as original being returned. Unfortunately that means it can’t be used to write alternate versions of something. But the translation is generally superior.

There are other Sites that have a Spanish English dictionary that’s a bit more detailed in its results. Not only will it translate words, it will look them up and provide definitions for both Spanish and English version. For example, enter the word freeway. The result shows that the Spanish equivalent is autopista. The English definition is given ? a broad roadway that accommodates high-speed traffic. Enter the word autopista, and many results are returned. This includes expressway, freeway, highway, and even the UK motorway. Each of these words can then be clicked so their definition can be seen. In this case they all mean generally the same thing.

The days of the book form of these handy tools are coming to an end. More and more people are turning to the online versions. These are easier to search. And because many people write on a computer, it’s easier to incorporate the results. But even in the modern world Spanish English dictionary is here to stay.

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French is considered the language of love. That may be why people have an interest in a French dictionary. Of course, it might just be because they want to translate words from French, or learn the meaning of French words.

A French dictionary was often a standard tool of a high school or college French student. Such a dictionary would have English words translated into French and French words translated into English. It’s easy to see why this would be useful for someone trying to learn the language.

As the Internet developed more and more French dictionaries went online. This included translation services such as AltaVista and more recently Google. These can be used to translate sentences or entire blocks of text. That can be very useful when having conversations online with someone from another country, or when translating a document into another language.

Let’s look up a few words in a French dictionary. Toast in English is a piece of bread made crisp by exposure to dry heat. There are a variety of types of toast. These include French toast which is called eggy bread in parts of the United Kingdom. The French phrase for this is pain perdu. It’s made by dipping the bread in egg and frying it. It can be topped with butter, fruit, syrup, or many other items including strawberries.

But in a French dictionary the word toast would be a phrase delivered in honor of something. We’re familiar with this when the best man toasts the bride and groom at a wedding reception. The French phrase is en l’honneur de.

Another word found in the French dictionary is bread. Pain is the literal French translation. It does not refer to a loaf of bread or a slice of bread, but more specifically to a loaf of soap, or ice. Panade in French is bread soup.

In a French dictionary word restaurant would be Café. We use that word in English as well as we use the word restaurant. A restaurateur in French is a person who owns a restaurant. In that language it’s a masculine noun.

In a French dictionary pomme is a potato. When turned into french fries the French would call it pommes frites. That was once explained on the popular children’s show Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. The phrase pommes de la soupe would be potato soup. If you wanted a baked potato with some cheese on it you might ask for pommes du fromage.

As you can see a French dictionary as more uses than just for love.

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A scientific dictionary is a specialty item. It provides a lot of information for scientists. There are many different categories, or types, of these dictionaries. They cover all the sciences from biology, chemistry, to physics and in others. Let’s take a look at some of them.

One scientific dictionary is found on line. It’s called Kimball’s Biology Pages. It includes a search engine as well as an alphabetic list. The alphabetic list leads to many index pages each one about a different subject. Let’s look at one of these.

In this scientific dictionary the letter z index page includes as zygotene. This is a stage of mitosis which is the process of a cell separating into chromosomes in the nucleus. This process only occurs in a certain type of cell. This type of cell is located within a membrane.

The scientific dictionary also contains information about chimera. This is also called a genetic mosaic. This is the creation when two different early embryos are combined into one. This process has been known to occur in humans. The name comes from the Greek monster. It had a lion’s head, a goat’s body and a serpent’s tail.

But chimera of mythology is not the same as the one found in the scientific dictionary. It was a native of Lycia in Asia minor. Homer wrote about it in the Iliad. This creature could also breathe fire. In some stories it had three heads, one each of the lion, goat, and serpent.

The chimera’s sibling monster won’t be found in the scientific dictionary either. It was the Hydra. This was another creature with multiple heads. Hercules faced one of them. When one head was cut off, two more would grow instantly in its place. Needless to say it was very difficult to kill.

Another scientific dictionary is one that contains information on math for kids. The online version includes interactive and animated displays. There is a lot of information in this dictionary. For example kids can learn about the acute angle. It’s an angle that’s less than 90°. It’s demonstrated by a cartoon pelican which opens its beak to the angle entered in a box.

This math scientific dictionary for kids also demonstrates area. This is the size a surface occupies. To show this kids can drag various shapes over a grid and then count the number of squares taken up by the shape. It also shows different units both standard and metric.

The possibilities are endless. Chances are if you’re a scientist, or interested in science, you will find use in a scientific dictionary.

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One popular item online is dictionaries. These take many forms. One of the most populate is for translation such as an English Gaelic dictionary. These are more like translators than dictionaries.

In the old days in language if someone wanted an English Gaelic dictionary they would have a book. They could look up words and phrases in the book for on the spot translations. For example if they wanted to find a bus they look up the phrase where’s the bus. Sometimes people would look up things the wrong way and come up with words that really didn’t make sense in the context they were spoken.

But now thanks to the Internet something like an English Gaelic dictionary is more of a translation program. It allows people to enter in phrases, words, or even a whole block of text. Then it returns the same text translated into another language. This can even be done for Web addresses. An entire website can be translated this way.

When looking for an English Gaelic dictionary one of the earliest sources online was the Babelfish. It was a website eventually purchased by AltaVista. It became AltaVista translation. It was quite popular. That’s because it was a pretty new idea. Many people translated for chat, and their websites. But sometimes the translations didn’t make much sense.

Something that many people thought about doing for something like an English Gaelic dictionary was to translate from one language to another and then translate back to see if it still makes sense. Many times the final result of this process was quite different from the starting point. For example translating the phrase ?I want a cake? from language A to language B and then back to language A might result in something like ?a cake is mine.?This was a good way to come up with alternate versions of a sentence or paragraph, but it proved the translation wasn’t really up to par.

Recently Google has come up with a translation service that includes an English Gaelic dictionary. Google’s service is superior to the old one. That test of translating from one language to another and then back generally produces exactly the same text as the starting text. Now people can’t perform rewrites of sentences and paragraphs. But they may be receiving better translations.

In ancient times there were scholars would perform translations. Forget about anything like an English Gaelic dictionary. But now the Internet provides amazing services.

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This article is another in a series examines the words that can be found in a German English dictionary. It’s been such a popular subject that the decision was made to expand the topic.

Earlier articles in this series explore the different types of a German English Dictionary. In the modern online world there are translators, and dictionaries that include translation and also lookups of words that show both their German and English versions and variations on them. It’s very interesting to take a look at these.

Some readers have given feedback on the German English Dictionary series. Norman Cole, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, said ?I find this very interesting. I have used these dictionaries for a long time but many of the words you’ve described I’ve never looked up. It leads to a lot of fun research. My kids are learning a lot.?

A German English dictionary can be very enlightening for children. For example they might like to know that one of their favorite things in the world, toys, is kinderspielzeug in German. Kinder is the German word for children. Kindergarten is a child’s school, the same word used in both the English and German.

Other people have feedback on the German English dictionary. Mary O’Leary said ?My husband and I found these articles and began reading them. We quickly got our children into the action. Learning about different words in different languages is very interesting.? Our editors agree, which is why this series continues.

There’s another type of school that might be found in the German English dictionary. In English it’s the same word school. It means a coordinated group of cetaceans. Cetaceans comes from the Latin for larger sea animal. In English it includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. The German word for a group of these is schule. It shouldn’t be confused with the place of learning.

Our German English dictionary series produced a comment from Edward Gonzalez in Chicago, Illinois. He said ?Wow! These articles are amazing. I thought languages were boring, but this makes it fun.? Nobody can disagree with that.

If we’re in the center in English, the German English dictionary has an answer. We’re said to be zentral. It sounds a lot like the English word. Central in English is the very same word in German, zentral.

Some people think languages can be boring. But when you use a dictionary, such as a German English dictionary, they can open the door to a great deal of interesting information.

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Many people who studied Spanish in high school remember having a Spanish dictionary as part of the required books. Things have come a long way from paging through a book looking for individual words and phrases. Now there are English to Spanish and Spanish to English translators easily available to everyone.

One of the best of this new brand of Spanish dictionary is Google. Its translation service can translate from many languages to many languages. Spanish is one of the these. It can translate single words, phrases, sentences, or even entire paragraphs. They aren’t perfect but they’re better than nothing.

For years on the Internet AltaVista and its Babel Fish have the market cornered on translation. This included what could be called a Spanish dictionary. That is Spanish to English and English to Spanish translations. The problem with this site was at once something was translated from English to Spanish, translating it back into English would often significantly change it. Some people found this a useful ?feature.? It could be used to generate alternate versions of sentences or paragraphs. But it also seemed to mean that the translations weren’t very accurate.

The Spanish dictionary at Google is quite different. If a phrase is translated from English to Spanish and then back from that Spanish to English it’s usually identical to the original phrase. Although people who want to come up with alternate versions of a phrase or paragraphs are disappointed, people who want accurate translations are happy.

A translator isn’t the only Spanish dictionary. Oxford has a Spanish dictionary. Not only does this dictionary translates, and also offers definitions and pronunciations of both the English and Spanish words. For example, look up the word water. The result shows that the Spanish equivalent is agua. It’s a feminine noun but becomes masculine when it’s singular. The entry goes on to show all sorts of other Spanish verbs that mean water in different contexts. It’s a very useful tool.

Looking up mother in the Spanish dictionary brings us the Spanish madre. It also brings up a transitive verb version mimar. This might be used in a sentence such as she mothers me. The Spanish version of the phrase mother tongue is lengua materna.

The online dictionary has a listing for jacket. The clothing item is chaqueta in Spanish. The jacket of a book has a different Spanish word. It’s sobrecubierta.

It seems that when it comes to a Spanish dictionary, Oxford’s is the best and most useful.

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Many times when people want to translate between Hebrew and English they will use a Hebrew dictionary. This could be a dictionary that describes different words in the way they looked in ancient and modern Hebrew. Or it could be a translation from one language to Hebrew or back.

One Hebrew dictionary is a biblical dictionary offered by the Ancient Hebrew Research Center. This dictionary shows the modern and ancient Hebrew writing for a word. Then it shows the way it’s pronounced. Then it gives the English translation. For example av, the transliteration, is the word for father. Mother is eym. E-ven is stone.

Another Hebrew dictionary is found online. It’s a Hebrew glossary. Once again this one shows the Hebrew words is written by their letters, the transliteration, the English word, but then adds a description of the meaning. For example here Abba means father. The complete explanation says it’s an affectionate way to say father, like dear father. This one gives a lot more information.

Another word from this Hebrew dictionary is Adam Kadmon. This means primordial man. This type of being was produced by the divine as an interim step between divine and human. This is the image of God, in human form, from which all people were created.

Let’s continue to delve into words from this Hebrew dictionary. Mabul is a flood. Specifically this is the flood from which Noah escaped in the arc. For the Hebrews he was actually Noach.

More words from the Hebrew dictionary are being presented. Maggid is a speaker or more specifically a preacher. This is a specific type of preacher who tells stories where moral lessons are related. These types of stories have specific formats. It begins with an introduction. Then follows the exposition, or body of the story. Then there’s a conclusion in which the moral lesson is described.

Makkot is found in the Hebrew dictionary. It means stripes. These aren’t the stripes you would find on clothing. Instead they are the stripes that come from lashings. In Hebrew tradition these are administered by court decree for some crime such as bearing false witness. Imagine if that could be done when people lie in courts in the present.

Here’s one more word from the Hebrew dictionary. Many people know it. It’s rabbi. It means a master or teacher. In the first century it was applied to teachers who received their authority as ordained members of the Sanhedrin. The Babylonian version was Rav.

The Hebrew dictionary can be very interesting. Use Google to find out more.

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Perhaps the best known dictionary in the world is the Webster dictionary. Millions of people turn to this book to find the words, correct spellings, and all sorts of other information. It’s a great resource.

There was a time when purchasing encyclopedias or a dictionary like the Webster dictionary was a big deal for any family. It was important to have such books so that the children could learn and do well in school. But in the modern world this dictionary is now online. Anybody can look it up and find the same information that was contained in the book format. It’s one way the Internet has made our lives easier.

Today the term Webster dictionary is a generic term. It refers to any type of English language dictionary. The Merriam-Webster dictionaries descend from the original work of Noah Webster, a Lexicographer. But many other dictionaries now bear the name. These include dictionaries published by Random House.

Noah Webster was popular originally not for the Webster dictionary but for readers and spelling books used in schools. He published his first dictionary in 1806. This new dictionary featured elements that would become common in dictionaries. One of these was American spellings of words. One of these is center rather than centre. Also the dictionary was not confined to literary words, it also included words from the arts and sciences. Once this first dictionary was published, Noah spent the next 20 years expanding it.

When he was 70 years old Noah Webster published another dictionary. It had two volumes and contained 70,000 entries. This became the precursor of the Webster dictionary. A revised edition was released in 1840. Noah’s son William helped add several thousand new words.

The Webster dictionary we know today came into being upon Webster’s death. George and Charles Merriam purchased all the rights to the books and the name Webster. They hired Noah Webster’s son-in-law to oversee revisions. A new revised edition appeared on September 24, 1847. It was later extended into a new addition in 1859. This version had illustrations.

In 1860 the Miriam company took another step forward in the development of the Webster dictionary. They began creation of a new revised version that was evident by a Yale university professor. It was released in 1864. It had 114,000 entries. It was really the first big overhaul of Noah Webster’s original work. It was the first one to bear the name unabridged.

The Webster dictionary really began to cook in 1909. A new international version was released. It had over 400,000 entries and doubled the number of illustrations. It had a new format that divided the page. Words below the line and their definitions were printed in very small print to save space. These were seldom used words, some obsolete and out of use, that were added for the sake of completion.

It’s interesting to know that like the term Kleenex, Webster dictionary is a generic term. But Noah Webster’s work still exists.

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For people who say it seems Greek to me, a Greek dictionary may come in handy. This could be a dictionary written in Greek, a dictionary of Greek terms, or most commonly a Greek to English translator. We’ll examine some of these.

Before we look at a Greek dictionary, let’s look at the phrase it’s Greek to me. Many people attribute this phrase to Shakespeare. In his play Julius Caesar there is a quote ?but for my own part, it was Greek to me.? It meant that it was impossible to understand. But Shakespeare didn’t come up with this phrase. It was already in common use in Shakespeare’s time. It likely dates back to ancient Rome. There is a Latin phrase that translates to ?it is Greek, and cannot be understood.? It’s likely, however, that Shakespeare made it popular enough that it lasted until the present day.

A Greek dictionary could be important. While people think the languages of antiquity are dead, they are not. Many of our present words have roots in Latin and Greek. So by studying the Greek language a person could learn more about our own language. People who have a good grasp of the language go far in life. This can be as simple as being able to speak well, to a better ability to communicate through the written word.

The study of etymology looks into the origin of words. In our language many of the words have roots in the Greek. These origins can often be found by looking into a Greek dictionary. Many of our prefixes and suffixes come from Greek. For example the term androgynous begins with a Greek root and ends with the Greek root. Andro is Greek meaning men. Gynous is from the Greek meaning not masculine, in other words women. Therefore the word is a combination of man and woman. An androgynous person is someone who displays aspects of both genders. See how much sense it makes when we know the Greek roots?

Google has one of the best translators online. In a sense it’s like the Greek dictionary because any English word, sentence, or even paragraph can be translated into Greek. Likewise Greek phrases can be translated back into English. There are many people who use translators of this nature to communicate with people in other countries. It’s not perfect. But it works well enough.

A Greek dictionary can open a whole new world of language for people. Try one today.

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An Italian dictionary isn’t a dictionary that will contain only terms such as Spaghetti and Italian sausage. In the modern world it can be a dictionary in the Italian language, or a translator from Italian to other languages.

Some websites have an Italian dictionary which includes Italian words and then their English translations. When using these dictionaries keep in mind that the Italian language only has 21 letters in its alphabet it does not have the letter J, K, W, X or Y. So none of those letters can be used to look up words.

Let’s take a look at a few words as shown in an Italian dictionary. Under a there is abate, meaning an abbot. This isn’t one half of a comedy team but rather the head of a monastery. This name is used in many religious traditions including Christianity. The title can also be given to a clergyman who is not necessarily the head of the monastery.

Another word in the Italian dictionary is antarctico. The English equivalent is what you’d expect, Antarctic. This is the Earth’s southernmost continent. It lies over the South Pole. The word comes from the Greek meaning opposite to the north. That’s a good explanation.

In 1959 twelve nations signed the Antarctic Treaty. Now 46 countries and all have signed it. The treaty prohibits military action in the Antarctic. It also prohibits mineral mining. The purpose of the treaty is to support scientific research and to protect the ecology of the area. Currently more than 4000 scientists conduct research there. Such information would be found in an Encyclopedia rather than an Italian dictionary.

The word Mafia isn’t found in the Italian dictionary. But the word malavita is. It means underworld. The Italian Mafia is also known as the Cosa Nostra. It’s a secret society with roots in Sicily. Its development was sometime in the mid-19th century. When Italians immigrated into the United States an offshoot of this organization was formed on the East Coast. The term mafia in America is used to refer to all Italian organized crime, rather than just Sicilian.

Autoritratto is found in the Italian dictionary. It means self portrait. Here the root auto can be seen in its meaning is clear ? own self. Thus an automobile is something that moves on its own.

A look through an Italian dictionary can be quite interesting. That’s because the language contains many of the roots we use for our English words, taken from the Latin or Greek.

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Websters Dictionary was first created by Noah Webster in 1806. Since that time not only has his dictionary expanded, but Webster has become a generic name for many English language dictionaries.

Websters dictionary was the work of Noah Webster who was born October 16, 1758 in Hartford Connecticut. His family had lived there since colonial times. His father who lived from 1722-1813 was a farmer. He was a descendant of Connecticut Governor John Webster. Noah’s mother was a descendant of William Bradford the governor of the Plymouth colony.

When Noah was 16 he began attending Yale College. His college years were during the American Revolutionary war. He served in the Connecticut militia which could have gotten him killed, thus stopping Websters dictionary before it had ever been started.

When he was 20 Webster wanted to earn a law degree. He taught school to earn money for his education. Once he was able to begin practicing law in 1789 he found he did not like it. So he returned to teaching. He set up small schools that didn’t do well.

He married a rather well-connected woman in 1789. As a result he was amongst the elite of the social ladder. But he didn’t have much money. He borrowed $1500 from Alexander Hamilton so that he could move to New York City to start a newspaper. While there he became a publisher. This was the true beginning of his path to Websters dictionary. He published many textbooks while writing newspaper articles at an incredible rate. He served in the Connecticut House of Representatives after moving back there in 1798.

While he was teaching he found conditions rather poor. Schools were often overcrowded, with perhaps 70 children of various ages all in one room. The teachers were not well trained. There weren’t many supplies. Webster decided that American children should learn from American books. So he wrote a three volume set ? a speller, a grammar book, and a reader. His goal was to rescue American English from what he called the pedantry of English grammar and pronunciation. He believed that the people, not archaic languages like a Latin and Greek, should control the language.

It was this work that led him to the eventual creation of the first Websters dictionary. Over time that original work was revised. And when Webster died the Merriam brothers purchased the rights to his name and his work. Eventually these dictionaries became so popular, that the name Webster became a generic term for all English-language dictionaries.

Now you know the history of Websters dictionary.

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