The Browser's dictionary of foreign words and phrases

280 Pages·2001·1.056 MB·English

by  Mary Varchaver, Frank Ledlie Moore

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T
he Browser’s Dictionary
of Foreign Words
and Phrases
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T
he Browser’s Dictionary
of Foreign Words
and Phrases
Mary Varchaver and
Frank Ledlie Moore
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
New York • Chichester • Weinheim • Brisbane • Singapore • Toronto
Copyright © 2001 by Mary Varchaver and Frank Ledlie Moore. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or trans-
mitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United
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[phone], fax [phone], e-mail: [email protected].
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard
to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not
engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assis-
tance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.
This title is also available in print as ISBN 0-471-38372-4. Some content that appears in
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F
oreword
At last we are given a bright and sprightly dictionary that is not
only useful but a joy to read. Veteran reference book compilers
and editors Mary Varchaver and Frank L. Moore, who are known
especially for their recently published Dictionary of the Performing
Arts, have turned their talents to enlightening us on the meanings
of foreign words and phrases we meet in our daily lives. This is
not a dictionary of academic terms you might have been expected
to learn in school. Nor is it a dictionary directed to travelers in
foreign lands from which you are supposed to learn scores of
terms about ordering your dinner in restaurants, or learning to
get about in a train station, or arguing with concierges about the
state of your hotel room or the high amount of your bill. It is,
rather, a dictionary to help you elucidate what you come across
every day in newspapers or hear on television. Its choice of terms
and directness of style reflect the immediacy of everyday dis-
course. Thus it is a unique and exceptionally useful addition to
the genre of special dictionaries.
What are its other features? First, it guides you to the correct
pronunciation of foreign words, using transcriptions from ordinary
English. Most other dictionaries of foreign words and expressions
use elaborate phonetic symbols unfathomable to most persons,
or, even worse, have no pronunciation guides at all.
Second, the definitions are a model of clarity, and the mean-
ings are illustrated by hundreds of sentences. Consider these entries,
given in their entirety:
afflatus (ah-FLAH-tus) [Latin: a breathing on] An inspiration; an
irresistible understanding that comes into the mind as a fresh
breeze. (cid:1)He goes at the canvas with all the afflatusof a silkworm
eating its phlegmatic way across a mulberry leaf.(cid:2)—Time, April
13, 1998.
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vi Foreword
smorgasbord (SMOR-ges-bord) [Swedish: sandwich table] A buf-
fet table that presents a great variety of hot and cold dishes. By
extension, any situation that offers many choices. (cid:1)Here, in the
sunny Southern Caliphate, they make up a smorgasbord of least-
favored nations.(cid:2)—The New York Times Book Review, July 18,
1993.
Third, the entries focus on those words that an American
reader will recognize as truly foreign. Thousands of words in
American English have foreign sources, such as dollar or ketchup,
but their meanings have become so thoroughly absorbed into our
everyday language that they are no longer classified as foreign. In
this Browser’s Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases, the authors
have stressed foreignness by choosing words that are relatively
recent additions to the language. They have also included some
older adopted words that have different or expanded meanings in
current usage.
I learned early on in my career as an editor and writer of ref-
erence books that a really useful dictionary is one that contains
the information you need, in a form you can easily use. This dic-
tionary is, in short, a book you will want to keep at hand year in
and year out. You will not be disappointed if you approach it with
that expectation in mind.
Gorton Carruth, former editor in chief
of Funk & Wagnalls, coeditor of the
Oxford American Dictionary, and
editor of The New York Times
Crossword Puzzle Dictionary
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A
cknowledgments
Grateful acknowledgment is made to our agents and friends
Nicholas Smith and Andrea Pedolsky, who provided the impetus
for this project, and to the fine editors at Wiley & Sons: Chip Ros-
setti, Mark Steven Long, and Jim Gullickson. Special thanks also
to Gorton Carruth, Yola Coffeen, André Varchaver, and Nicholas
Varchaver for their help and encouragement. Without the invalu-
able assistance of Gabi Moore, this dictionary would not have
seen the light of day.
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Dedicated to the memory of Frank Ledlie Moore.