Friday, November 28, 2014

 

The Latin Dictionary of Lewis and Short

F.F. Bruce (1910-1990), In Retrospect: Remembrance of Things Past (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1980), pp. 274-275:
Alexander Souter used to tell us that Lewis and Short contained an average of sixty errors to the page; he had compiled a list of them which began to rival the Dictionary itself in length.
Alexander Souter, Hints on Translation from Latin into English (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1920), p. 9:
How is one to learn the precise value of Latin words and sentences? The process is not so simple as it would appear at first. It is essential to soak oneself in Latin literature: the more one is steeped in it the better. For the knowledge of individual words, it is not enough to consult the first Latin-English dictionary that comes to hand. The dictionary of Lewis and Short (Clarendon Press), which is best known to our advanced students, has been praised by Professor J.P. Postgate for its arrangement of the different meanings of words, but in three respects at least it is defective. The necessity for compression has compelled them to give references where quotations are desirable; the English equivalents are not always the best; and the statements with regard to the extent of the usage of particular words are utterly untrustworthy.



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