Customer Reviews

Collins Latin Concise Dictionary (Harpercollins Concise Dictionaries)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the best single book Latin reference I have ever seen. The book contains:

Clear, extensive dictionary.

Clear grammar explanations and lots of good examples (which most books frankly lack), of tricky things like "cases".

A section on Latin phrases in use today.

Information on things like the Roman calendar, measures, money and so on.

The only drawback is the smallish format which makes them crunch up some of the information a bit. But its not too bad.

If you are learning Latin this is a good book to take along.

There are approximately 160T entries in this volume. It covers
the supplemental history and culture for a plurality of latin
words and derivations. Sample definitions are as follows:

o stega-deck
o laboro- to do work
o sperata-bride

It is easy to read. Definitions are set forth in standard English. The volume is comprehensive . As such, it is an excellent value for the price charged. The work would be valuable for a plurality of latin scholars, journalists and
a wide constituency of stakeholders in academe.

I found the Collins Latin Dictionary in my local bookstore featuring both Latin to English and English to Latin. The dictionary is a medium sized book that is easy to handle--which is to say, for a dictionary, it is relatively small. The dictionary is a good value for the price. Given its scope and relatively small size, the only caveat is that it lacks references to some specialized theological terms. Overall I'd buy this dictionary again.

I am starting my second year of formal Latin study this fall, and with the Latin textbooks I use, the vocabulary words basically make up the dictionary section in the back of the books. I came across this "dictionary" in a Barnes and Noble, a knew from skimming through this among many others that this is the ONE! As I review my notes from my first year's study over the summer, this book also has grammar references, such as verb tenses and moods, dipthongs and pronuncition of vowels and consonants, popular and lesser known Latin sayings. The book also covers woer order, adjectives, and adverbs. Oh my, the dictionary even has a Roman history timeline, a perfect refernce as a Latin major to reference and review what I learned in Roman Civilization last spring. It has a great, broad selection of words from Latin to English and then a section translating from English to Latin. This book is livin' proof that Latin is not a dead language; to me it is alive and one hella beautiful language and helps me understand my native English, and helps me with Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, languages I have some knowledge in. This dictionary also has Latin names for places formerly part of the Roman Empire, a reference for Latin Writers, and a family tree covering from trivatus, trivatia (great great great great grandfather and mother respectively); all the way to pronepos, preoneptis (great grandson, great granddaughter). Not only can you look up words you don't know, you can review grammar, history and much, much more!!! This one is a certified keeper. Librem carpe statim antequam deficiat! Get this book immediately before it runs out! Gosh, I love this language, and this reference guide.

This is a very good product for Latin Class at school. It helps to translate words. It is very useful when having to write a story totally in Latin for the words not used very often. Very worthwhile purchase.

For $10, this is a fantastic Latin dictionary. It has Latin-English and English-Latin sections, which are loaded in the vocabulary of Golden and Silver Latin, making it very useful for most students, especially considering the number of textbooks that focus on the Latin of those periods. Indeed, that seems to be the target audience, as it has a number of useful appendices on Roman organization, place-names in the ancient world, Roman measures and Roman dating, including some notes on Latin verse. It also has a very useful section on common Latin phrases, which is nice, because many of them do not translate literally very well. Considering that the Oxford Latin Dictionary is $300, this book far outpaces it in value for your money.

Great book if you want to impress people with one liners that can be thrown in here and there.
Great for notice board grafitti on an intellectual level .
They say "chicks dig the car" well they also dig the langauage.

The book is well set out and examples and explanations clear and plentiful. A useful reference for any library.

is in the eating; that of a dictionary in its use. Since my copy of this one arrived only about a week ago, I haven't yet had time to put it fully to the test, but so far...very good. The full declension and conjugation tables and explanations at the end (not to mention the "Quick Reference Grammar" at the beginning) are precisely why I chose this dictionary over the alternatives.

My only complaints, and minor ones at that, are the cover color (what were they thinking?) and the print direction of the grammar section at the end (across the page lengthwise, making it a little difficult to use).


January 20, 2008 addendum:

Nearly a month of usage has only confirmed the rightness of my choice. If you're looking for a good, compact Latin-English/English-Latin dictionary with full grammar tables and other supplementary sections, LOOK NO FURTHER!

I just finished a semester of Latin. A Latin dictionary wasn't required, but I just wanted to learn extra words. This book is great; it tells you just about everything you could want to know. I definitely recommend this dictionary!

The Collins dictionary is not a large text in size or weight but it is in terms of volume and breadth of content. This dictionary was my constant companion as I translated a Medieval sermon and Collins had 70-80% of the technical terms found in the manuscript.

I strongly recommend this dictionary for beginning Latinists and think those more advanced in the language would do well to keep a copy on their selves for reference.