Concise Oxford English: Arabic Dictionary of Current Usage (Arabic Edition) [Hardcover]

N. S. Doniach (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: French & European Pubns (June 1992)
• Language: Arabic
• ISBN-10: 0828884366
• ISBN-13: 978-0828884365
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,310,727 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An essential purchase, but sometimes difficult to use, November 28, 2009

By 

P. Scharfe (Chicago IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Concise Oxford English: Arabic Dictionary of Current Usage (Arabic Edition) (Hardcover)

Learning Arabic is a long and difficult process for a native English speaker, and unfortunately, learners of this unusually difficult language have unusually weak resources at their disposal. Reviewers on this site have referenced other English-Arabic dictionaries such as al-Mawrid, but al-Mawrid is out of print in the US, and the copies I saw in Egypt were not really better than the Oxford English-Arabic dictionary, as far as I can remember.

So, this is the only serious English-Arabic dictionary on the market in the US, even though it is a problematic dictionary. The latest edition is from 1982 (The main Arabic-English dictionary, the Hans Wehr, was last published in the 1980's as well, and it's also difficult in its own ways). The most basic problem is that the dictionary often explains words rather than translating them. This is more useful for native Arabic speakers than native English speakers, and it's a common problem for many Arabic dictionaries.

Take the example of the word "modern" in this dictionary. The normal translation of "modern" is hadiith, but the dictionary gives 'asrii and then muhdath as translations. The former is closer in meaning to "contemporary" and while the latter does mean "modern", it's not nearly as common as hadiith. In a language with as many synonyms as Arabic, we need to be given useful, concise translations, so the word hadiith should be there. The word "modernization" is explained as meaning roughly "following the manner of the age" ("al-akhdh bi-nihj al-'asr"), but this is not a translation - it's an explanation. Google Translate gives modernization as tahdiith, which is much more useful.

That said, this is the most serious dictionary on the market, and it's full of good translations, despite the occasionally ponderous non-translations. I do think you need this book and the Hans Wehr dictionary if you are serious about learning Arabic. I find translations from English useful, so I'm still happy to have this dictionary.