Customer Reviews

Dictionary of Proverbs, Sayings, Maxims & Adages: Spanish/English and English/Spanish (Spanish and English Edition)

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I found this dictionary to be the first of its kind. A truly bilingual work which is "the" aid for translators and interpreters of the English and Spanish language who are interested in sayings and proverbs and the wisdom behind each of them adapted to the Anglosaxon or Hispanic cultures.

This dictionary stands out because the translations are not literal, but adapted from the culture of each of the two languages: English and Spanish. Eg.: "Tomar el rabano por las hojas - To put the cart before the horse".

This book goes beyond merely listing linguistic equivalents of sayings and proverbs. It offers interpretations and insights into the nature and origin of the proverbs that reach across a language spectrum that includes Latin and French. This is excellent for the student of the languages, but translators should not expect a comprehensive collection of sayings and idioms since there are only about 2500 sayings listed here.

I did not find this book useful. When I bought this book, I had the idea that I would have a particular proverb in Spanish and I would find the equivalent of that proverb in English. However, there's no easy way to search or find any particular proverb--in English or Spanish. Perhaps, this book would be much more useful if it was on line where a search for a word (in English and/or its equivalent in Spanish) would bring up every instance of that word found in the book. The book as it stands it is useless for finding equivalents but it can be entertaining.