Customer Reviews

Elsevier's Concise Spanish Etymological Dictionary

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A very good work...but (expensive)!!! I have recently purchased the Spanish edition of this work and agree with all the reviews I've seen thus far. Of particular interest is its breadth of information.

Though I have yet to make a side-by-side comparison of it with Joan Corominas's "Breve diccionario etimológico," Mr. Gomez De Silva's work may be a little more satisfying for the lay person. Unlike Corominas's work, this dictionary offers a brief definition of an entry before going on to its development. I much prefer the Spanish definitions over the English ones I've seen on the sample pages here. The detail paid to prefixes and suffixes is quite good. His inclusion of names only adds to the reasons why someone might pick up this dictionary as an interesting read as well as a valuable reference.

If reading Spanish is not an issue, pick up the Spanish version and save a considerable amount of money over the English one.

This one-volume etymology dictionary of Spanish is an indispensable addition to any linguistic or Spanish-studies library. For its purposes, it serves well: it includes Indo-European roots where applicable, as well as a wealth of Spanish proper names and country/place names. If you can afford it, this is a good buy.