GENERAL FRENCH AND ENGLISH DICTIONARY

containing a considérable number of words not to be found in other dictionaries, and giving : 1. tlie words generally used in the two lanpuages, comprising thnse of the présent lime; — 2. the compounds of usual ternis not translated literally ; — 3. the lenns of the arts, sciences, and manufactures in gênerai use; — 4. the acceptations of the wordsintheir rational onier scparated bynumbers; — 5. tlie most familiaridioms; — 6. the irregularities of the pronunciation, etc.; followed by abridged vocabularies of mythological and geographical names, and those of persons which differ in the two languages,

By Dr SPIEES,

Profesior of English at ihe Impérial Collège of Bonaparte (Pari*),

Tlie Impérial Schoul ofCivil Engineers, etc.,

And Aulhor of the " Alanual of Commercial Terms in English and French," etc.

One Volume, containing 947 pages, I2mo. treble columns. Piice 7s. Gd. cloth lettered. SIXTH EDITION.

The extraordinary insuflBciency of French and English dictionaries, is a fact universally admitted and deplored ; to this circumstance doubtless Dr. Spiers's General French and English Dictionary (i. e. the larger work) is indebted for its almost unparalleled success in Great Britain, America, and the whole continent of Europe. In France the University lias adopt«d it for the use of ail French collèges ; the public offices of each minis^ry hâve placed copies of it in their libraries ; in England it is employed at Cambridge and at Oxford, and the most important public schools ; and in the United States of America, two reprints of it bave been published.

But its size and price render it unavailable for the classes of public schools. The upper classes of thèse will doubtless prefer the complète work ; but for the junior classes, a school dictionary, carefully and conscientiously prepared, a work worthy of that appellation, is still a desideratum.

Tbere cannot exist a good small dictionary until there is an adéquate larger work. Dr. Spiers's General Dictionary has been pronounced to be " a repertory worthy of the two languages and of the two countries."

Dr. Spiers considered his task but half performed until he coùld minister to the wants of the great mass of learners, by putting into their hands a school dictionary, prepared upon the same plan, oiTering, on a smaller scaie, the principal advantages of the larger one, in short, a really nseful, eligible book.

French axd English Dictionaries. — Dr. Spiers asserts that in the greater part of French and Enghsh dictionaries, the English seems as if it had been written by a Frenchman, and the French by an Englishman ; that the French is antiquated and barbarous, and the English generally foreign, and not

Tinfrequently unintelligible, to sucli a deçree that they might be aptly denominatetl, not French and English, but Gallic and Saxon dictionaries, totally inadéquate to the requirements of modem England or France, unworthy of the nineteentb century and of the two countries.

The smaller dictionaries are necessarily abstracts or epitomes of the larger ones, and the latter are transcripts, mère reprints of Boyer, a work published in 1699, the French and English of which are ItiO years old, and from which the greater part of the words since formed are necessarily excluded. Every Word connected with railway travelling, or steam-navigation, or gas-lighting', is in conséquence inevitably banished.

The définitions of things supposed to be unknown to foreigners are so literally transcribed that the Louvre is still, in most dictionaries, t/ie palace of the kiny of France in Paris, which it has ceased to be at least a century and a quarler. At the words trowsers, waistcoat, whisker, when they are to be found, the student may meet with various words more or less French ; but among thèse he must not hope to find the only French équivalents, pantalon, gilet, favori. "When terms so familiar as thèse are waating, what can be expected as to literary or scientific words, especially the latter, an immense number of which are of our own century ? As Boyer was published before Johnson, the admirable order of the latter is not observed ; so that to the other difSculties must be added that of inextricable confusion; the acceptations of words the most distant from each other being huddled together without a figure or a mark of any kind to show that they are not synonymes of the same sensé. Let a French student look for the word bière, and he will find hier, coffin, béer, How is he to distinguish between things so différent ?

There is almost a total absence of the language of literature, and of those innumerable idiomatic forms of speech peculiar to each language, and essential in a dictionary. Mistranslations and barbarisms abound in them ; mistranslations, because when words resemble each other in the two languages, the resemblance is held to be sufficient ; barbarisms, because words are fabricated when they are unknown.

The French and EngUsh school dictionaries composed or rather abridged from thèse, are justly chargeable with, 1. the omission of the most ordinary words and sensés in gênerai use ; 2. the insertion of idle définitions to the exclusion of the équivalent or proper terms ; 3. the words, sensés, définitions, examples, idioms, and proverbs being huddled into one rude, confused mass ; 4. the insertion of numberless mistranslations, barbarisra?, and indecencies ; 5. the English being foreign, or bad, often ridiculous ; 6. the French being antiquated, even to the orthography ; 7- the very misprints having been perpetuated.

Examples of ordikary words omitted. — Autobiographie, autobiocraphy ; autoprufhie, auto.'raphy ; au/omc^eî/r, self-acting; éaréme, ready reckoner ; beurrerie, buttcr-Qa:ry; cachemire, ceLShmerc; oosîmir, kerseymere ; chemisier, shiit-makei; ménestrel, minstrel; viaduc, viaduct, etc.

At words beginning with in there are seventy words wanting, among which are inachevé, unfinished ; inconvenance, impropriety; indélicat, indélicate ; inédit, unpublished ; internai, boarding-school ; international, international, etc.

Examples of compoijîjds omitted. — In compounds the omissions are indeed great. Cr;c/(f-ner, comforter ; sous-pied, strap. At ^arrfe there are !0 omissions, such as (/arde-crps, hand-rail ; garde-crotte, splasli-hoard; garde-malade, nurse; garde-vue, shade. At porte there are 30 words -wanting, which are found in Dr. Spiert's School Dictionary.

In the English-French part innumerable compounds bave been introduced, none or scarcely any of which can be translated literally ; and of thèse

few are in other French and English dictionaries. Witli regard to Levizac the following is an accurate comparison. Lamp and pine hâve ô compounds new out of G, and of pine the 6th, pine-apple, is worse than absent, for it is translated by pomme de pin (fir-cone); hilliard and cherry, hâve 6 out of 8 ; bill, marble, pen, saddle and wash hâve 6 compounds out of ^ ; coach has 7outof 11 ; sand has 7 of 10; cheese,flonr, fli/,vine hâve 8 more out of 10, and brass has 8 of 9 ; boat has 9 out of 11, and er/g 9 of 10; iron has 10 new compounds out of 19 ; bell aiid chimney hâve 10 out of 14, and botlle and death 10 of 13; leiter and steam 10 of 11 ; soap 11 of 15; mill 12 of 15 ; walch 14 of 19 ; smi 15 of 23 ; tea IG out of 22 ; ffold 10 of 21, and wine 16 of 17; snyar has 20 out of 26; and of 32 compounds of coal 22 are new in the présent dictionary. Of the following list the others hâve none at ail : zinc 2 ; glove 3 ; cane, cider, madder, mail, and poison 4 ; pùj and wagon 5 ; fan,finger, lead, vinegar, well hâve each 6 ; cabboge and music 7 ; ffos 9, and engine 11 ; or otherwise 437 compounds out of 443 are new in this dictionary.

Ordin'akv sessfs omitted. — Aclion, sUare; actionnaire, share-holder ; cirage, blacking; con^pr^;^d;-e, to undr-rstand; dcmoisell-', yoiuig lady ; girl ; favori, whU^et; Jonte, cast iron ; pantalon, trowsers ; soirée, pany ; souci, care; etc.

French impure and antiquaied. — German is rendered by Germain. Germain signifies the old Germans described by Tacitus ; the présent Germans are called Allemands, which term alone is omitted. Steam-engine is given as pempe à feu instead of machine à vapeur {jiompe à feu is the o\àfire-engine). The familiar word trowsers (given under the head of irouse) is translated into French by Boyer down to Levizac by chausses, trousses, culottes de matelot. in Nugent it is reduced to the iast only. Chausses and trousses are two old terms utterly unintelligible at présent. The word not to be found in auy is the sole équivalent, the proper tertn, pantalon.

Orthoyraphy old. — But the very orthography is antiquated ; the adjectives and verbs are spelled ois instead of ais, the orthography adopted by the French Academy, and by ail France.

Perpétuation of the misprints. — Even the misprints in the earliest edfc tions of Levizac's Dictionary are to be found in the latest. At the word Duxci, horse dung is translated ^«j/e de pigeox, and dote dung (probably intended for pigeons^ dung) Jiente de cheval. But even this gross blunder has remained.

The PRESENT DICTIONARY. — The dictionary now offered to the public is, as it professes to be, an abridgment of Dr. Spiers's General Dictionary, abridged entirely by himself. It is intended to supply the leamer witli aa extensive, accurate, methodical and satisfactory vocabularj, in short, an eligible school dictionai-y , which did not previously exist.

Dr. Spiers has preserved the principal advantages of hia larger work, i. e. 1. the insertion of ail properly authorized words of tlie gênerai language ; 2. the insertion of the principal compound words not translated Ijterally ; 3. the introduction of terms of the arts and sciences in familiar use ; 4. the arrangement in logical order of the acceptations of words separated by figures ; 5. the insertion of désignations which distinguish particular sensés, such as those peculiar to arts and sciences ; G. the showibg of the principal distinctions to be observed in translation, i. e. whether the sensés are to be applied to persons or things, in a good or a bad sensé ; 7the insertion of the most familiar idioms ; 8. the insertion of the irregularities of pronunciation ; 9. the classification of the interior of each article in order to facilitate research ; 10. the typographical arrangement by which the acceptations are separated from the rest, and the définitions distinguished from the proper terms.

General order and typographical arrangement. — Order and method hâve hère taken the place of chaotic confusion. Acceptations, définitions idioms are net as usual jumbled indiscriminately together ; ail the sensés follow each other witliout interruption in order to présent at a glance ail the significations of the word; each new acceptation is marked bv a numberthe sensés of the words are separated from the idioms ; and the latter arc classified in order to facilitate research.

Acceptations. — The acceptations of words hâve been presented in their logical order, by which the student understands them, and conscquently retains them better, as the varions sensés présent but a séries of modifications of the same idea logically dedured, followîng each other and connected like the links of a chain. Technical terms hâve désignations, and thèse are arranged in alphabetical order.

Kinds of ihings and idioms. — Thèse, after the words themselves, form the most essential part of a dictionary of two languages. Dr. Spiers has presented the most familiar in séries, whicli are in alphabetical order.

Pronunciation. — The pronunciation has been given of the words that are irregular, or that présent any difficulty.

The public is invited to compare this volume with other school dietionaries; the following words are recommended for that purpose.

For familiar terms : chant, comprendre, conducteur, conduire, conduite, course, crime, décoration, demoiselle, deuil, dormir, être, femme, pluie, quatre-vingt, sœur, vouloir. For nouns, several kinds of which are gtven: allumette, beurre, chasse, chemise, papier, plume, toile, etc. For idiomatic forms : besoin, chose, feu, importer, mieux, monnaie, terre. For the arts, sciences, and manufactures: coton, cuivre, fer, gaz, houille, huile, imper^ méable, soie, vapeur. For grammatical forms: quoi, se, voici, voilà. Few pages, nay, columns, will not appear to advantage by comparison.

<3onduc-teur, trice, n. m. f. 1. leader; 2. conductor ; 3.

chief; 4. manager ; ô.superiniendent : 6. guide; 7. (of cattle, carts, coaches)d/iier ; 8. (of chariots) charioteer; 9. (of omnibuses) conductor; 10. (of railwaytrains If/Kard; 11. (ofstagecoaches) r/uord; 12. (engin.) assistiiiit engineer ; 13.

(phys.) conductor.

Conduc-teur, trice, adj. 1.

leading; 2. (phys.) conductitig.

Non — . (phys.) non conducting. Tige conductrice, (tech.) conductor.

Coniiuire, v. a. 1 . to lead ; 2.

to conduct; 3. to show ttie uaij to; lo show; to tiike: 4.

toallend ; 5. /o drite (cattle, carriages, carts); fi./o convey; to carri/; 7. lo guide; to direct; 8. to vianage; to direct; 9. to superinlend; 10. terule, togovern; W.to