Arabic English Dictionary

Rating:
Summary: JG Hava - Fara'id ad-Durriyya
Review: The dictionary of JG Hava is for classical arabic only, so "car" is not in there, and "hatif" is translated as "Unseen man whose voice is heard" instead of "telephone" in MWA. But it is very comprehensive for the study of classical texts, there's lots and lots of words, for instance:
"To walk with a.o. each on the opposite bank of a river"
"To slaughter (a beast) for satisfying the craving (of a pregnant woman)"
"To collect and howl against a.o. (dogs)"

This print is rather strange though. Originally the dictionary used the arabic order (starting with the Alef at the last page, and ending with the Ya at the first page) but for some reason the publisher decided to turn this order around and start with the Alef on the first page. This results in columns which are the other way around, and browsing back in the book to find a word which is later. This is only a slight nuissance in the beginning, and you'll get used to it fairly quickly.

Furthermore, the dictionary looks very condensed and unordered. letters are very very small, the order of the words is not as clear as in the Wehr, and the printing is often just not clear. looking at the other words around it helps in this case.

In any case it is a very good dictionary, but the lay-out definitely needs a revamp.