Dictionary Reviews

I would recommend this book to anybody who desires a reference book covering Catholic subjects. It is a superb companion to the Catholic Study Bible and/or the Catholic Catechism. The book clearly and thoroughly defines pertinent terms and concepts.

This encyclopedia is a wonderful source for reference material and provides itself as a valuable study aid aswell. For Catholics and non-Catholics alike the contents of this encyclopedia help to solve many questions about the faith. Everything in this encyclopedia is relevant to the Catechism and the Holy Scriptures. With this book you will be asking less questions and finding many answers.

This is the third most must-have book (Behind the Bible and the Catechism of the Catholic Church)for any Catholic or person curious about Catholicism in general. It has the Imprimatur and the Nihl Obstat, the official "go-ahead" of the Catholic Church for books; in other words, nothing in this book misrepresents any of the official teachings or goes against matters of faith and morals. This book is a wonderful resource of knowledge that augments the Catechism in a way that is easy to understand. The Catechism lays down the blueprint of what Catholics believe, this book helps flesh it out. It explains in more detail things put forth by the Catechism. I use it all the time in my research and it has proven to be invaluable.

Love this book. This book has words I never even heard before.It is the type of book that every culinary student and professional should have with them at all times. Another book I found very helpful were the Study Guide for the National Servsafe Exam and the Study Guide for Baking and Advanced Baking. These books have very good questions with answers and even explanations. All these books can be found under Patrick Leonardi. A very smart and talented author.

Or what about how to pronounce the wine "Gewürztraminer"? Or my personal favorite "Crème Fraiche" pronounced (krem fresh)

What is the definition for Jicama or Wasabi? and where did they come from?

What is the difference between "Crayfish" and a "Langoustine" and are they indigenous to Louisiana...

WELL WONDER NO MORE!!... this book is the secret behind all of those fancy menus you read in Restaurants and Banquet menus (I should know I have had to create new Catering Menus every year since 1993)LOL

I have been in the Hospitality Industry for over 17 years this book has been in my collection since I started. If you can purchase it get it!! Definitely a must for any Caterers or students of the Culinary Art.

This book contains definitions of almost EVERYTHING Food (and some wines), the correct pronunciation, spelling and it's original origin. I can't recommend this book enough!! It is quite pricey but I have bought it at least 5 times in my career as gifts for my assistants moving on to greater positions in this Industry. They have terms (and again pronunciations) for all Culture cuisines ie; German, Cambodian, Japanese, French, Italian, Middle Eastern and Spanish just to name a few.

I also recommend the Oxford Companion for Food and Wine as well as any "Professional Chef" book from Culinary Institute of America

Respectfully Reviewed

Excellent, Every Chef should have a copy of this book on their desk. The perfect dictionary for any Culinary Arts student.

This is one bright spot in the morass of terrible bilingual Portuguese dictionaries. Although it is tiny, it contains many words one would not expect to find in a pocket dictionary. Unless you have an old Taylor's Portuguese English dictionary (rev 1975), you will have a hard time topping this little gem.

I was lucky enough to find this dictionary at a small news stand in Porto Seguro, Brazil. It changed the nature of my visit. Small but thorough is the way I would sum it up. I left my copy with my guests and bought another as soon as I returned home. Highly recommended for the traveler.

This little book fits in the palm of your hand, and has a convenient, water-proof binding. It is very easy to use, with bold print for the words you're trying to find, and regular print for the definitions. It translates from Portuguese to English in one half of the book, and from English to Portuguese in the other half -- a useful feature in case someone needs to communicate something to you.

This book contains a lot of interesting dialgoues together with grammar notes, exercises and a glossary. After completing this course you will have the vocabulary needed as a tourist in Italy and you will also have learnt a lot of grammar. With this book you make progress very fast since the author makes a great effort to explain how the language works.

I took Colloquial Italian with me to Italy last year, where I was to stay for one year as an exchange student. This language course was fundamental in teaching me the basics ( not just touristy questions like a lot of other courses!).
It was so good that I lent it out to other students who were dispairing over the language, and all had similar success with it.
Un ottimo introduzione alla lingua italiana, per chi voule imparare facilmente.

I spent hours looking through the numerous language titles. This one impressed me in it's style. By the time I got through the first chapter, I was over the moon!

If you are considering getting the book only, DON'T!

I have bought many Italian resources (books, software) and if I could only have one, this would be it.

The price is impressive as well.

If u really love astronomy, astrophyscis, it is a must have!! All of the words from astro, u can find them all in this book with a detail description but in easy english. It is a book that can make u become a astro-expert and also a best reminder for ur knowledge. Really great!!

THis is an excellent dictionary - if you wan to put things like that - of Astrophysics and Physics as well. I found this book really helpful and quite interesting because it give us a good historical account as well a good introduction/revision to some fine subjects related to these areas.

I have recently purchased this book and was dissapointed at first due to it being more of a hypertext based reference, how mistaken I was, the explanations of the terminology are well written and very informative even to a lay man like me. I now have an incredible interest in other related topics thanks to this book and now intend to persue those with vigour. A great book for anybody, you do not need to be a science boffin to comprehend this masterpiece.

I'd have given this book five stars if it had been written for American audiences. Its full of english words and phrases, but a lot of them originated in Britain after the revolution, so did not make it across the Atlantic.

Even so, this is an excellent reference, explaining the origins of words and phrases we are so accustomed to hearing that we rarely stop to wonder why they are used. I got a copy for myself, and then another as a gift for a trivia-loving sister-in-law.

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable is, without question, a wonderful reference book. All reviews agree that it's unique in scope and content. Read the other reviews for details. I can't really add anything there.

But interestingly, no one focuses on what a great read this book is. I love it because I can just pick it up, open the book to any page at random, and instantly lose myself in the contents of the pages. It's delightful in that you never know what you'll learn (but you always learn something interesting), and you can read as much or as little as you wish, depending on your time or interest. Later on, you can pick up where you left off, or just flip the pages to some other random place in the book

We jokingly refer to it as the world's best "bathroom book."

So, by all means use it as a reference, but don't stop there - read it!

This book is simply one of the best dictionaries of its kind ever to have been published, and, I might add, Brewer's work has already become a classic. It contains a wealth of entries from divers areas, including mythology, history, classics, language, as well as common sayings, phrases and legends. Useful as a reference though it is, this dictionary is eminently suited to a casual browse, which one will invariably find interesting, entertaining and edifying, containing many obscure tidbits of trivia that catches one's eyes. This edition, unfortunately, omits a few entries that were present in previous editions, and this is a sad loss, but, all in all, the book is worth every penny, and is a valuable reference on anyone's bookshelf, especially to those with literary pretensions.

I found this guide to be invaluable as a professor to give me ideas on how to teach challenging topics from different angles. I can give no advice on whether this book would be of any use to a student.

This a handy quick reference Spanish grammar book alphabetically arranged that tackles queries that don't require much explanation. This book cannot be used to learn Spanish however, I would say it serves as a reference for advanced students and teachers. It does not cover all grammar topics and definitely not any complex structures but can definitely act as a handy resource if you are looking to clarify a doubt or if you are in the middle of writing a composition or an essay in Spanish thus not having to consult a text book and search through several chapters and grammar points to hopefully address the one or few queries that you have. As an educator of the Spanish language, I did find it handy because whenever I had a query that can be researched in Búscalo I was able to find what I was looking for within seconds. Some examples of the grammar concepts that the book covers are: verb conjugations, moods- indicative, imperative, subjunctive and their usage, prepositions- por, para, a, de , en etc. , the usage of "hay", "hubo", numbers, pronouns of all kinds (subject, prepositional, reflexive), verbs-reflexive vs. non-reflexive, the usage of "gustar" and like verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs. The purpose of the book is to clarify key grammar concepts and the most problematic ones without going into depth on the subject matter. If you are an advanced student, be it high-school or university level, a native speaker or an educator of Spanish, "Búscalo" will prove beneficial to you for quick, hands on clarifications. This is a reliable and worthy reference material for those who want to maintain grammatically correct usage when speaking or writing in the Spanish language.

Last year I attended a language school in Mexico for six months. And this book, which I had stumbled onto in a Texas bookstore and brought with me, was a life-saver, better than anything the school provided. It's an excellent reference in an easy-to-use alphabetical format. It is cross-referenced in español and inglés (that's English to you, gringo!). It gives tips on precision, pronunciation and sentence structure. If you are confused, this stupendous little softback will steer you in the right direction. If you have but a single book to back up your class struggles with español, this is it, mis amigos. Trust me on this. If you find yourself scratching your head in befuddlement, simply look at the appropriate alphabetical entry. And before you know it, you will look like Antonio Banderas or Catherine Zeta-Jones. Remember that Zorro movie? Good-looking couple. Maybe your sword play will sharpen, too. I hope so, for your sake.

Excellent book for us estudiantes de español! Puede darnos mucha ayuda.

Now, take a nanosecond and give me a positive vote, please. I've tried to help you out. ¡Gracias! Good karma on you.

If you, like me, live in a non english speaking country and love and teach the english language for a living, you definitely should have a copy of this book alongside a good regular dictionary. And even if english is your mother tongue you should get this book too. Of course all those swearing words are there but there is a lot more than that, there are plenty of cultural references in here that will help you to understand the origins of many terms so used on our daily lives and to discover how language adapts with time and space.

Very comprehensive, and as a amatuer linguist, this is one of my favorite word books (I have dozens). You will find entries here that you won't even find in the 20-volume Oxford-English Dictionary. Unquestionably the best book on slang out there. Some of the definitions tend to be short, but obviously this had to be done to allow for more entries. Some of the words though is does go into some depth and history, for instance the word 'sockdolager', it mentions it was one of last words Abe Lincoln heard, which used as adjective form as 'sockdolagizing' spoken by character Asa Trenchard in Tom Taylor play "Our American Cousin". This book is a great buy for book lovers, but as one reviewer stated, avoid giving to young kids due to some of the explicit nature of many of the words.

Reaching back into English for some centuries and reaching through English as it's written & spoken today in many nations, this dictionary offers what seems a unique guide to the use of words and more particularly, phrases, that I can't find defined in any other work. Indispensable for those who really want to understand exactly what they're reading.

While I respect the Californian reader's suggestion that potential buyers also consider two other slang dictionaries, I point out that Green's work goes far beyond only American usages. There's plenty here about English, New Zealand, Canadian, Australian, and other variants of English.

Nice touch: the editor's introduction comes complete with an e-mail address. Any reader who finds a usage that Jonathon Green doesn't know about, is free to send it in for future editions. But I personally find few usages that Jonathon Green doesn't know about.

Excellent work but, because of attention paid to "rude words", probably not a good gift for children.

I just returned after 6 weeks in China. This book is excellent in terms of the useful words and phrases that it lists for virtually every situation you might encounter. It also has a nice little dictionary section at the back (both English-Chinese as well as Chinese-English) that comes in handy. HOWEVER, it badly needs an update in terms of the descriptions and "tips" that it provides regarding things like travel, currency, food, taxis, shopping etc. If you're buying this book - and I certainly recommend it as a handy phrase book - I strongly suggest that you ignore all the tips and advice it provides you. You're better off getting something else that is more up-to-date for this.

I've done international business with China for 20 years, speak some Mandarin, and I carry this book in my passport/airline ticket folder. My general Chinese is pretty good, but this book is invaluable. The tips and hints are also extremely insightful, and I heartily recommend it to anyone traveling to China or Taiwan for the first or the hundredth time.

This book was an incredible resource for me as I toured through China this summer, studying the language and culture. I kept it in my pocket everywhere I went until it finally wore down and broke apart. But have no fear, I taped it back up and let it work some more Chinese magic. The book is organized into sections such as "Meeting People" and "Shopping" and "At the Doctor" that will help you with more than enough information, from vocabulary to suggested travel iteraries to understanding of the indigenous culture. I just lost my copy in the New York Subway so I'm gonna get another. «Ü¦nªº®Ñ!

In struggling with some way to get a handle on how to learn Chinese characters in my first Mandarin course, I found Dr. Defrancis' wonderful text, The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy.

He had me hoodwinked and hornswoggled through the early part of the first chapter with only an inkling that something was not quite right. Great device for introducing a complex subject. I'm just now finishing the book and plan to re-read that first chapter now that I'm wearing a new set of evaluation tools.

Is the language at all phonetic? Somewhat phonetic...not at all phonetic? Was it sometime? Will some alphabetic system replace characters? What schemes have been tried in the recent past?

These are some of the questions that Dr. Defrancis tackles and worries over like a barnyard dog. Once he gets hold of an issue, he doesn't let go until he's examined every single aspect.

This is a really rewarding text if you're interested in the Chinese language. (Oh yes, what exactly is meant by 'language' anyway?...read the book for a great discussion.)

Any serious scholar or student of the Chinese language absolutely needs to read this book. He goes about "myth busting" and it is indeed necessary. Most people, including many native speakers, have a rather stereo typical understanding of the Chinese language.
John Defrancis go through a well laid out series of arguments with elucidating examples to drive the points home. Even native speakers will learn from this book as he is one of the world's most renown scholars and authorities on the Chinese language. There are a lot of common misconceptions about the Chinese language and Defrancis provides a well written and illuminating uncovering of those misconceptions. If you want to sound like an authority about Chinese get this treasure.

John DeFrancis' book The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy is the best book I have read on the Chinese language. It explains in great detail what the Chinese language and its ancient writing system is all about. It is also great fun to read.

Based on his profound understanding of the language and its teaching methods, Mr. DeFrancis, in this book, contradicts all misconceptions, myths and fantasies that people may have about the subject. And there are lots of them.

He begins the book by telling a long-winded joke about a Language Committee that was founded by the Japanese during World War II. Its task was to prepare for changing the writing systems of all major world languages into using the Chinese language writing method in case the Japanese emerge victorious and become the rulers of the world. This way, by comparing the two writing systems Mr. DeFrancis makes it abundantly clear that most ideas people have about the Chinese language and its writing system lay on a very shaky foundation. I'll try to mention some points here although it has been a while since I read the book.

For a Western person, it is very difficult to say anything even remotely meaningful about the Chinese language before he has spent a good number of years studying it. We are told, for example, that there is such a thing as the Chinese language, and that it is universally spoken and understood, written and read by all Chinese-speaking people. This is one of the misconceptions Mr. DeFrancis attacks: most of the so-called dialects of the Chinese language are in fact completely different languages with mutual differences as great as those between English and German, or French and Spanish.

Mandarin Chinese has four tones, whereas Cantonese and Shanghaihua have six and nine, respectively. All of these languages use different words for the needs of the basic daily life and, when they do use the same word for a specific purpose, it is pronounced differently. In Pinyin, it is difficult to see whether we are talking about the same word or not, but still, in the Chinese character writing, the same character will be used. This makes it look, for a Western person, like Chinese was a single language that is used universally by all Chinese-speaking people.

Why is it, then, that Mandarin Chinese writing is understood by all Chinese-speaking people all over the world? It isn't, quite simply. Mr. DeFrancis goes on to show how much more difficult it is for a school child in China to learn to read and write as well as most school children using Indo-European languages. He illustrates his point by going through Chinese literacy statistics and expresses his doubts on whether these statistics are true or false.

Another explanation for the "easiness of universal understanding of the Chinese character writing" is the use of ideographs. Allegedly, each character describes its object so vividly that it is possible to understand what a Chinese character means - just by looking at it. Mr. DeFrancis takes it upon himself to do this point quite thoroughly.

The "one character - one word" -fallacy is also given a good going-over by Mr. DeFrancis. He shows, beyond reasonable doubt, that the Chinese language is in fact constituted of syllables, and that these syllables are written using characters. There are dozens of quite different characters that are pronounced identically. The characters representing each syllable of a word may be selected quite arbitrarily.

This is one of the works on the subject of the Chinese language that will really take you beyond myths and fantasies into the real world of facts. Read it and see for yourself.