PREFACE
TO REVISED EDITION.
When I was asked to undertake the preparation of this French Dictionary, I had no idea of the formidable nature of the task that lay before me. It was obvious, of course, that a very great deal would have to be done to bring up to date a dictionary of a living language that is ever growing, and in which new words and new meanings of words are being coined almost daily. But I found, in the course of the four and a half years during which I have been engaged upon the work, that it assumed proportions altogether undreamt of, and that I was virtually producing a new work.
Perhaps I may be permitted to direct attention to some of the features which distinguish the new edition.
Many thousands of new words and phrases, idioms and idiomatic expressions, proverbs and proverbial expressions, have been included. In a great many instances chapter and verse have been given. Two hundred columns of print have been added to the book.
For the words in the French-English part, I have closely followed the smaller Littré as well as Bescherelle, and have taken special care to give, as far as the compass of the Dictionary would allow, illustrative examples of the many and various meanings conveyed by the words under review. These various meanings have also been classified, as far as possible, under their respective heads. In the English-French portion I have, as far as the selection of words is concerned, closely followed the lines of Cassell’s English Dictionary. The latest classical, general, scientific, commercial, naval, and military terms are incorporated. In this part, too, the “notation” of the words has been carefully marked throughout and the pronunciation revised.
Among other features of the work which may justly, I think, be accounted improvements, I may mention the following, viz.: the different prepositions governing verbs have been printed in heavier type—thus simplifying one of the greatest difficulties of the language; the pronunciation of the words, where necessary, has been carefully indicated; and the list of geographical names of countries and places has been largely added to.
The work has occupied me, as I have said, for more than four years; but the process of revision has been to me most interesting, and while the labour expended has been far greater than anything I could have anticipated, I trust that the result will give satisfaction to an even larger circle of readers than was obtained by previous editions.
J. B.