Oxford Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases (Oxford Quick Reference)

Excellent

This book "The Oxford Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases" is a compendium of the words and small expressions that are foreign in origin but are used in all kinds of writings, essays, histories, studies, and literature. It does not cover foriegn 'Idioms'-these are expressions used in other countries, but is an invaluable resource for terms that are incorporated into the English language and are inseperable from our grammatical, scientific, literary, and historical and sociologic vocabulary. Some examples include: adj. & adv. phrases such as 'a priori', nouns integrated into different sectors such as 'douceur' pron./dusoer/, nouns associated with clothing and cuisine such as Italian 'osso bucco' pron./ aw'so bu:ko/, and generally words attached to literary and intellectual lingos seen in society. There are a handfull of these kinds of guides, but 'The Oxford Dictionary' is a reliable source.

While not as comprehensive as I would have hoped, this dictionary of the more commonly used foreign words and phrases in English writing and conversation today is helpful on many counts. With the Oxford Press imprimatur, one can be certain the scholarship is sound and authoritative and the book is well organized, of a handy size and easy to use. Unlike many paperback references, it is printed on good paper, the type is crisp and clear and of a good size (no squinting required!). Physically the book is reader friendly and "built" to hold up under frequent/frantic flipping and searching(i.e., under the pressure of "deadline rush"). Overall, a worthy purchase and a nice addition to any hardworking wordsmith's reference shelf.

Essential for reading classics like Sir Walter Scott , or Alexandre Dumas, this book never leaves my desk where I read daily. The type is clear and the paper is first rate. I appreciate the larger size too. This is the book to buy for complete understanding of foreign words and phrases in literature. I love it, thank you.

Bought this book to aid me in reading “Lolita”. Didn’t find too many of the French words I was looking for.

These phrase translators are great!

This is a helpful book & probably the best of the lot. My 3 star rating is because I felt there were far, far too many references to dance, opera, & classical music. I would assume that aficionados in these would already know these terms. And some definitions were incomplete. For example, panga, in Mexico, is a small open boat with an outboard motor and paseo also means a pass or a road. But my biggest gripe is the pronunciation guide, which is a series of symbols that may be meaningful for a linguist, but just requires a constant, pain-in-the-butt referral to the front of the book to find out what they mean. Can't the "sh" sound just be "sh" instead of some funny icon. Other dictionaries have few of these strange icons.

I speak and write only English, but sometimes find foreign words and phrases useful in writing, as a way to emphasize a point. To do this one has to be mindful of making sure what the foreign phrase really means. The Oxford Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases is a very useful reference.