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95/388 The Pocket Oxford Latin Dictionary Edited by James Morwood Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1994 (re-issued 1995), ix + 357 pp., ISBN 0-19-864228-8, L6.99 (paperback). Originally published in hardback in 1994, ISBN 0-1986422 7-X, L8.99
Dictionaries like this were anathema at my school: we were only allowed to use the Latin into English dictionary of Lewis and Short, and expected to supply missing information with our own ingenuity or thought. This was a fairly traditional educational exercise of its time, designed to teach us to think logically around problems: or did it just teach us to cheat? After all, we all had a copy of an English into Latin dictionary at home to help with our prose composition homework. Even so, there were considerable pitfalls if the words thus identified were not checked back against a reputable source. Such are the perils, particularly in Latin, of a simple dictionary which gives meanings without any indication of usage. Not that that is meant to denigrate this dictionary in any way. It is probably better geared than many others to modern needs....