Finally got my hands on a reverse C-E dictionary

[Tomsima]

 

 

Been wanting to get hold of one of these for years, and I saw a second hand one pop up on ebay last week and snapped it up (thanks if it was you selling and you're reading this!)

 

The dictionary lists compounds within character entries not according to the head character, as is the case in most dictionaries, but by 'tail' character (see the photo for a better explanation). Its already proving to be a fantastic and fascinating resource for really refining the subtleties between compounds, and I can't understand why there aren't more of these around!?

 

Anyway, thought it might be interesting for others to see - if you see one floating around for sale, I highly recommend you get hold of it while you can. 

[thelearninglearner]

Just wondering, is owning a book dictionary like this a, "I prefer real books to e-books" thing? Or is there another reason? I never saw a point to having a book like this over something like Pleco. However, if it really is useful and/or better to have the book in front of you - I may get one.

 

Glad you finally managed to snag a copy!

[Tomsima]

There are no dedicated electronic reverse dictionaries (presumably a combination of copyright issues and problematic formatting with all other normal layout dictionaries). You can of course 'wildcard' for the same result, which I do all the time. But nothing beats browsing a reference book out of curiosity and discovering all sorts of things you wouldn't know otherwise. The most picked up book on my shelf is undoubtedly Krolls medieval Chinese dictionary: there's an electronic dictionary for that too, but it's all so directed I'd imagine you'd never see the majority of the entries if you were using the latter. 

[Jim]

I had this very same dictionary but it's either in a box back in the UK or lost. Found it really handy and as you say, really conducive to browsing.

[roddy]

I'd be checking ebay for the rest of your stored possessions, Jim...

[Guest realmayo]

The desktop dictionary Wenlin lets you look up all words that end with a given character, and the words are partly grouped together by frequency of use. I agree it's not as pleasurable to browse as a book, but it's way easier to scan through a long list on a desktop than it is on a phone, I think.

 

[thelearninglearner]

8 hours ago, Tomsima said:

There are no dedicated electronic reverse dictionaries (presumably a combination of copyright issues and problematic formatting with all other normal layout dictionaries). You can of course 'wildcard' for the same result, which I do all the time. But nothing beats browsing a reference book out of curiosity and discovering all sorts of things you wouldn't know otherwise. The most picked up book on my shelf is undoubtedly Krolls medieval Chinese dictionary: there's an electronic dictionary for that too, but it's all so directed I'd imagine you'd never see the majority of the entries if you were using the latter. 

really interesting! i may invest in one.

 

@realmayo i think it's time i bought this. i need something for the desktop

[Guest realmayo]

42 minutes ago, thelearninglearner said:

i think it's time i bought this. i need something for the desktop

 

Wenlin has its faults - well, it has a very clunky user interface.

But it can do so much, so quickly. If I come across a new character it's just one click to see what words contain that character (most common ones first), or begin with that character, or end with that character. Or can click to see whether the character is itself used within a more complex character. Or can see what components make up this particular character and then find where else those appear. For instance I found myself wondering what other characters use the right-side component of 鎖

... and of the 15,000 most common characters, just three use it (one of them pretty rare):

and then it's a couple of clicks before I'm browsing all the words that use the second character in that list (most common grouped together, then less common alphabetically):

 

 

So yeah, I'm a big fan of Wenlin: and pertinent to this thread, you kind of get the best of both worlds: the speed of clicking on an electronic dictionary, but also the browsability that comes from big windows rather than a little phone screen (alternatively the worst of both worlds: you're glued to a screen, which you can't carry in your pocket).

 

... and I'd definitely agree with the OP, it's fun and rewarding to browse through different words using the same character - definitely helps tease apart different usages that get lumped together in translation.

 

 

. (don't know why I can't delete these duplicated images)

[Luxi]

11 hours ago, Tomsima said:

Been wanting to get hold of one of these for years

 

Nostalgia Moment coming up. The Reverse Dictionary (汉英逆引词典) was just as difficult to find 30 years ago, and very much sought after - a consequence of that well-known law that says 'one always knows only the 2nd character of a compound'. I found my copy (a 1993 edition) in one of the bookshops near SOAS in 1995, after 5-6 years of searching. I couldn't believe my luck when I saw it in the shop. I still treasure it, but must admit I haven't used it much lately. These days I use Baidu as first call.

[Shelley]

i do like a good hands on book, I bought my first C-E dictionary in London. It was a large heavy tome of a book, similar looking to your wonderful looking book, carried it for hours round the science museum, London and China Town. Don't regret it at all.

 

I do use Pleco these days but will occasionally have a browse through the actual book for as you say interesting discoveries.

 

Its not quite the same but in Pleco you do get under the Words tab  - Words beginning  with- and - Words containing - the chosen character so you can discover new things.

[Xiao Kui]

I have this very same book, currently in storage in my brother's attic in US as I live overseas.  I loved it before I discovered Pleco. You can do this in Pleco by  entering the wildcard @ for the first character.  For example @课 achieves similar results as Tomasima's example. Still, it's a great dictionary, I specifically remember enjoying looking up all the specific colors, words you rarely hear in everyday Chinese.  Besides dictionaries, it makes me nostalgic for old textbooks, graded readers, and analog learning in general.

 

[shawky.nasr]

On 11/29/2020 at 9:19 AM, thelearninglearner said:

snag a copy

That book published 1986, find hard copy not easy, but there are pdf version.