lingvokapablo:

erinja:I don't have a copy of PIV, and most Esperantists don't have a copy. You can reach an extremely high level of Esperanto without PIV. But someone who wanted to write a text with a lot of highly specialized vocabulary would probably need PIV, which contains scientific plant names and other technical terms that you probably wouldn't find elsewhere.

So, which dictionary or dictionaries would you recommend?

If you can find a copy, Butler's Esperanto-English dictionary is IMHO a goldmine of info and examples of usage. Plus, he differentiates between Official Roots (both Fundamentaj and Oficialaj Aldonaj) and unofficial roots (though considering the date of publication, some of these latter may have become the former by now). I say "if you can find a copy" because it's been out of print for nearly a bazillion years with no plans to reprint. I recently acquired my third copy; my first was acquired in 1977 and has fallen apart from overuse. The second was a victim of my negligence, so here's hoping this one will last me at least half as long as my first one did.

orthohawk:

lingvokapablo:

erinja:I don't have a copy of PIV, and most Esperantists don't have a copy. You can reach an extremely high level of Esperanto without PIV. But someone who wanted to write a text with a lot of highly specialized vocabulary would probably need PIV, which contains scientific plant names and other technical terms that you probably wouldn't find elsewhere.

So, which dictionary or dictionaries would you recommend?

If you can find a copy, Butler's Esperanto-English dictionary is IMHO a goldmine of info and examples of usage.

I'll second that : Butler's is the best all-around Eo-Eng dictionary in my opinion. Although it's long out of print, the companion Eng-Eo dictionary is still available (from Esperanto USA's retbutiko, at least).

Amike,

Paul