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Merriam-Webster’s unabridged dictionary of the year 1913 is in the public domain.

de mkj1887, 24 de abril de 2017

Aportes: 1

Idioma: English

mkj1887 (Mostrar perfil) 24 de abril de 2017 20:51:09

I’m pointing this out because I think many people might be unaware of that fact, and the fact that it could benefit Esperanto. It’s available at Project Gutenberg, here.

One thing I would like to see happen is for there to be a true English-Esperanto dictionary – that is, one that assumes no knowledge of English, and which defines the English entries using Esperanto, and which contains separate entries for all inflected forms (such as ‘feet’). When I found out that the copyright of Merriam-Webster’s unabridged dictionary of the year 1913 is expired, it occurred to me that a simple solution (or, at least a first draft) would be to translate the definitions of this old Merriam-Webster edition into Esperanto, and add entries for the inflectional forms. In fact, except for the inflectional forms, we could have the best of both worlds: give the original entry and then the Esperanto translation right after it. I did this for two words: ‘considerate’ and ‘fain’, but then realized this must be a very long-range goal (such progress being at a snail’s pace for a lone individual), and so decided that for now I would just provide cross-referencing and occasional commentary in an Esperanto-hosted environment. So, that is where I am coming from in regard to my website, fyi.

Anyway, the bottom line of this post is that that old edition of Merriam-Webster is out there for whatever use anyone wants to make of it, and that some such use could seriously support Esperanto.

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