Recently, there seems to have been an explosion in the number of bilingual and multilingual technical dictionaries available in Google Books. Thanks to the limited previews, we can access most of the information from many technical dictionaries without having to go out and buy them.
The problem I’ve found is the time it takes to search through all the dictionaries, including, in some cases, more than one edition of the same dictionary, since Google Books sometimes hides different pages in different editions.
By creating a “library” of dictionaries available in Google Books, it is possible to search through as many dictionaries as you like at once. You can also make your library public, which means that you don’t need to create one yourself, as you can use the library I have already created. Here are the results you get if you search for “arrollamiento” in my library.
You can search through my library from this page.
If you use Firefox, you can drag this toolbar button to your browser’s toolbar.
If you use IntelliWebSearch, download this file (right-click and save the target) and import it into IntelliWebSearch by going to “Share-Search settings-Import from file” (tested on v 3.1.0.7). It should appear in the list as “Google Books (perso)”.
I recommend searching without quotes, since many dictionaries replace the main word with a ~ symbol inside entries. So you might not find, for example, “arrollamiento de cobre” if you search with quotes, because the dictionary might start an entry with the word “arrollamiento”, but then say “~ de cobre” when listing the compound terms. The intelliwebsearch search is set not to use quotes.
I designed the library to help me with my own translations, so the main languages included are French, Spanish, Catalan and English. The books included at the time of writing are listed below. I have generated the list automatically, so some books may appear twice where more than one edition is included in my library.
If you find this useful, please leave a comment. If you wish to tell others about it, please direct people to this blog entry (Permanent link: http://www.timtranslates.com/blog/?p=154), rather than straight to my Google Books library. If you find other books that could be included, please let me know and I’ll add them.
Update: This list is already out of date, as I’ve just added several medical dictionaries. It will be impossible to keep up to date, as there are so many more dictionaries in Google Books. Any links posted in the comments will be added as soon as possible.
Termcat, Diccionari de Psiquiatria ©2007
TERMCAT, Centre de Terminologia
Terminologia de la sida
TERMCAT, Centre de Terminologia, Colomer i Artigas Colomer, Catalunya. Termcat (Centre de terminologia)
Termcat, Diccionari d’immunologia ©2005
TERMCAT, Centre de Terminologia, Catalunya. Termcat (Centre de terminologia)
Diccionari UB. Anglès-Català
Diversos
Webster’s Catalan – English Thesaurus Dictionary
Icon Group International, Inc.
Spanish-English Food Dictionary
Vicki Wootton
Carmen’s Worldwide Kitchen – English/Spanish Cookbook
Carmen Kolenda
Diccionario culinario mexicano bilingüe español-inglés: Ingredientes, utensilios, técnicas, bebidas y platillos típicos
Elsa G. Casanova
Glosario IICA del Banco Mundial
James Price Gittinger
Diccionario de sinonimos JURIDICOS Bilingue/ Law Synonymous Bilingual Dictionary: Espanol- Ingles/ English-spanish
Laura Casado, M. Casado, Fanny Lilian tr Krimer
Spanish-English/English-Spanish commercial dictionary: Diccionario de commercio español-inglés/inglés-español
Carlos Reyes Orozco
Diccionario de Finanzas bilingue/ Finances Bilingual Dictionary: Terminología bilingüe: español-inglés, inglés-español
Fabricio V Godoy, Orlando Greco
Diccionario de términos financieros
Eliseu Santandreu
Diccionario Politécnico de Ferrocarriles: DPF= Polytechnisches Wörterbuch Der Eisenbahn
Mario León, Mario León Rodriguez, Fundación de Ferrocarriles Españoles
Diccionario técnico: inglés-español, español-inglés
Federico Beigbeder Atienza
Diccionario de tecnología ferroviaria glossario de términos ferrovarios definidos en español con traducción al alemán, francés, inglés, italiano y portugués
Mario León
English-Spanish and Spanish-English glossary of geoscience terms
Gary L. Prost
English-Spanish and Spanish-English Glossary of Geoscience Terms: Diccionario Ingles-Enspnol Y Espanol-Ingles De Terminos De Geosciencias
G. L. Prost
Glossary of the Petroleum Industry: English/Spanish & Spanish/English
Rebecca L Busby, M. Dolores-Proubasta
Vocabulario de términos científicos: Español-inglés, English Spanish
Javier Martín, VV Staff
DICCIONARIO OXFORD-COMPLUTENSE DE FISICA
Aa.vv
Diccionario de informática, telecomunicaciones y ciencias afines: inglés-español
Mario León
Lexikon, Landschafts- und Stadtplanung: Mehrsprachiges Wörterbuch über Planung, Gestaltung und Schutz der Umwelt
Edward B Ballard, Klaus-Jürgen Evert, Comité de IFLA de Traducción de términos técnicos, International Federation of Landscape Architects
Glosario para administradores y economístas agropecuarios
Guillermo Guerra, Guillermo Guerra E., Alfredo Aguilar V., Aguilar, José Alejandro Sánchez Manzanares
Algemeen juridische beroepsvorming
Lydia Janssen
Diccionario jurídico-empresarial: español-inglés-español
Véronique Bodoutchian-Sáiz
Diccionario de recursos humanos: Organización y dirección
Manuel Fernández-Ríos
Diccionario de términos fiscales 2004: Impuestos sobre la renta y al activo: comentados y correlacionados con las leyes respectivas
Baltazar Feregrino Paredes
Glosario de términos para la administración y gestión de los servicios sanitarios
Carlos C. Álvarez Nebreda
Diccionario de términos económicos
César Sepúlveda L, César Sepúlveda
Contabilidad Financiera/ Financial Accounting
WARREN CARL S., FESS PHILIP E., James M. Reeve, REEVE JAMES M., Philip E Fess
Glosario para administradores y economístas agropecuarios
Guillermo Guerra, Guillermo Guerra E., Alfredo Aguilar V., Aguilar, José Alejandro Sánchez Manzanares
Diccionario de términos financieros
Eliseu Santandreu
Glosario de términos financieros: términos financieros, contables, administrativos, económicos, computacionales y legales
Leonel Vidales Rubí
Spanish Business Dictionary: Multicultural Business Spanish
Morry Sofer
Accounting dictionary: Diccionario de contabilidad
Nora Sánchez
Glosario Internacional Para El Traductor (empat.)
Glosario internacional para el traductor
Marina Orellana
Glosario Internacional Para El Traductor: Glossary of Selected Terms Used in International Organizations
Marina Orellana, John D Chadburn
Glosario de Psiquiatría
John C. Nemiah, F. P. Gallardo, Luis Viani, María Jesús Mardomingo
Aviation terminology
Jorge García de la Cuesta
Diccionario del tren: vocabulario de términos ferroviarios definidos en español con traducción al alemán, francés, inglés, italiano y portugués
Mario León
Diccionario de informatica e Internet: Computer and Internet Technology Definitions In Spanish
Course Technology, Course Technology Staff, Armando S Fernández
Diccionario Técnico: Inglés-Español, Español-Inglés = Technical Dictionary: English-Spanish, Spanish-English
Frederic Beigbeder, Federico Beigbeder Atienza
Diccionario de química física
J M Costa
Commercial Trucking Bilingual Dictionary: English/spanish
Maria Ivon Moya
Diccionario de negocios: inglés-español, español-inglés : contabilidad, administración, finanzas, economía y mercadotecnia
Manuel Urrutia, Manuel Urrutia Raola
Wiley’s English-spanish Spanish-english Dictionary of Psychology and Psychiatry: Diccionario de Psicología Y Psiquiatría Inglés-español Español Inglés
Steven M. Kaplan
English-to-spanish Computer And Internet Dictionary: English-to-spanish Computer and Internet Dictionary
Alicia S. Clark, Eduardo Clark, H. (CON) Eduardo
Salud: Medical Spanish Dictionary and Phrase Book
Bonifacio Contreras
Diccionario de electrónica, informática y energía nuclear
Mariano Mataix Lorda, Miguel Mataix Hidalgo
English-Spanish and Spanish-English glossary of geoscience terms
Gary L. Prost
Diccionario tecnico ingles-espanol, espanol-ingles/ Technical Dictionary English-spanish, Spanish-english
Rafael García Díaz
Routledge Spanish Dictionary of Environmental Technology: Spanish-English/English-Spanish
Miguel A. Gaspar Paricio
Inglés-español.: English-spanish
Routledge Spanish Technical Dictionary: Inglés-español = English-Spanish
Routledge
Diccionario politécnico de las lenguas española e inglesa
Federico Beigbeder Atienza
Glossary of the Petroleum Industry: English-Spanish & Spanish-English
PennWell Publishing Company, Maria-Dolores Proubasta, Pennwell Publishing Company
Routledge Spanish Technical Dictionary: English-Spanish
Routledge, Stephanie Coontz
IMF glossary: English-French-Russian
IMF’s Bureau of Language Services Staff, International Monetary Fund. Technical Documentation, Reference, and Terminology Section, International Monetary Fund, International Monetary Fund. Bureau of Language Services. Russian Division
IMF glossary: English-French-Arabic
IMF’s Bureau of Language Services Staff, IMF’s Bureau of Language Services, International Monetary Fund
IMF glossary: English-French-Spanish
International Monetary Fund, International Monetary Fund. Reference, Terminology, and Documentation Section, International Monetary Fund. b Terminology Working Group
IMF glossary: English-French-German
International Monetary Fund. Reference, Terminology, and Documentation Section, International Monetary Fund
Imf Glossary: English-French-Russian
IMF’s Bureau of Language Services Staff, International Monetary Fund FMI IMF’s Bureau of Language Services Staff Bureau of Language Services, IMF’s Bureau of Language Services, International Monetary Fund
IMF glossary: English-French-Spanish
International Monetary Fund. Technical Documentation, Reference, and Terminology Section, International Monetary Fund, International Monetary Fund. Bureau of Language Services. Terminology Working Group
Dictionnaire des marchés financiers: plus de 2000 termes et expresions expliqués et traduits en cinq langues : anglais, allemand, espagnol, italien, néerlandais
Joseph Antoine, Marie-Claire Capiau-Huart
100 IFRS Financial Ratios / IFRS Indicateurs Financiers Dictionnaire Anglais / Français
Ulrich Wiehle, Michael Diegelmann, Cometis AG <Wiesbaden, Henryk Deter, Peter Noel Schömig, Michael Rolf
IMF glossary: English-French-Arabic
International Monetary Fund, International Monetary Fund. Bureau of Language Services
Dictionnaire anglais-français, français-anglais de la poste et des affaires postales
Vera Mihailovich-Dickman
Approche linguistique des problèmes de traduction anglais–français
Hélène Chuquet, Michel Paillard
Dictionnaire des sciences et techniques du pétrole: anglais-français, français-anglais
Magdeleine Moureau, Gerald Brace, Institut français du pétrole
Dictionnaire technologique français-anglais-allemand: avec leurs diverses acceptions et applications, tous les termes techniques employés dans les arts industriels et dans la mécanique, la physique et la chimie manufacturières : tableau comparatif des monnaies, poids et mesures
Alexandre Tolhausen, Louis Tolhausen, Gardissal (Durand)
Moby Dick (Webster’s French Thesaurus Edition)
Icon Reference, Herman Melville
Routledge French Technical Dictionary: Anglais-français = English-French
Arden, Neil Clements, Routledge
Merriam-Webster’s French-English Dictionary
Merriam-Webster, Inc, Merriam-Webster
Multilingual technical dictionary on irrigation and drainage: Dictionnaire technique multilingue des irrigations et du drainage. English-French; anglais-français
International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage
Dictionnaire français-anglais des mots tronqués
Fabrice Antoine
Dictionnaire d’automatique de génie électrique et de productique: anglais-français : français-anglais
Pierre Borne, Nigel Quayle, Madan G. Singh
Dictionnaire d’informatique et d’Internet: anglais-français
Jean-Guy Grenier
Dictionary of electrical engineering: English, German, French, Dutch, Russian
Y. N. Luginsky
Dictionnaire du Génie Civil, de l’Architecture, et de la Construction.: Matériaux et technologies, édition bilingue français-anglais
Éric Serge Bon
A Naval and Military Technical Dictionary of the French Language. Part 1. French-English
Robert Burn
Routledge French Dictionary of Environmental Technology: French-English/English-French
Terence Gordon, Routledge
Civil Engineering in French: a guide to the language and practice of civil engineering in French-speaking countries
A. Paulus
Dictionary of Civil Engineering: English-French
Jean-Paul Kurtz
Routledge French Dictionary of Telecommunications: French-English/English-French
Stuart Wittering, Routledge (Firm), Neil Clements, Sinda López
Dictionary of Building and Civil Engineering: English/French French/English
Don Montague
Dictionnaire Technique Anglais: Volume 2, Anglais-français = French Technical Dictionary : Volume 2, English-French.
French dictionary of information technology: French/English, English/French
Terry R. Pyper
Excellent Tim, good stuff.
Great tool, Tim! Did you come up with this idea on your own?
Yes, all my idea! Been trying to work out how to search in more than one Google Book for a while, then realised there’s a built-in function. I had quite a few links already. By clinking on the links to “related books”, I was quickly able to add several dozen to the library.
Muchísimas gracias por tu generosidad, Tim.
Vendré muchas veces a tu página.
Ho acabo de provar i em sembla molt útil. Perfecte per a la traducció tècnica que tinc entre mans ara mateix. Gràcies Tim.
Very good Tim, will recommend it…
¡Qué bárbaro! Estoy entusiasmada. Pero oye, ¿cómo has hecho eso? ¡Es magia!
Mil millones de gracias.
¡Muchas gracias, Tim!
Muchas veces he tenido el problema que comentas: encuentras varios libros buenos en Google Books, pero es muy difícil buscar en ellos de la misma forma que buscarías en una web o en un documento cualquiera. Creo que tu idea nos va a hacer la vida más fácil a muchos traductores.
Gracias por compartirla.
Fantástico. Muchísimas gracias, Tim.
¡Un millón de gracias, Tim! Parece muy útil.
Thanks for sharing this with Traduccion en España, Tim. I didn’t know they had added this new feature. It looks really useful.
Hi Tim:
Thank you so much for making this excellent idea available for everyone else. It is really appreciated.
Thanks for sharing this, Tim.
Great work, Tim! And very generous on your part to share it! I will be posting to my blog on this and recommending your toolbar to my colleagues at the Spanish Translation Service of the United Nations Secretariat.
Thank you, Sir, for taking the time to compile this excellent list of resources. I’m sure it will come in handy.
Muchas gracias por compartir este recurso con la lista de Traducción en España. Me va a ser tremendamente útil.
Thanks a lot!
¡Muchas gracias por compartir esta lista!
¡Muy bueno! El mundo de la traducción te lo agradece :)
Moltes gràcies Tim!
Ets un geni.
N’estic segur que em serà molt útil, especialment per que els idiomes en els què treballo són el català, el castellà i l’anglès.
Molt atentament,
Fran
Thanks for posting this Tim! I’ve been using your virtual library for a few months now. It’s a lifesaver, and it’s also helped me pick out some dictionaries to buy in paper form.
Brilliant! Many thanks for this – a great help, especially as I found you while trying to locate something I viewed through Google Books last night but forgot to save.
You are a star Tim! Great idea. This will help so many people once they get wind of it. Have you raised this as a topic on any of the translation portals: Proz? AIPTI? etc
What a brilliant idea! This sure comes in handy. Thank you for sharing, Tim.
Hi Tim,
Excellent work, and thank you for sharing it :)
I was wondering though, how to use the toolbar button for Firefox you mention. I can´t seem to drag it.
Thanks again!
Euge
I note that you list my “Dictionary of Building and Civil Engineering” amongst those consultable in your library drawn up with the aid of Google Books.
You also wrote:
“Recently, there seems to have been an explosion in the number of bilingual and multilingual technical dictionaries available in Google Books. Thanks to the limited previews, we can access most of the information from many technical dictionaries without having to go out and buy them.”
As an author I’m naturally delighted that you may wish to consult my book, but you can hardly expect me to be sympathetic to your desire to practise as a professional translator “without having to go out and buy” it.
Just let me say my piece for a moment.
My dictionary took me YEARS to produce, and cost me a bomb in expenses (not reimbursed by the publisher), and a helluva lot of hard, grinding work. My royalties amount to 10% of the wholesale price per copy, which recently have been hardly enough to live on for a week a year.
You continue: “The problem I’ve found is the time it takes to search through all the dictionaries, . . . ” Well as a professional translator, that’s what you’re paid for, at a rate which probably exceeds my hourly rate for writing dictionaries, probably by a factor of 10-20.
Don’t expect any sympathy from me, old chap.
I’m forwarding these comments to my publisher.
Hi Don
Thanks for commenting on my blog. I appreciate your input, and I hope you’ll at least appreciate my decision to approve your comments for publication, despite the criticism aimed at me. Before writing a complete response, I would like more time to reflect on your comments, but for now I would like to say that I haven’t done any “cracking” or anything like that, and the tool I am suggesting using is one provided by Google. It is Google who, rightly or wrongly, digitalise the books and make them searchable. I believe that your main qualm should be with Google, not with me.
I should perhaps also add that as a result of using this tool, I have bought one of the dictionaries. I should also quote Steven Capsuto’s comment: “Thanks for posting this Tim! I’ve been using your virtual library for a few months now. It’s a lifesaver, and it’s also helped me pick out some dictionaries to buy in paper form.”