Quote:
Originally Posted by Billi
And "Handwörterbuch" can have two meanings: like you two mentioned, a big, concise dictionary with longer explanations, and - joy of the German language - it is also used for the contrary, for a shorter dictionary
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I disagree.
Even though some websites and dictionaries define a
Handwörtbuch as a concise dictionary, IMHO, this is a mistranslation since many German dictionary publishers use this term for the dictionary with the most entries. These dictionaries are also occasionally referred to as Großwörterbuch [=large dictionary].
For example, if you look at the Langenscheidt dictionaries, the Spanish-German
Handwörterbuch has 250000 entries, while the Spanish-German Taschenwörterbuch [=pocket dictionary] has only 130000 entries.
I.e., the German equivalent of a "concise dictionary" would be a Taschenwörterbuch [=pocket dictionary] or a Schülerwörterbuch [=student's dictionary].