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Technical English, dictionary required
Thread poster: Tomislav Patarčić
Tomislav Patarčić
Tomislav Patarčić  Identity Verified
Croatia
Local time: 01:19
Croatian to English
+ ...
Nov 16, 2016

Dear all,

after not-so-brief search, I could not find any comprehensive technical dictionary, monolingual or otherwise.

My field of work is mostly related to mechanical engineering, power tools and and metal-processing machinery (punching, laser-cutting, bending, shearing, welding, brazing) and their automation units. However, I am looking for a resource that I will use for long time and price is no object.

As I work on projects which involve a number of l... See more
Dear all,

after not-so-brief search, I could not find any comprehensive technical dictionary, monolingual or otherwise.

My field of work is mostly related to mechanical engineering, power tools and and metal-processing machinery (punching, laser-cutting, bending, shearing, welding, brazing) and their automation units. However, I am looking for a resource that I will use for long time and price is no object.

As I work on projects which involve a number of languages, a visual dictionary would be great. Our needs go far beyond capabilities of Google's Image Search service and we need "visual confirmation" that we are all on the same page, but I guess a description of a given part or process is good enough.

The most important criterion would be level of detail and number of entries as our text go into detailed descriptions of complex assemblies. Wikipedia is nowhere near the level of detail and accuracy.

Thanks ▲ Collapse
 
DZiW (X)
DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
+ ...
Term extractor Nov 16, 2016

Hello, Tomislav.

Several times my clients provided me dictionaries/glossaries, and even considering rather moderate quality, after a dozen of projects I found out that only ~12% of the terms were used in total, yet missed about a hundred of more frequent terms.

That's why I would suggest you checking your source and extracting weighted terms/expressions or doing it while translating; a combo would do too.

Indeed, there're quite many even free extracting too... See more
Hello, Tomislav.

Several times my clients provided me dictionaries/glossaries, and even considering rather moderate quality, after a dozen of projects I found out that only ~12% of the terms were used in total, yet missed about a hundred of more frequent terms.

That's why I would suggest you checking your source and extracting weighted terms/expressions or doing it while translating; a combo would do too.

Indeed, there're quite many even free extracting tools, let alone such terminology options as TaaS (30-day free trial) and many others.

Cheers ▲ Collapse
 
Rolf Keller
Rolf Keller
Germany
Local time: 01:19
English to German
The Internet is killing dictionaries Nov 16, 2016

Tomislav Patarčić wrote:

I could not find any comprehensive technical dictionary, monolingual or otherwise.


http://www.acolada.de/Acolada-Content-Language-Data-Technology.htm
https://www.kater-verlag.de/fachwoerterbuecher-maschinenbau/ (German website with English dictionaries)

As I work on projects which involve a number of languages, a visual dictionary would be great.


AFAIK there are no visual dictionaries providing the level of detail you want. Try textbooks/handbooks instead.
http://www.springer.com/la/book/9781447135661

As the Internet is killing dictionaries, the stars of technical translators are on the decline while the Internet provides a ever-growing amount of unstructured info for translating technicians. So, one needs the ability to make use of that info.
 
Jean Lachaud
Jean Lachaud  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 19:19
English to French
+ ...
No more paper dictionaries Nov 16, 2016

Paper technical dictionaries are gone. But the Society of Automotive Engineers (http://www.sae.org/pubs/) might still have paper publications, for example. They used to have the type of books you refer to, not sure those are still available.

Other engineering/technical organisations may also have what you need.

McGraw-Hill may also have usable books. They used to have a lot of technica... See more
Paper technical dictionaries are gone. But the Society of Automotive Engineers (http://www.sae.org/pubs/) might still have paper publications, for example. They used to have the type of books you refer to, not sure those are still available.

Other engineering/technical organisations may also have what you need.

McGraw-Hill may also have usable books. They used to have a lot of technical books, but are no longer a brick-and-mortar business. ▲ Collapse
 
Michael Beijer
Michael Beijer  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:19
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
Digitise paperbound dictionaries (before they all disappear completely)... Nov 16, 2016

Tomislav Patarčić wrote:

Dear all,

after not-so-brief search, I could not find any comprehensive technical dictionary, monolingual or otherwise.

My field of work is mostly related to mechanical engineering, power tools and and metal-processing machinery (punching, laser-cutting, bending, shearing, welding, brazing) and their automation units. However, I am looking for a resource that I will use for long time and price is no object.

As I work on projects which involve a number of languages, a visual dictionary would be great. Our needs go far beyond capabilities of Google's Image Search service and we need "visual confirmation" that we are all on the same page, but I guess a description of a given part or process is good enough.

The most important criterion would be level of detail and number of entries as our text go into detailed descriptions of complex assemblies. Wikipedia is nowhere near the level of detail and accuracy.

Thanks



Hi Tomislav,

Not sure how good they are, but have you seen:

Oxford's

"A Dictionary of Mechanical Engineering"
(http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199587438.001.0001/acref-9780199587438 )
+
"A Dictionary of Construction, Surveying and Civil Engineering"
(http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199534463.001.0001/acref-9780199534463 )

*****************************
I think a lot of the best material is currently still hiding away in various paperbound dictionaries, most of which are long out of print, and impossible to get your hands on these days. 10 or 20 years ago, the book shops were full of them, but they are hard to locate these days. Likewise, second hand bookshops used to have quite a lot of good stuff, but a lot of it has already been snatched up (by people like myself). I'm currently in the middle of a huge digitisation project, meaning: I'm converting all my paperbound vols into searchable PDF/TXT files for use on my computer, and even potential integration into my CAT tools.

Some of the good technical dictionaries in my collection include:

some-of my-dictionaries_5

some-of my-dictionaries_2

some-of my-dictionaries_4

some-of my-dictionaries_3

some-of my-dictionaries_1

Michael
 
Michael Beijer
Michael Beijer  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:19
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
lots of good stuff also available as eBooks for your Kindle: Nov 16, 2016

Dictionary of Construction Terms Kindle Edition (See more
Dictionary of Construction Terms Kindle Edition (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dictionary-Construction-Terms-Simon-Tolson-ebook/dp/B00JQFBS9W/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1479307103&sr=1-2&keywords=A%20Dictionary%20of%20Construction,%20Surveying,%20and%20Civil%20Engineering )

Dictionary of Building and Civil Engineering: English/French French/English: English/French, French/English Kindle Edition (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dictionary-Construction-Terms-Simon-Tolson-ebook/dp/B00JQFBS9W/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1479307103&sr=1-2&keywords=A%20Dictionary%20of%20Construction,%20Surveying,%20and%20Civil%20Engineering )

A Dictionary of Construction, Surveying, and Civil Engineering (Oxford Quick Reference) Kindle Edition (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dictionary-Construction-Surveying-Engineering-Reference-ebook/dp/B00MOIA876/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1479307103&sr=1-1&keywords=A%20Dictionary%20of%20Construction,%20Surveying,%20and%20Civil%20Engineering )

A Dictionary of Mechanical Engineering (Oxford Quick Reference) Kindle Edition (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dictionary-Mechanical-Engineering-Oxford-Reference-ebook/dp/B00SLVGBQW/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= )

PS: (Amazon) eBooks can of course easily be converted to DMR-free PDFs. not sure how legal this would be, if for personal use, but anyway, just thought I'd mention it.

[Edited at 2016-11-16 15:25 GMT] ▲ Collapse
 


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