Russian Etymological Dictionary (Russian Studies)

I am a beginning student of Russian and a lifeline student of Indo European and a Spanish professor. I love languages, especially Indo European ones and have studied several: Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, French, Italian, Latin and now Russian. When I learn a language I always try to work at learning the roots, prefixes and suffixes that will eventually allow for quicker word recognition. I did this when I learned Hebrew as well (not Indo European, but still fun!) This is my second purchase of a Russian etymological dictionary and it is the better of the two. Easy to read and then includes lists of words in other Indo European languages that share a given root, if applicable.

I love this book. it is unique (to my knowledge)--even some of my russian friends haven't seen one like it before. If you are a linguaphile, then this is the kind of browsing book perfect to keep at bedside or to tote along when you know you'll have a wait in a doctor's office or in a movie line. It is fascinating to see the relationship of russian words to Latin, Greek, and (more recently) to Czech, Polish, German, and Lithuanian. Learning about and recognizing the cognates, calques, and derivatives is helping me to learn the language better, little by little. Although it is a soft-cover, the binding is well made; it does not appear to be the kind of binding that will break in the middle like some cheaply made soft-cover books do. I am very happy with this purchase.

It is a decent dictionary. Particularly useful for those whose native language is English IMHO the price is too high

The etymological dictionary is excellent. All stress marks are provided. Roots are easy to find. The words are divided into SUBJECT order, which makes them easy to find. I can look up one word and get 5, 6 or 7 more in my vocabulary--it's that good! Keep it for reference; read it for kicks!

For its size, this book provides an excellent etymology of the Russian language. Example. When I studied Russian, my Russian instructors provided a false etymology of "karandash" attributing it to a mythical French inventor of the pencil, Caran D'Ache, (Caran D' Ache is actually the name of a Swiss manufacturer of writing implements.) This book remarked on the incorrect etymology and provided a correct etymology. For more information on "Caran d'Ache", see Wikipedia.

Big disappointment.Of the 1500 included words, many are not useful because they are direct English cognates and can be looked up in any English-language etymological dictionary. Furthermore, in many cases Wade does not trace the origin of a word back to Indo European, even when other sources are able to do it. Also, many basic vocabulary words are omitted. Wade uses what I guess must be Pokorny's notation for IE roots, which few beginners or intermediates are probably familiar with. Still, it's not expensive and gives some value until a student is skilled enough to read a dictionary in Russian.

Very good resource. Study Russian with this by your side, and some ridiculously incomprehensible words will be better retained when you undestand the etymology.

This book will be fascinating not only for students of Russian or other Slavic languages, but for Indo-Europeanists in general. Some of the Indo-European etymological works I've seen are sadly deficient in Slavic or other eastern I-E languages, tending to dwell on Celtic, Germanic, Romance, Hellenic, etc. This book fills the gap. The list of included words is fairly comprehensive, and the entries list cognates in the usual suspects: Latin, Greek, Gothic, Lithuanian, Sanskrit. But the work is sufficiently thoroughly researched to include reference to languages as unexpected as Tadzhik and Old Polish. Most of the entries show the historical development of the word from its earliest attested form (the date is indicated), as well as a handful of related words. I've had Russian in my life for at least 15 years, having earned a degree in Russian and Slavic, lived in Russia for a year, married a Russian, and raised bilingual Russian/English sons, but I was in for many surprises. For instance, although I knew that Russian had a significant Turkic and Gothic influence, I had no idea until I read this book how many of the commonly used, ordinary words which I had always assumed to be native Slavic words, were in fact derived from these two sources. Also, although I knew that Slavic and Baltic are sometimes considered to be in a close relative position within Indo-European, I was surprised and intrigued to see the number and close similarity between so many Russian and Lithuanian forms. The book contains an interesting introduction which categorizes the borrowings by source and time frame. The Iranian loans, for example, occurred from about 700 BC to 200 AD, when Iranian peoples dominated the steppes of the Ukraine. Greek loans peaked during the period of greatest commercial and cultural contact with Byzantium, from the 10th to the 15th centuries; just to give a few examples. A fascinating and worthwhile book.

J'ai choisi de mettre la note maximale car ce dictionnaire car je le trouve très utile pour découvrir l'étymologie des mots russes. Il est bien écrit et intéressant, bref, c'est idéal pour découvrir l'origine des mots russes.

Libro di consultazione interresate. Tuttavia, tipograficamente poco invitante e non corrispondente al prezzo. A giudizio dei miei docenti di russo, alcune etimologie discutibili.