DICTIONARIES

Dictionaries are reference sources that define meanings of words in one language (e.g., English language dictionaries such as Webster's), translate meaning of words from one language to another (e.g., German-English Science Dictionary; New York: McGraw-Hill. Russian-English Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Usage), or more than two languages (e.g., English, Russion, Spanish).
Visit ATEIS to get a feel for the place of dictionaries within a broader universe of sources.

We are here concerned with technical dictionaries in engineering and scientific disciplines.  Dictionaries may also be called indexes, registries, glossaries, encyclopedias, and thesauri. Specialized technical and scientific dictionaries are used to answer specific questions related to materials, techniques, processes and methods, physical, and chemical properties as well as meanings of words. For example, consider the following questions:

Q: what is thermal recovery?

Q: what does mmcf stand for?

Q: what are the melting points of the following:

1. ferrocene

2. 1-acetylferrocene

3. 1,1'-diacetylferrocene

For each of the above questions, you will be using some kind of dictionary. Use library catalogs and bibliographies to find dictionaries <!-- see slide #8 for books>

Many dictionaries are nowadays available in different media (e.g., print, electronic, some are searchable on the Internet).They vary from general engineering dictionaries to very specialized dictionaries compiled on a specific topic, such as dangerous properties of certain industrial materials.

Alford, M. H. T. Russian-English scientific and technical dictionary {by} M. H. T. and V. L. Alford. {1st ed.} Oxford, New York, Pergamon Press {1970} 2v.

In order to find more technical dictionaries in your own library catalog, you may want to look up the following subject headings:

Science--Dictionaries--Russian.
Russian language--Dictionaries--English.
Technology--Dictionaries--Russian.

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Acronyms, Initialisms, & Abbreviations Dictionary. Detroit: Gale Research.

CRC handbook of chemistry and physics / editor-in-chief,  Robert C. Weast. 1st Student ed. Boca Raton, Fla. : CRC Press, 1988.
Subject(s): Chemistry--Tables. Physics--Tables.

CRC standard probability and statistics tables and formulae / editor, William H. Beyer. Boca Raton, Fla. : CRC Press, 1991.
Subject(s): Mathematical statistics--Tables. Probabilities--Tables.

Q: What are the properties of student's t-Distribution

Dangerous properties of industrial materials by N. Irving Sax and Richard J. Lewis, Sr.  9th ed.  New York : Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1996. 3v. Vol 1 inlcudes an Index. Subject(s): Hazardous substances--Handbooks, manuals, etc.

Q: Could you find several citations as well as toxicity data of FUEL OIL?

Entries are arranged alphabetically; so, look under fuel oil in vol 2. Each entry gives the following: CAS Number, DOT 4-digit hazard code, synonyms, chemical and physical properties, toxicity data, standards and recommendations, hazard rating, cited references, consensus reports, and safety profiles. Under consensus reports, a reference points to a paper published in IARC Cancer Review; now go to vol 1 and look up IARC to see the spelled out name. It stands for International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France, World Health Organization.

Dictionary of Mechanical Engineering. 3rd ed. Nayler, GHF. London: Butterworths, 1985. Ill dict expanded with terms on mech eng, manufacture, and robotics. Subject(s):
Mechanical engineering--Dictionaries.

Free on-line dictionary of computing http://wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/index.html
Enter a word or phrase in the box at the top of any page and click the
Search button or hit Return. I used "arithmetic."
You can try other FOLDOC servers if this one is slow for you.
Babel Computer Oriented Abbreviations and Acronyms Search

Freedman, Alan, The computer glossary : the completed illustrated dictionary. 7th ed. New York : AMACOM, 1995.
Subject(s):
Computers--Dictionaries.
Electronic data processing--Dictionaries.

Gunston, Bill. Jane's aerospace dictionary. 3rd ed. Coulsdon, Surrey: Alexandria, VA: Jane's, 1988.
Subjects(s): Aeronautics--Dictionaries.

Hazardous chemicals desk reference by Richard J. Lewis, 3rd ed.  NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1993.
Subject(s): Hazardous substances--Handbooks, manuals, etc.

Illustrated Dictionary of Mechanical Engineering. Schwartz, Vladimir V. The Hague: Nijhoff, 1984. Polyglot with English, German, French, Dutch, and Russion.
Subject(s): Mechanical engineering--Dictionaries--Polyglot.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Mechanical and Design Engineering. Parker, Sybil P., ed-in-chief. NY: McGraw-Hill, 1984.
Subject(s): Mechanical engineering--Dictionaries. Engineering design--Dictionaries.

Thesaurus of metallurgical terms : a vocabulary listing for use in indexing, storage, and retrieval of technical information in metallurgy. 8th ed. Published:  Metals Park, Ohio, U.S.A. : ASM International, 1988.
Subject(s): Subject headings--Metallurgy.

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