When searching for the unfamiliar English equivalent of an Arabic word or expression, the Arab translator usually resorts to an Arabic-English dictionary. This tool, however, is inadequate for many reasons: 1) The overall coverage of English lexical items is neither thorough nor systematic 2) Little use is made of vital lexical relations such as collocations and multi-word units 3) Senses are not always accurate: some are incomplete, wrong or obsolete 4) The metaphorical potential and spoken expressions are rarely represented or explicitly expressed 5) A fairly large number of English words with affixes are overlooked. For all these reasons, a modified methodology of dictionary compilation should be considered and sources other than the Arabic-English dictionary should be consulted.
Abdul-Fattah Abu-Ssaydeh