Lubensky Sophia. Random House Russian-English Dictionary of Idioms / Русско-английский словарь идиом

New York: Random House, 1995. — 1062 p. — ISBN10: 0679405801, ISBN13: 978-0679405801This scholarly compilation of some 13,000 Russian idioms in 6900 entries assumes users have a basic knowledge of both the Russian language and grammatical terminology. An idiom is considered here to be "a nonfree combination of two or more words that acts as a semantic whole. In most cases, the meaning of an idiom cannot be predicted from the meanings of its components," for example, "to lose one's head." The accompanying English phrases are intended to cover "all possible contexts in which the given idiom can occur and to offer...a complete picture of the semantic range of the idiom." Most entries are illustrated by quotations from Russian or Soviet literature, and each such citation is accompanied by a published translation, which is based on American usage. A typical entry consists of at least the following: the idiom, the Russian case it governs, its English definition(s), a Russian or Soviet literary example of the idiom, its English translation(s), and etymological note(s) where appropriate. Entries are presented in Russian alphabetical order by main word of the idiom. This is a rich and useful source for Russian scholars, and the only quibble is that the literary examples sometimes run several lines long to illustrate a two-word idiom. Lubensky, who earned a Ph.D. in linguistics at the University of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), is associate professor of Slavic languages at SUNY-Albany. A unique source; highly recommended for Russian collections in academic libraries.