Abridged Greek Lexicon

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View books by H. G. Liddell, R. Scott.

A key which unlocks a treasure house. - Rated
This Lexicon comes in a few different sizes. The largest is expensive, and not something you could easily carry around with you unless you were engaging in weight lifting classes as well as Classics. However, it is replete with detailed examples of usage.

I have the Abridged version, of some 804 pages. I have found this to be perfectly adequate for assisting in reading Marcus Aurelius and Plato in the original. It contains many inflected forms of words as well, but not all accidence is covered.

The changing use of words is also provided - e.g. from the Classical to the Koine / New Testament usage.

The Abridged version is surprisingly portable yet meaty enough to warrant a prized position on my Classical Greek bookshelf... when it isn't in my hands helping to thwart my ignorance of a Greek sentence.

Wonderful, but a bit of a large investment! - Rated
This lexicon is THE lexicon for Ancient Greek. If you are stuck on a passage, and look up a word, this dictionary may even have the section translated for you within the entry.

It is, however, a rather weighty tome so don't expect to be carrying it around in your bag everywhere (it is much larger and heavier than my laptop computer). That (and the price which is high for a student budget) is the reason why I went for the abridged version. If I really, really need the reference, there is always the university library (or a helpful professor).

A necessity - Rated
This is the standard Greek dictionary, which is used throughout the English-speaking world of classical studies. The dictionary itself, with its recent update to include Linear B and other discoveries, remains essential today, as it was when it was originally published. Irregular forms of verbs are outlined in full, and, like Lewis and Short for Latinists, extensive quotations are given from Greek sources. Although this book may seem daunting to those beginning Greek, it is the essential reference work at all stages. Perhaps for the purposes of translation in the earlier stages it is also sensible to have a copy of the Intermediate Lexicon to hand, since it is a book of considerably more manageable a size.