reciprocity for bilingual dictionaries?

[Peter Sokolowski]

Hi folks:

In chatting with a colleague the other day we got to wondering about the
extent to which bilingual dictionaries are truly reciprocal, meaning (I
guess) that every word used as a translation word has an entry.  I
submitted that perhaps very small bilingual dictionaries could maintain
such a policy, but that larger, desk-sized dictionaries would probably
balloon out of control if a strict policy of reciprocity were attempted.

To what extent is reciprocity desirable?

To what extent is reciprocity feasible?

What's the historical pattern in bilingual dictionaries?

Many thanks,

Cheers,

Peter

Peter A. Sokolowski
Associate Editor
Merriam-Webster, Inc.