Arabic-L:LING:Dictionaries discussion

[J Murgida]

My two cents' worth on Wehr is that I would never want to delete any archaic
lemma in an updated Arabic>English dictionary.  Just because something is
obsolete or seldom used doesn't mean you're never going to see it in modern
Arabic.  Also, because no dictionary can ever have every word anyone may
use, it really helps to have all the available meanings when one is scanning
up and down the entries of a root to try to figure out the meaning of a word
that's not in there yet.

Translators from Arabic into English do this kind of "dictionary detective
work" all the time.  I vote for keeping the old while compiling the new.
Speaking of which, didn't we have a query some months ago on what everyone
would want in a new Arabic>English dictionary?
 -- Jackie Murgida