GENDER AND NUMBER OF NOUNS
The gender of French and German nouns is presented by m (masculine), f (feminine) and n (neuter). An oblique stroke (eg m/n) shows that two genders are possible. Where a series of nouns have the same gender, the indication is made just once, at the end. Nouns that are generally only used in the plural are followed by pl (plural).
SYMBOLS IN THE TEXT
A comma (,) separates synonyms. In some cases, groups of words may also be divided by a semi-colon (;).
Round brackets ( ) enclose variant spellings or extended ideas (eg record(ing) sheet). Square brackets [ ] enclose explanations, additions or descriptions.
An oblique stroke (/) separates opposites and also concepts which have no entry of their own because of their relatedness and also to save space.
The simple hyphen (-) replaces components of the word or the word itself (eg technical term, – expression). In a compound word a vertical line (¦) is used in combination with a hyphen before or after the other component (eg Bild¦material, -dokument; Gebiets-, Zonen¦forschung).
A question mark (?) after a word means that the term is uncertain.
ABBREVIATIONS
The dash (—) indicates cases where an equivalent is non-existent or unknown. Usually an explanation or description follows in square brackets.
Metaphorical expressions (e.g. ‘Holländische Jungfer’) and those left in foreign languages (eg ‘moinho giratorio’ are distinguished by inverted commas).
Those indicating usage (e.g. [Am] = American; [Flem] = Flemish) are placed in square brackets. In some cases of repetition, in order to save space, words have been shortened to an initial letter (e.g. a. for assemblage).
The full dictionary can be downloaded from the molinology website.
© 2004 by The International Society of Molinology
