A Dictionary of English and Spanish Equivalent Proverbs

Book excerpt: This Dictionary assembles 2,201 English proverbs and their Spanish equivalents. Equivalent proverbs are those which express the same concept literally, such as "Love is blind" = "El amor es ciego" or with completely different words, such as "Every cloud has a silver lining" = "No hay mal que por bien no venga." The Dictionary is a very useful reference tool for scholars of the two languages, for researchers working in various associated fields such as linguistics, literature, folklore, anthropology, psychology, sociology, history, and for workers in newer areas such as advertising and contemporary media. The Dictionary is also of interest to diplomats and politicians who try to improve their communication by sharing ideas formulated in some common meaningful expressions; it will assist interpreters and translators, and teachers and students for whom it is important to understand not only what the target culture expresses in the same way as their own, but also what is formulated in a different way. The Dictionary is also of benefit to non-professionals who, for the sheer enjoyment of it, wish to savour the wisdom, wit, poetry and the colourful language of proverbs.