താൾ:An English-Malayalam dictionary (IA englishmalayalam00tobirich).pdf/11

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PREFACE


This work, the result of the labours of several years, is intended to supply a long-felt want. Bailey's English-Malayalam Dictionary (pp. 545) and Muller's English-Malayalam Dictionary (pp. 365) are the only works of the kind that have hitherto been available for Malayalees. They are now almost out of print; and being of a smaller compass, and having been prepared years back, before the English education in the country had attained its present magnitude, they are found quite inadequate for present-day needs. The want of an English-Malayalam Dictionary of higher pretensions and of greater usefulness has long been felt by many.

To supply this want, the Rev. W. Dilger of the B. G. E. Mission, a Malayalam and Sanskrit scholar of high attainments, and the present Chairman of the Malayalam Bible Revision Committee, commenced the present work, and compiled it up to the word "Defend" (pp. 1—156). That portion, however, has undergone a revision at my hands, and I am alone, therefore, responsible for its present form. It was when Mr. Dilger found, that he could not afford to spare the time necessary to complete this work, that I was entrusted with its compilation.

The plan of this book requires a word of explanation. The "grouping" of all connected words under one leading word, or the "paragraph system", if I may use the name, has been adopted in this work in preference to the ordinary alphabetical order, because the former has many advantages over the latter. The "alphabetical system" may be compared to the picture of a tree in which the trunk, the branches, the twigs, the leaves, the flowers and the fruits are all promiscuously drawn here and there on a sheet of paper. In order to have a full and correct idea of the tree, one has to look all over the sheet, and put together the different parts. The a "paragraph system" on the other hand, is like the picture of the very same tree, with all the different parts drawn in their natural position and order, and presenting, at a glance, a full and complete idea of the tree. Accordingly, in this work the words arid phrases derived from