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Benfey, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary (BEN)

BEN is Theodor Benfey's A Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1866) — a 19th-century reference by the noted German comparative philologist, with clearly numbered senses, textual citations (e.g. to Manu), and explicit compound sections. Glosses are in English.

At a glance​

CodeBEN (GitHub repo BEN)
Full titleA Sanskrit-English Dictionary
AuthorTheodor Benfey
Year / size1866 · ~1145 pages
DirectionSanskrit → English
AccentsNo
Sourcecsl-orig/v02/ben/
OpenBasic · List · Advanced · Mobile
DataDownloads
csl-docben.rst

When to use it​

Reach for BEN for a 19th-century scholarly reading with numbered senses and source references — Benfey was a major comparativist, and the dictionary reflects that lens. For modern coverage prefer Monier-Williams (MW) or Apte (AP90).

Looking up a word​

Open the Basic display, pick your input/output transliteration (see Encoding & Transliteration), and type the headword. The List and Advanced displays browse and search inside entries — see Search & Display.

Reading an entry​

Benfey gives the SLP1 headword in {#…#}, the IAST in {%…%}, bold sense numbers in {@…@}, abbreviations in <ab>, and citations in <ls>. The entry aṃśa (csl-orig/v02/ben/ben.txt):

<L>3<pc>0001-a<k1>aMSa<k2>aMSa
{#aMSa#}¦ {%aṃśa,%} rarely {%aṃsa,%} <ab>m.</ab> {@1.@}
A part, a share. {@2.@} Booty. {@3.@} In-
heritance, <ls>Man.</ls> 9, 47. {@4.@} See {%aṃsa.%}
{@ -- <ab>Comp.</ab>@} {%An-,%} <ab>adj.</ab> excluded from a share of the heritage, <ls>Man.</ls> 9, 201.
In the sourceMeaning
{#aMSa#} · {%aṃśa,%}the headword (SLP1 <k1>) then its IAST form
<ab>m.</ab>grammatical category (masculine)
{@1.@} … {@4.@}the numbered senses
<ls>Man.</ls> 9, 47a textual citation (Manu 9.47)
{@-- <ab>Comp.</ab>@}the start of the compounds section

See Data Formats for the markup reference.

What makes it distinctive​

  • Numbered senses + citations. Meanings are enumerated and anchored to texts like Manu.
  • A comparativist's dictionary. By Theodor Benfey, with explicit compound sections.

See also​