Cappeller, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary (CAE)
CAE is Carl Cappeller's A Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1891) — a concise one-volume
English dictionary distilled from the great Petersburg lexica, and the English counterpart
of his German CCS (1887). Same compact scheme, English glosses; it also gives
Indo-European cognates (Greek, Latin, Germanic).
At a glance
| Code | CAE (GitHub repo CAE) |
| Full title | A Sanskrit-English Dictionary |
| Author | Carl Cappeller |
| Year / size | 1891 · ~672 pages |
| Direction | Sanskrit → English |
| Accents | Yes (marked on headwords) |
| Source | csl-orig/v02/cae/ |
| Open | Basic · List · Advanced · Mobile |
| Data | Downloads |
| csl-doc | cae.rst (front matter) |
CAE (this page) is Cappeller's Sanskrit→English dictionary (1891). CCS is
his German Sanskrit-Wörterbuch (1887) — the same compact scheme, glossed in German. Pick
by the gloss language you want.
When to use it
Reach for CAE for a quick English gloss in the same terse style as the Petersburg lexica
it summarizes, with a bonus of comparative (Indo-European) notes. It complements:
- Monier-Williams (MW) — the broad standard English reference.
- Wilson (WIL) — the earlier (1832) English tradition.
- Böhtlingk-Roth (PWG) / Böhtlingk shorter (PW) — the German works it distills.
Looking up a word
Open the Basic display, choose your input/output transliteration (see Encoding & Transliteration), and type the headword. The List and Advanced displays browse the index and search inside entries — see Search & Display.
Reading an entry
Cappeller sets the Sanskrit in {#…#}, tags grammar with <lex> and abbreviations with
<ab>, and (for cognates) languages with <lang>; the glosses are plain English. The entry
aṃśa (csl-orig/v02/cae/cae.txt) — the English twin of the German CCS entry:
<L>3<pc>001<k1>aMSa<k2>a/MSa
{#a/MSa#}¦ <lex>m.</lex> portion, share, part, party; <ab>N.</ab> of a god.
| In the source | Meaning |
|---|---|
<pc>001 | page reference (p. 1 — CAE cites the page only) |
{#a/MSa#} | the headword (a/ = the accented á; search key <k1> is SLP1) |
<lex>m.</lex> | grammatical category — masculine |
portion, share, part, party | the English glosses |
<ab>N.</ab> | "Name" — here "N. of a god" |
Other entries add comparative cognates with <lang> — e.g. the negative prefix a-/an- is
glossed "corresponding to Gr. ἀ ἀν, Lat. in, Germ. un." See
Data Formats for the markup reference.
What makes it distinctive
- A compact English distillation of the Petersburg lexica. One volume standing in for the
multi-volume Böhtlingk-Roth — the English sibling of
CCS. - Indo-European cognates. Many entries note Greek / Latin / Germanic parallels.
- Accented headwords, terse glosses.
Headword key conventions
<k1> is SLP1 (accent-free); <k2> carries the udātta / on the accented vowel — the same pattern as its German twin CCS. CAE also uses <lang> for Indo-European cognates.
| Convention | Marker / form | Example | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search key | SLP1, no accent | aMSa | Type without / to search |
| Accent in display key | / on the accented vowel in <k2> | a/MSa → áṃśa | Visible in headword lists; never type it |
| Cognate note | <lang>language</lang> | <lang>Gk.</lang> ἐγώ | Indo-European comparanda |
| Page reference | <pc>page (3-digit, no column) | <pc>001 = p. 1 | Single page locator |
Abbreviations
Grammatical & general 85
Show first 60 of 85 abbreviations
| A. | Active. |
| ger. | gerund. |
| p. | possessive, v. pref. |
| a. | adjective. |
| I. | Intensive. |
| part. | particle. |
| abl. | ablative. |
| i.e. | that is. |
| perf. | perfect. |
| absol. | absolutely. |
| i.g. | in general. |
| pers. | person or personal. |
| abstr. | abstract, v. pref. |
| imper. | imperative. |
| pers. | person & th(ing). |
| acc. | accusative. |
| impers. | impersonally. |
| pl. | plural. |
| add. | additions. |
| indecl. | indeclinable. |
| prec. | preceding. |
| adv. | adverb. |
| inf. | infinitive. |
| pp. | participle. |
| C. | Causative. |
| instr. | instrumental. |
| pref. | prefix. |
| cert. | certain. |
| interr. | interrogative. |
| prep. | preposition. |
| cf. | compare. |
| intr. | intransitive. |
| pres. | present. |
| comp. | comparative. |
| (j.) | jurisprudence. |
| pron. | pronoun. |
| conj. | conjunctive. |
| l. & f. | literally and figuratively. |
| q.v. | which see. |
| correl. | correlative. |
| lit. | literally. |
| r. | rarely. |
| D. | Desiderative. |
| l.l. | later language. |
| r. | ritual or religion. |
| (d.) | drama. |
| loc. | locative. |
| rh. | rhetoric. |
| dat. | dative. |
| m. | masculine. |
| S. | Simple. |
| den. | denominative. |
| M. | Middle. |
| s. | substantive. |
| du. | dual. |
| m. | meaning. |
| sc. | scilicet. |
| E. | Epithet. |
| N. | Name. |
| seq. | following. |
+ 25 more — see the full list in the source file
See also
- Cappeller German (CCS) — the German twin · Monier-Williams (MW) · Wilson (WIL)
- The full catalog of all 43 dictionaries
- csl-doc cae.rst