This is a complete, unabridged republication of a Dictionary of Spoken Spanish, which was specially prepared by nationally known linguists for the U.S. War Department (TM#30-900). It is compiled from spoken Spanish and emphasizes idiom and colloquial usage in both Castilian and Latin American areas. More than 16,000 entries provide exact translations of both English and Spanish sentences and phrases; as many as 60 idioms are listed under each entry. This is easily the largest list of idiomatic constructions ever published. Travelers, business people, and students who are interested in Latin American studies have found this dictionary their best source for those expressions of daily life and social activity not usually found in books. More than 18,000 idioms are given, not as isolated words that you have to conjugate or alter, but as complete sentences that you can use without change. A 25-page introduction provides a rapid survey of Spanish sounds, grammar, and syntax, with full consideration of irregular verbs. It is especially apt in its modern treatment of phrase and clause structure. A 17-page appendix gives translations of geographical names, numbers, national holidays for Spanish countries, important street signs, useful expressions of high frequency, and a unique 7-page glossary of Spanish and Spanish-American foods and dishes.

Although Pedro Calderón de la Barca was one of the greatest and most prolific playwrights of Spain's Golden Age, most of his nonallegorical comedias -- 118 in all -- have remained unknown. Robert ter Horst presents here the first full-length study of these works, a sustained, meditative analysis dealing with more than 80 plays, conveying a sense of the whole of Calderón's secular theater. To approach so vast a body of literature, Mr. ter Horst examines the meaning and function in Calderón of three broad subjects -- myth, honor, and history -- the warp threads across which the playwright weaves a subtle tapestry of contrasts, dualities, and conflicts: the private person versus the public person, the inner realm versus the outer, masculine against feminine, poet against prince. The Calderón who emerges is a consciously consummate artist whose lifelong study was the passions of the human mind and body. In addition, he is seen as a synthesizer of his Spanish literary heritage and especially as a brilliant adapter of Cervantes' insights to the stage. Robert ter Horst's profound and far-ranging analysis sheds light on many fine works previously neglected and finds new depths in such supreme achievements as No hay cosa como callar, El segundo Escipión, and La vida es suefio.

Junto a los refranes de hace siglos cuyo uso pervive hoy en día y refranes extraídos de textos clásicos que han caído en desuso, en las páginas de este diccionario podemos encontrar refranes de nuevo cuño que se han extendido en el habla de nuestro tiempo.