This revised and expanded version of the dictionary grew out of the original Random House edition, which was funded by a generous grant from the National Cryptologic School, Department of Defense. I gratefully acknowledge that grant, which made the publication of the original dictionary possible.
The availability of online language corpora has drastically changed the lexicographer’s job. In my work on the revised edition, I have benefited enormously from the National Russian Corpus (Национальный корпус русского языка), an incomparable lexicographic tool, which enabled me to streamline and bring up to date certain important contextual and so-ciolinguistic features of many idioms—collocation, stylistic register, appropriacy, and more. My gratitude to the creators of the NRC is boundless. And it may sound cliche, but I have to admit that dictionary-making in the Google era is much more fun than in long-forgotten pre-Google times.
Of all the individuals to whom tribute is due, I owe my greatest debt to Judith Hehir, who worked with me as an editor on the revised edition (and also on an early version of the original edition, where she is acknowledged as Judith VanDyk), and Marjorie McShane, who served as a developmental editor for the original edition. Both Judith and Marjorie worked with total dedication, showing fine feeling for language and style, superb editorial skills, and unsurpassed critical flair.
Several accomplished translators kindly agreed to serve as my consultants on controversial cases of English usage for the revised edition: I am deeply indebted to Robert Chandler, Michael R. Katz, Stephen Pearl, and Timothy D. Sergay for their generosity. It is a pleasure to thank Melanie and Dmitry Savransky for their insights on the use of challenging English idioms. A great debt is also owed to my translation consultants for the original edition, Charles Rougle and Rebecca Stanley, whose erudition and translation skills have improved the dictionary.
I extend my special thanks to two outstanding linguists, Jurij Apresjan and Igor Mel’cuk, for their advice and assistance regarding linguistic matters. It was an inspiration to work with both of them on the original edition.
Many colleagues and friends on both sides of the Atlantic— linguists, translators, literary scholars—have generously assisted me in my attempts to answer a multitude of questions related to the usage and stylistic register of idioms. I wish to express my special appreciation to those who have helped me in various ways with both the original and revised editions: Lena Jacobson, Larisa Lebedeva, Slava Paperno, Vladimir Savransky, Inna Sazonova, and Nelly Zhuravlyova. I am grateful to Natalia Bragina, Irina Sandomirskaya, and Igor Sharonov, who offered their help and advice for the revised edition, and to Alina Israeli, Lidija Iordanskaja, Elena Krasnostchekova, the late Olga Levchinskaya, the late Aleksei Mikhalyov, and the late Alexander Penkovsky for their help with the original edition. I thank
them all for providing me with countless fine examples of idiomatic usage in speech. Many of the invented examples in this volume are theirs.
Michael Scammell graciously helped me find equivalents for several difficult idioms, and Lt. Col. James Holbrook, U.S. Army (Ret.), kindly assisted me with military expressions and usages for the original edition. I would like to thank them.
A number of translators and their publishers have responded willingly and graciously to my request to share electronic versions of their recent translations with me: Robert Chandler, Anne O. Fisher, Konstantin Gurevich and Helen Anderson, Michael R. Katz, Stephen Pearl, Marian Schwartz, Timothy D. Sergay, and Arch Tait. My heartfelt appreciation goes to them and their publishers for their generosity (and their willingness to help save my eyesight). While I did use files furnished by the translators and e-books as well, each citation was checked against its print counterpart. My special appreciation goes to Henryk Baran and Alla Smyslova for their unsparing willingness to help obtain the numerous books I needed for citations and for their unstinting support along the way.
Computers and I do not get along well, hence my very heartfelt appreciation for help and support in this area. I am ever grateful to Boris Yamrom for creating a unique computer program to produce the Index for the original edition and writing an entirely new—and better—program for the revised edition. As I faced innumerable challenges, I knew that I could always rely on Slava Paperno’s steady helping hand and Robert C. Atwood’s knowledge and patience to stabilize my love-hate relationship with my computer. My special thanks to Boris, Slava, and Robert.
I am deeply obliged to my bibliographer for the original edition, the late Kay L. Shaffer. Because the format she selected is user friendly, I opted to retain it in the revised edition.
Many former graduate students at the State University of New York at Albany gave abundantly of their time and expertise to the original edition of the dictionary. Nancy Downey, Erika Haber, Eric Nehrbauer, and the late Michael Slattery earn special thanks for their work on the earliest version of this volume. I am also indebted to many others, whose work for the original edition is recognized there, and I wish to thank them all once again in the hope that they will forgive me for not recognizing them individually on this page.
No book is possible without a good and caring publisher. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my sponsoring editor, Vadim Staklo, whose enthusiasm and drive made this edition possible, and to the entire Yale University Press team. My production editor at YUP, Ann-Marie Imbornoni, is any author’s dream—unfailingly efficient, always supportive, and infinitely gracious. Karen Hohner copyedited this edition, and her enviable knowledge, perfect grasp of the complexities involved, and incomparable expertise have served to refine the dictionary. Thank you, Vadim, Annie, and Karen.
I am deeply grateful to Kevin Krugh of Technologies ‘N Typography: his technical expertise, prompt solution of all kinds of problems, and inexhaustible patience-cum-good-humor made the editing and production stages of this complex project as smooth and enjoyable as possible.
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Three anonymous readers for Yale University Press contributed perceptive comments, and I am grateful. My particular thanks go to the reader who offered a number of specific constructive suggestions. Very special recognition is due to the Random House team that worked with me on the original edi-tion—especially the late Sol Steinmetz, my project editor and first-rate lexicographer, from whose perceptiveness and wisdom I benefited tremendously, and English-text editor, Joyce O’Connor, whose excellent contribution is much appreciated.
While acknowledging with pleasure and gratitude my indebtedness to those who helped me produce this dictionary, I wish to emphasize that I alone am ultimately responsible for its content and presentation. My hope is that this edition, like its predecessor, will justify the time and effort invested by all involved.
Sophia Lubensky
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EDITORIAL AND PRODUCTION STAFF
Random House First Edition
Executive Editor Sol Steinmetz
Developmental Editor Maijorie McShane
Supervising Copy Editor Judy Kaplan
English Text Editor Joyce O’Connor
Linguistic Consultants Jurij Apresjan Igor Mel’cuk
Production Director Patricia Ehresmann
Bibliography Kay L. Shaffer
INDEX PROGRAM Boris Yamrom
Yale University Press Revised Edition
Sponsoring Editor vadim Staklo
Director of Publishing Operations Christina H. Coffin
Editor, World Languages Tim Shea
English Text Editor Judith Hehir
Copy Editor Karen Hohner
Production Editor Ann-Marie Imbornoni