Good morning,

I am seeking recommendations for a good Gaelic dictionary (both tangible and electronic versions). Expense is not an issue.

Thank you for your time.

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Táim ag foghlaim Gaelainn na Mumhan

Tá fáilte roim nach aon cheartú!
I am a learner. Any translations offered are practice and should not be used unless confirmed.

Online : faclair.com

paper: Colin Mark's Gaelic-English Dictionary
Angus Watson's The Essential English-Gaelic Dictionary

they are the best ones, in my opinion.

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

Angus Watson has also put out The Essential Gaelic-English Dictionary as a companion volume to the English Gaelic one which Lughaidh mentioned. Both volumes are comparatively recent (first published in 2000 and 2001) and still in print, I believe (I got them both through Amazon), and are very good, because they reflect current Gaelic usage and spelling (while still mentioning some alternate, usually older forms for words), and including cross-references to other word choices for a given concept. They also give a number of examples of how to use words in phrases.

For a very comprehensive dictionary which gives more extensive examples and usages, and includes more older words (or older spellings) which you may come across in writings and songs, there's also Dwelly's combined Faclair Gaidhlig gu Bearla/Illustrated Gaelic to English Dictionary, published originally in 1901, although I have a 1994 reprint from Gairm Publications in Glasgow.

If you like etymology, MacBain's Etymological Dictionary of Scottish-Gaelic is great, both for Gaelic and Irish, because it explains the etymology going back to Old Irish, and also mentions cognates in other Indo-European languages, which can be fascinating. The original was published in the late 19th or early 20th century, but I have a reprint published by Hippocrene Books in 1998.

For future use, I'm going to add a link to this thread in the Gaelic resources thread which is "stickied" at the beginning of the forum.

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I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.

Go raibh míle maith agaibh as bhur gcabhair (níl a fhios agam conas a rá i nGaeilge na hAlban sin fós).

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Táim ag foghlaim Gaelainn na Mumhan

Tá fáilte roim nach aon cheartú!
I am a learner. Any translations offered are practice and should not be used unless confirmed.

Thathar ag ràdh "tapadh leibh airson mo chuideachaidh" = thanks for helping me

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

I see that there's this one that has just come out - Foclóir Gàidhlig - Gaeilge compiled by Caomhín Ó Scanaill and published by a publisher I can't find called Cadhan Aonair (it's got nothing to do with the book of the same name, as far as I know) ISBN 978 0 9975 6650 5

www.booknest.ie/shopexd.asp?id=26641604

(It wouldn't be the CaoimhínSF we have here on the forum by any chance, would it?)

No. If it were, it would be the height of arrogance, since I'm still very much a learner.

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I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.

It's Kevin Scannell from Saint Louis University actually. There's his academic page which has links to some other projects he's done for Irish.

In my studies I use Colin Mark's a lot (I joke that it's the "dialect" I'm learning ). It has been definitely worth the money I invested in it. But the Teach Yourself Essential Gaelic Dictionary is also a very good dictionary for beginner-to-intermediate learners and for quick reference. It doesn't have much in the way of examples, but it shouldn't be dismissed because of its size or because TY published it. Its authors are very well-respected and it is a descriptivist dictionary that reflects contemporary common usage. Whether one likes this or that particular common usage or not, that is something valuable for every learner to know.

Am Faclair Beag is a very good online dictionary, but I tend to use LearnGaelic.net's dictionary more often, as it uses Am Faclair Beag's database and is usually faster. Michael Bauer does a great job curating AFB but it can be glè slaooooodach at times.