This standard lexicon of Syriac has long been the choice of students of
Syriac, both for its comprehensiveness and also because of its handy
size. It originated as an abridgement of Payne Smith's Thesaurus
Syriacus, a substantically larger work that also tends to be less
accessible for the student. Here the meanings of the Syriac words are
given in English, and the order of the Syriac is alphabetical, to avoid
requiring the student to know the root of the word being looked up. An
essential tool for anyone studying or researching Syriac texts or
literature and for students of the Semitic languages.
The Compendious Syriac Dictionary was first published by Oxford
University Press in 1903 and has been out of print for a number of
years. A quality Eisenbrauns reprint based on the 1976 printing.