French Dictionary
French is considered the language of love. That may be why people have an interest in a French dictionary. Of course, it might just be because they want to translate words from French, or learn the meaning of French words.
A French dictionary was often a standard tool of a high school or college French student. Such a dictionary would have English words translated into French and French words translated into English. It's easy to see why this would be useful for someone trying to learn the language.
As the Internet developed more and more French dictionaries went online. This included translation services such as AltaVista and more recently Google. These can be used to translate sentences or entire blocks of text. That can be very useful when having conversations online with someone from another country, or when translating a document into another language.
Let's look up a few words in a French dictionary. Toast in English is a piece of bread made crisp by exposure to dry heat. There are a variety of types of toast. These include French toast which is called eggy bread in parts of the United Kingdom. The French phrase for this is pain perdu. It's made by dipping the bread in egg and frying it. It can be topped with butter, fruit, syrup, or many other items including strawberries.
But in a French dictionary the word toast would be a phrase delivered in honor of something. We're familiar with this when the best man toasts the bride and groom at a wedding reception. The French phrase is en l'honneur de.
Another word found in the French dictionary is bread. Pain is the literal French translation. It does not refer to a loaf of bread or a slice of bread, but more specifically to a loaf of soap, or ice. Panade in French is bread soup.
In a French dictionary word restaurant would be Café. We use that word in English as well as we use the word restaurant. A restaurateur in French is a person who owns a restaurant. In that language it's a masculine noun.
In a French dictionary pomme is a potato. When turned into french fries the French would call it pommes frites. That was once explained on the popular children's show Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. The phrase pommes de la soupe would be potato soup. If you wanted a baked potato with some cheese on it you might ask for pommes du fromage.
As you can see a French dictionary as more uses than just for love.