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I'm studying Latin with the book Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata. I'm currently in chapter XLIII. When I have a doubt about some word, I can look at the indeces (which is a separate book) to find in which pages that word was used.

I would like to use actual dictionaries, since they are more practical and contain more words that those found in the two volumes of LLPSI. But I have a doubt regarding the meaning of some expressions commonly found in monolingual Latin dictionaries. The following is a screenshot of the word entry for praetereo in Vademecum in opus Saxonis.

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In this entry, terms like proprie, translate, generatim, speciatim and impersonaliter appear. What do those terms indicate about the possible uses of the verb praetereo ?

Take, for instance, the adverb translate. I know that this comes from the verb transfero, -ferre, -tuli, -latum by taking the participle translatum and changing it to a adverb. But, in the dictionary itself, I don't know what it's indicating about the explanations found in the entry of praetereo. In my intuition, I think it's indicating that the entries that follow are the figurative uses of the verb praetereo (e.g: neglego, omitto).

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    Welcome to the site! Are you familiar with the adverbs proprie, translate, generatim, speciatim, impersonaliter? A monolingual dictionary is of no help if you don't know anything about the language yet. The connections within the vocabulary only make sense if you already know quite a bit. Can you elaborate on your background and what specifically makes you wonder here? (I'll close the question for now but can reopen if you elaborate.)
    – Joonas Ilmavirta
    Dec 6, 2021 at 16:04
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    I'll be blunter: you clearly speak English, so use one of the many, many English–Latin dictionaries available and aimed at learners. (If you speak another language which also has readily available Latin dictionaries for learners, by all means use that instead.)
    – dbmag9
    Dec 6, 2021 at 17:40
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    I would like to stick with monolingual dictionaries because not doing so defeats the purpose of the natural method.
    – thiagotps
    Dec 6, 2021 at 19:21
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    I fail to see the point, but each to their own. I hope someone is able to give you a satisfactory answer in Latin so your natural method learning is not corrupted.
    – dbmag9
    Dec 6, 2021 at 23:23
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    In a way, though, doesn't any use of a dictionary defeat the purpose of the natural method?
    – cnread
    Dec 7, 2021 at 3:50

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