work
Dictionary of 30,000 Foreign Words
the Dictionary of 30,000 Foreign Words
also: Словарь 30000 иностранных слов
A type of popular reference volume glossing foreign and loan words for the general Russian reader; the joke is that in a properly literary country, the word "literator" wouldn't need looking up in one.
Reading notes
- From the Notebook of Ivan Ivanych (Thoughts and Notes) §6 30,000 Foreign Words
A real genre of reference volume glossing foreign loanwords for status-conscious clerks. The joke pairs even a junior official plodding through one with a mere third-form schoolboy, to belittle women's supposed inability to manage either.