Le ménard : d ́où veint-il? où va-t-il? : the making of an accounting and finance dictionary

For nine years now, the Dictionnaire de la comptabilité et de la gestión financiére (the "Ménard"), published by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants with the collaboration of the Ordre des experts-comptables de France and the Instituí des Réviseurs d'Entreprises de Belgique, has been a vital working tool for English-French and French-English translators in the fields of accounting and finance. The "Red Bible" as it is sometimes called has sold about 20,000 copies (paper and CD-ROM). Over three quarters of these copies were sold in Canadá and approximately 3,000 in Europe. A number of American translators purchased the dictionary, mainly by ordering it from Canadá. All in all, taking account of the 1977 and 1982 editions, sales have totalled over 50,000 copies. Not bad for an accounting dictionary! Work on a new edition began in 1999 and should be completed in 2004. With this eagerly awaited update, the terminological and lexicographical project launched ten years ago will have reached maturity. The paper begins by providing background information on the 2004 Dictionnaire bilingüe comptable et fmancier and shows how a project initiated to resolve local concerns evolved over the years into a multinational dictionary. It presents the features of the next edition and discusses the development process, focusing on how the globalization of capital markets and accounting standard-setting, as well as technology are being taken into account.