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dictionaries, specialist reference, language history

Compact Dictionary for Students

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dictionary + writing and study skills

Despite record-breaking results in GCSEs and A levels, many employers, colleges, and universities complain that they have applications from people who cannot spell or write good English. This is not to say that ‘standards are falling’ – which I don’t believe. On the contrary it seems to me that standards are actually rising – because we are surrounded in print, on screen, and everywhere else by high-quality writing. But more employers and teachers now expect people to be able to produce similarly clear prose, free from ambiguity and grammatical errors.

Compact Dictionary for Students So Oxford University Press have come up with a brand-new dictionary to help students in colleges and universities not only grasp the meanings and spellings of words, but to understand their origins. With over 144,000 words, phrases, and definitions, it offers comprehensive coverage of current English and is perfect for student reference and everyday study needs. They have also done their best to reduce the normally intimidating appearance of pages in a dense book of reference. Each headword is printed in blue instead of the usual black, and this gives the page a lighter tone. It makes the twelve hundred page book (not so compact!) much easier to use.

The really big bonus however is an additional central section which explains how to brush up your English, and how to produce essays and dissertations. It also covers reports and summaries, advice on note-taking and referencing, and preparing CVs and job applications.

Throughout the text there are also notes giving advice on the use of good English, and highlighting the differences between commonly confused words such as empathy and sympathy, and affect and effect, as well as thousands of example phrases showing words in context.

There are also boxed explanations of common problems and misunderstandings. So – the entry on forbear runs as follows:

forbear1 /for-bair / verb (past forebore; past. part. forborne) stop oneself from doing something. – ORIGIN Old English.

USAGE Do not confuse forbear with forebear. Forbear means ‘stop oneself from doing something’ (he doesn’t forbear to write about the bad times ) while forebear (which is also sometimes spelled forbear) means ‘an ancestor’ (our Stone Age forebears).

There is guidance provided on which verbal register a word belongs to – that is, if it’s formal or informal, dated (rotter) literary, technical (dorsal), derogatory (bimbo), offensive, or euphemistic (powder room).

If you were just embarking on a course at college or university, this would be a very good investment. It’s comprehensive, completely up to date, and with Amazon’s discount, a bargain at the price.

© Roy Johnson 2006

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Compact Oxford English Dictionary for Students, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006, pp.1210, ISBN: 0199296251

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Concise Dictionary of Quotations

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who said what, why, when – and about whom

This Concise Dictionary of Quotations is a cut-down version of the fifth edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. It contains over 9000 quotations from more than 2500 authors, and maintains its extensive coverage of literary and historical quotations. New material has been added from today’s influential literary and cultural figures. Entries range alphabetically from Diane Abbot (UK MP) to Emile Zola and Zoroastrian Scriptures. Chronologically, they run from classics which still seem up to date, as in ‘Everyone is quick to blame the alien’ (Aeschylus, 456 BC) and ‘Rumour is not always wrong’ (Tacitus, AD 95) – to pithy laments from recently deposed politicians.

Oxford Concise Dictionary of Quotations The standard quotations from written texts have also been supplemented by ‘Sayings and Slogans’ drawn from the world of advertising and politics, newly coined catchphrases, film lines, recent newspaper headlines, and popular modern sayings. There’s also an appendix of famous film lines and last words, amongst which my favourites were Mae West’s ‘Lets get out of these wet clothes and into a dry Martini’, or Oscar Wilde, speaking of the wallpaper in the room where he was dying: ‘One of us must go’.

Many entries are not so much quotations as extracts from famous texts. The Bible, Shakespeare, Milton, and poets such as Pope, Keats, Browning, and Eliot are all heavily represented.

This is the sort of book you would consult if you saw a well-known phrase such as ‘Earth has not anything to show more fair’ and didn’t know it was from Wordsworth, or ‘Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel’ and didn’t know it is by Samuel Johnson.

Searches are made either by author in alphabetical order, or via a huge index of key words which traces quotations and their authors.

Woody Allen 1935-
I recently turned sixty. Practically a third of my life is now over.

in Observer 10 March 1996 ‘Sayings of the Week’

What’s the difference, you might ask, between this and the Dictionary of Quotations by Subject and the Dictionary of Literary Quotations?

The answer is that although this also uses writers and artists as sources, the main intention here is to include quotations from all the main sources – religious texts, Greco-Roman classics, and the original sources include political figures, people from the worlds of sport and entertainment, and various nonentities who have managed to make themselves famous just by the odd bon mot.

© Roy Johnson 2003

Concise Dictionary of Quotations   Buy the book at Amazon UK

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Elizabeth Knowles (ed), Oxford Concise Dictionary of Quotations, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp.547, ISBN: 0198607520

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Concise Oxford Dictionary

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best-selling one-volume desktop reference

Choosing a dictionary can be very much a matter of personal taste, but the Concise Oxford Dictionary has several features which have always made it a great favourite with writers. It is based upon the monumental Oxford English Dictionary and its latest supplements, which gives it a very good pedigree. At a practical level, it’s perfect for the desktop and easy to handle. I always reach for this one first. For the latest edition, Oxford’s lexicographers have rewritten every entry to represent English as it is used today.

Concise Oxford Dictionary There are over 240,000 words, phrases and meanings covering current and historical English, and specialist and technical areas. Each entry is now clearer and more accessible, with the most modern meanings placed first, and definitions given in a clear and straightforward style. Authoritative guidance on grammar and usage is provided in highlighted boxes, and there are also new Word Formation panels that show how complex words are created.

Full explanations of pronunciation, inflexion, and historical derivation are offered in a systematic manner, and the latest edition also includes a wide range of abbreviations. The Concise Oxford was first published one hundred years ago, and this centenary edition continues the tradition of providing an authoritative coverage of English as it is used today.

Another welcome feature (added as a result of reader-demand) is guidance on matters of disputed and controversial usage. Now you can be warned about that possible non-PC faux-pas (both included) – and it also shows the differences for spellings in American English.

I’ve actually got two copies: one old and battered with use which has been on the bookshelf for years; the other a recent edition which was a present to my office when I moved here.

The critic Cyril Connolly once said that if you knew all the words in the Oxford Concise, you would have a big enough vocabulary to be civilized, fluent, and literate. The jacket-cover advert isn’t exaggerating when it says “The world’s favourite”. If you only have room for a single dictionary, it should be this one.

© Roy Johnson 2011

Concise Oxford Dictionary   Buy the book at Amazon UK

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Concise Oxford English Dictionary (12th updated edn) 2011, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.1728, ISBN: 0199601089

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Dictionary for Scientific Writers and Editors

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specialist scientific style guide and reference

This Dictionary for Scientific Writers and Editors is aimed at scholars working in an academic setting and people writing or editing scientific papers – say in book publishing or the mass print media. It gives exact details of how scientific matter is presented in written form – both in terms of the correct spelling for scientific terms and the manner in which scientific data such as equations are rendered on the page. It’s part of a set of specialist dictionaries and style guides produced by Oxford University Press.

Dictionary for Scientific Writers and EditorsThe OUP is the number one source for reference books of this kind, and the series manages to compress huge, unwieldy databases of information into a handy, useable format. This single volume includes over 9,700 entries which reflect accepted usage, and it follows the recommendations of international scientific bodies such as the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics.

It gives clear guidance on such matters as spellings (American English and British English), punctuation, abbreviations, prefixes and suffixes, units and quantities, and symbols. Also included are the correct spelling of chemical and medical terms; short explanations of the meaning of scientific concepts; basic data about famous scientists; explanations of acronyms; and definitions of terms.

There are appendices with lists of chemical and electro-magnetic symbols; the periodic table; scientific symbols; and a list of web-based resources. It provides substantially enlarged coverage from previous editions, with increased coverage of the life sciences, and new entries in physics, astronomy, chemistry, computer science, and mathematics.

This comprehensive and authoritative A-Z guide is an invaluable tool for students, professionals, and publishers working with writing in the fields of physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, biochemistry, genetics, immunology, microbiology, astronomy, mathematics, and computer science.

These style guides are in a curious format – royal sixteenmo – which is smaller than a conventional book, but too bulky to be pocket-sized. But I must say that it looks quite diminutively handsome on my shelves alongside its colleagues the New Oxford Spelling Dictionary, New Hart’s Rules, and the Oxford BBC Guide to Pronunciation.

© Roy Johnson 2009

Dictionary for Scientific Writers and Editors   Buy the book at Amazon UK

Dictionary for Scientific Writers and Editors   Buy the book at Amazon US

New Oxford Dictionary for Scientific Writers and Editors, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, pp.451, ISBN: 0199545154

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Dictionary for Writers and Editors

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difficult cases of spellings and expressions

The Dictionary for Writers and Editors has been ‘repurposed’ from its original larger-scale edition to sit alongside the New Oxford Spelling Dictionary, New Hart’s Rules, and the Oxford BBC Guide to Pronunciation. These form a group of new reference sources for writers and editors who are concerned with preparing texts for publication to the highest possible standard. It’s a specialist dictionary for writers, journalists, and text-editors. It offers rulings on words and spellings which are commonly problematic.

Dictionary for Writers and Editors For instance, do we write Muslim or Moslem, customise or customize? It covers the names of well-known people and places, foreign words and commonly-used phrases such as petit-bourgeois and persona non grata. Entries run from A as a letter or paper size to Zydeco music and Zyklon B.

Many of these items are in any good dictionary, but this one eliminates all the non-problematic words and makes the book easier to use. It also deals with abbreviations, capitalization and punctuation. I looked up amendment [one ‘m’] superseded [yes – it’s spelt with an ‘s’] and manageable [it keeps the ‘e’]. It can also be used as a quick guide to many niceties of writing (the difference between hyphens and dashes) and as a potted source for historical names, dates, and places of importance.

At first glance, there might not seem much difference between this and an ordinary dictionary, but the process of selection and the emphasis on explanations of common problems makes it a very useful resource. This latest edition offers a huge revision and update on the original. Entries have been expanded on doubtful or variable spellings (“gettable” not “getable”); the punctuation of dates and spellings of proper names; and all those other little things that are so difficult to be consistent about when writing. It is also an invaluable guide to words that are often confused such as biannual (twice every year, or every six months) and biennial (every two years).

It is designed to be used in conjunction with New Hart’s Rules, which gives details of how text should be edited in preparation for printing. The headword is set in bold sans-serif, which makes it more immediately legible, though it might seem strange if you are used to the OUP tradition of bold Roman. There are four appendices: mathematical and logical symbols; proofreading marks; a list of diacritical accents; and tables for transliterating Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, and Russian.

It should certainly be amongst the reference tools of anybody who takes a serious interest in writing. The new smaller handbook format is a matter of personal taste, but it certainly looks a handsome little tome flanked by its three cousins.

Dictionary for Writers and Editors   Buy the book at Amazon UK

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© Roy Johnson 2005

The Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, pp.434, ISBN: 0198610408

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Dictionary of British Place Names

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origins of UK town, hamlet, and village names

Have you ever wondered how places such as Eccles, Stoke Poges, Great Snoring, Lower Peover, or Leighton Buzzard get their names? This Dictionary of British Place Names will tell you, and give you details about the historical background. The reason there are so many unusual names for British towns, villages, and hamlets is of course that the UK has been invaded by so many different nations in the past. They have left their languages stamped all over the land.

Oxford Dictionary of British Place NamesAnd as the author of this specialist dictionary points out, foreign languages actually persist in place names more than in the living language, because place names are not likely to change, whereas the spoken language does. There are over 17,000 entries listed here – alphabetically, from Abbas Combe in Somerset to Zennor in Cornwall. Most place names come from Old English, Danish, Norse, and Celtic, with only a smattering from Norman-French, and Latin. And not all of the etymologies are as obvious as they might seem.

For instance, many place names which occur a lot can in fact come from different origins. Broughton occurs in several counties and combinations such as Broughton Astley (Leics) and Broughton Poggs (Oxon). But the name can come from ‘brook farmstead’, ‘hill farmstead’, or ‘fortified farmstead’.

The opposite phenomenon also occurs – where the same thing can give rise to different names. Thus Keswick and Chiswick both come from ‘cheese farm’.

Most of the names listed are likely to be at least a thousand years old, and structurally they are often in two parts. The first may be a place, person, tribal, or river-name – and it qualifies the second part. Thus Bakewell was originally Badecanwelle formed from Badeca + wella = ‘Spring or stream of a man called Badeca’.

There’s a glossary of common elements in British place names – such as baernet, land cleared by burning; mynster, minster or large church; and stoc, outlying farmstead or hamlet. This occurs in my own home town of Stockport – which I notice has just appeared in the designed-for-Xmas novelty publication, Crap Towns: The 50 Worst Places to Live in the UK.

© Roy Johnson 2011

Dictionary of British Place Names   Buy the book at Amazon UK

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A.D. Mills, Oxford Dictionary of British Place Names, Oxford: Oxford University Press, revised edition, 2011, pp.576, ISBN: 019960908X

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Dictionary of British Politics

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UK parliament, its members, and political affairs

If you want to know what’s going on in UK society and politics today, the Dictionary of British Politics is the definitive resource. It’s written by a best-selling authority on the subject of parliament, personalities, and modern politics. Entries span from Diane Abbot and the Acts of Union, via the Maastrict Treaty and Gus MacDonald, to Tim Yeo and the Zinoviev letter. I don’t know why the entries are split into two parts – politics and people – but there’s a list of web sites and a good list of further reading.

Dictionary of British PoliticsThese make you feel confident that the author is on top of his subject. (So confident that he’s even just started a daily political blog at SKIPPER). It covers the personalities, policies, and institutions that have shaped British politics. The entries are short, lively, and authoritative. What I liked in particular was the mixture of biographical sketches (Killroy-Silk failed his eleven-plus exam) and entries which give thumbnail accounts of larger issues, events, and movements such as Marxism, the Kyoto Protocol, and election rules, as well as politically influential forces such as newspapers, pressure groups, and the media.

This is a book which I imagine will be invaluable to any student of politics or general readers who want to know what’s going on now in the UK. It will also help them to understand the details of the many organisations and pressure groups which compete to influence political power.

All information is well cross-referenced. So for instance, the entry on the Daily Mail provides the newspaper’s web site; it points to the entry for its original owner Alfred Harmsworth; and it flags up its support for the above-mentioned bogus Zinoviev letter.

The coverage even extends to social issues such as water privatisation, party political broadcasts, cronyism, and arcane parliamentary issues such as the Chiltern Hundreds: (I didn’t realise there were three).

It also covers members of parliament, government policies, the important bits of parliamentary history, political theories, historical landmarks, and even newspapers and their proprietors who influence events. The latest edition also covers the many scandals in political life during the last few years.

© Roy Johnson 2010

Dictionary of British Politics   Buy the book at Amazon UK

Dictionary of British Politics   Buy the book at Amazon US

Bill Jones, Dictionary of British Politics, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2nd revised edition 2010. p.496. ISBN: 0719079403

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Dictionary of Classical Myth and Religion

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comprehensive A to Z reference to the classical world

This Dictionary of Classical Myth and Religionis a serious reference book providing invaluable information not only on Greek and Roman mythologies but also on religion in the Graeco-Roman world, including both Judaism and Christianity. It runs from Abaris, legendary devotee of Apollo, through to Zoroaster (who I didn’t realise was the Greek form of the Iranian Zarathrustra). Many of the entries are the length of mini essays. The compilation includes both Greek mythology and Roman festivals, religious places, gods, deities, divination, astrology, and magic. There are also entries on Egyptian religion, Christian beliefs, Homer, Judaism, magic, and river gods.

Dictionary of Classical Myth and ReligionSo, in a typical entry you are given multiple interpretations and sources. Electra for instance is daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra and sister of Orestes, but she is also alternatively daughter of Atlas and Pleione, mother by Zeus of Dardanus and Iasion.

You can also look up classical notions such as the polis, votive offerings, and hubris (‘intentionally dishonouring behaviour’ – not ‘pride or over-confidence’) .

Iliona, in mythology, eldest daughter of Priam and Hecuba. Wife of Polymestor (see HECUBA), she saved the life of Polydorus in a variant version by passing him off as her son, Polymestor thus murdering his own child.
(Virgil, Aeneid 1. 653-4)

The main text is supplemented by an important introductory essay providing
overviews of mythology, religious pluralism in the ancient world, and the
reception of myths from antiquity to the present.

This is a serious, heavyweight, and comprehensive work of reference. It also contains maps, lists of genealogical tables, a thematic index, and an extensive bibliography. An ideal resource for students and teachers of ancient history and religion and anyone interested in the ancient world.

© Roy Johnson 2003

Dictionary of Classical Myth and Religion   Buy the book at Amazon UK

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Simon Price and Emily Kearns, The Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth and Religion, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp.599, ISBN: 0192802887

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Dictionary of Contemporary Slang

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street-speak, vulgar language, swearing and obscenities

It’s very difficult for dictionary compilers to keep up with the development of slang. Would you have known what chav and bling meant a year ago – in 2004 that is? But Tony Thorne’s compilation certainly captures most of the new street language that is passing into common usage as I write towards the end of 2005. Of course some of it may not last, but I have the feeling his selection is well-judged.

Dictionary of Contemporary SlangHe offers more than 15,000 definitions, many of the terms drawn from the worlds of drugs, sport, youth culture, and television, as well as traditional slang topics such as sex, money, and bodily functions. He also explains how and when the terms are used, with notes on nuance, tone, and associations. The language items are drawn from Britain, America, and Australia, as well as other English-speaking countries. He gives plenty of examples of usage and cites sources wherever possible.

He defines slang quite persuasively as “language selected for its striking informality”. And of course it’s is a loose enough term to encompass irreverence, vulgarity, new jargon, and obscenity – as well as the coded terms used by minority groups as a sort of secret language.

I was glad to see that he acknowledges one of my favourite sources of contemporary slang – Roger’s Profanisaurus – and cites it as the source for their wonderful synonym for bonkers which seems to still be in general circulation – “He’s gone completely hatstand“.

He also includes Cockney rhyming slang, which is still popular and spawning new variants all the time – although his entry on the now-disgraced Garry Glitter does not illustrate a beverage as other slang dictionaries claim, but a body part – itself a slang term. (I’ll leave you to work that one out.)

And he’s good at keeping dated slang in the lexicon. Probably not many people under forty would know that ‘gams’ is a slang term for shapely legs (on a woman of course) or that it comes from the Old Northern French term gamb – obviously itself closely related to jambe.

He’s also good at noting the mutiple possible meanings of words: fag can be a male homosexual or something you smoke. [Oops! it’s all a linguistic minefield.] So – a typical entry runs as follows, fully explaining the term:

naff adj

tasteless, inferior, shoddy, and unappealing. Naff had existed in working-class slang for at least 40 years by the time it became a vogue word in the later 1970s. It had been used in the jargon of prostitutes to mean nothing or negligible. In the theatrical, criminal and street-trading milieus it meant third-rate or poor quality. The word’s sudden popularity occurred probably because it was seized upon by TV scriptwriters (particularly Dick Clement and Ian la Frenais in the comic series Porridge) as an acceptable euphemism for fuck in such forms as ‘naff-all’ (meaning fuck-all), naffing and naff off. Naff’s ultimate origin, which seems to be 19th century, is nonetheless obscure. It has been claimed that it is a backslang form of fann(y) (in the sense of females sex organs) or an acronym or alteration of a phrase involving the word fuck (‘not a fucking fart’ or similar). Neither etymology is attested (or particularly convincing), and the similarity to NAFFI is probably coincidental-

‘To be naff is to be unstylish, whatever that may mean.’

(The Complete Naff Guide, Bryson, et al, 1983)

A lot of the examples he gives are actually US slang which is passing into UK usage, but he explains the provenance. He includes phrases as well as individual words – as in choke the chicken and smuggling peanuts.

Tony Thorne knows his stuff. There’s no slack here. The language of the street is up front. He doesn’t pretend to the sort of historical depth you get with Eric Partridge, but this is as up-to-date a dictionary of ‘strikingly informal’ contemporary language as you are likely to find.

© Roy Johnson 2007

Dictionary of Contemporary Slang   Buy the book at Amazon UK

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Tony Thorne, Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, London: A and C Black, 3rd revised edition, 2006, pp.512, ISBN: 0713675292

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Dictionary of English Folklore

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traditional beliefs, customs, myths, and superstitions

How would you find out what myths are attached to hedgehogs – or about cures for warts? It’s no good looking in the excellent Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, because that deals with sayings and people, not beliefs and activities. This Dictionary of English Folklore is a compendium of national beliefs which describes in reasonably objective terms the customs, myths, and superstitions associated with traditional English culture.

Dictionary of English Folklore It excludes other parts of the British Isles on the grounds that Scotland, Ireland and Wales have their own languages, through which these beliefs have been transmitted. And if even a fraction of these beliefs are alive and well in the twenty-first century, it speaks volumes for the strength of tradition. It covers what it calls ‘oral and performance’ genres – such as cheese rolling, Morris dancing, and well dressing – which I can confirm are alive and popular in the part of England that I inhabit (except for the cheese rolling: we just eat it and have the oldest, Cheshire).

Mythical characters such as Robin Hood, Merlin, Beowulf, and father Christmas are examined – as well as what people believe about parts of the body. This includes the significance of certain fingers, the eyebrows, the nose, and especially the thumb – from ‘OK’ to ‘obscene’.

The significance of special days in the calendar are well documented – All Saints’ day, St Agnes’ Eve (especially significant for love) – and there are beliefs associated with simple items such as plants – cowslip, parsley, foxglove, and clover.

They also cover archaeological items such as Stonehenge, Camelot, and my own special favourite ever since I first cycled past it as a youth – the Cerne Abbas Giant.

The line the authors take is a reasonable compromise between detached description and sympathetic endorsement of these beliefs. They are not afraid to debunk some ideas – such as the belief that ‘Ring-a-ring-a-roses’ is connected with the Great Plague. (The first English versions were recorded in a New Year ceremony in Allendale, Northumberland, in which the men march through the village with blazing tar barrels – a custom which only started in 1858.)

So if you want to check out fairy rings, Devil’s hoofprints, frog showers, pancake races, sin-eating, and the special significance of Saturday – it’s all here. If there’s evidence, they give it. If not, they usually give it the benefit of the doubt. You can make up your own mind.

© Roy Johnson 2003

Dictionary of English Folklore   Buy the book at Amazon UK

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J. Simpson (ed), Dictionary of English Folklore, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp.420, ISBN: 0198607660

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