These Words Will Never Fail You
Written: Oct 29 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Wonderful educational tool
Cons: A little expensive, at $60
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| pambo's Full Review: American Heritage Dictionary |
Throw out the 10-pound Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, now, and go get the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th edition). This book sets out to educate, enthrall and entertain us, and succeeds. This is far more than we have expected from dictionaries in the past, but what we should demand from those in the future, thanks to the standards set by this edition.
It is a marvel of useful information, notable for many details but especially for these:
1. Usage notes. On a regular basis, the dictionary pauses after defining a word to explain the origin and use of the word, usually in greater detail than the definition of the word itself. The Usage Notes alone make the dictionary an eye-opening read. So it is that after defining “crescendo” as “a gradual increase, especially in the volume or intensity of sound in a passage” it then comes back to with this Usage Note:
“Crescendo is sometimes used by reputable speakers and writers to denote a climax or peak, as in noise level, rather than an increase. Although citational evidence over time attests to widespread currency, it is difficult for anyone acquainted with the technical musical sense of crescendo to use it to mean ‘a peak’.’’
Can you hear the slight whiff of disdain for the slip in usage, and the need to correct it? My spellcheck doesn’t even recognize “citational” as a word. Despite its determination to set standards, it doesn’t sneer at people or talk down to them. Clearly, its editors set out to educate, not berate.
2. Occasionally, the dictionary pauses to provide synonym advice; after defining “attribute,” it follows with a 13-line explanation of alternative words, and how best to use them.
3. Word history. It follows the definition of “dinner” with this: “Eating foods such as pizza and ice cream for breakfast may be justified etymologically.” It then explains the development of the word dinner by tracing words through the Old French, Vulgar Latin and Middle English, changing all the way.
4. Regional notes. After telling us that the adverb “everywhere” is a chiefly southern usage, it says that the “inversion, or reversal of the two halves of a compound word, is a common process in the dialects of the southern Appalachians.” To back up its statement, it cites these words: peckerwood, hoppergrass, dollbaby, tie-tongued, doghanged and right-out. Now I know the origins of some of those expressions I grew up with in Northeastern Ohio, which had become home to a lot of Southerners looking for work.
5. Our Living Language, which explains how our language is evolving; it tells us, for example, how the Chinese words “gung ho” entered the English language during World War II, while pointing out several other words, such as flak and gizmo, that arrived about the same time.
6. The artwork. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t spend 30 seconds thinking about pictures when reading or writing about a dictionary. But you cannot fail to be drawn to these. Every page has at least one, and most have several, pictures ranging from an illustration of how a cell phone network operates, to pictures of presidents, athletes, animals, Morse Code, a wickiup, a plow and on and on. Some poor picture editor probably went insane trying to select just the right mix of art.
7. This is a dictionary with explanations for explanations. We are given lists of entries with notes, telling us which words have regional notations (absquatulate to you-uns); Our Living Language notes, which cover a-2 squared to zero copula; the previously mentioned synonyms (ability to zest), the Usage Notes (a-squared to zoology) and Word history notes, from abacus to zloty.
Charts trace the Indo-European family of languages in a two-page illustration at the end of the book; another traces the proto-Semitic sounds, while elsewhere the dictionary reminds us that about 700 Semitic words have entered the English language.
The dictionary’s authors say they’ve added 10,000 new words and senses, and many show; there are a great number of new technical, scientific and pop culture references.
There are also a great number of people and places defined in this dictionary. To accommodate some of these entries, I suspect some definitions were shortened; though I have found nothing to complain about, some of the entries seem a little short, though more than adequate.
I found some entries a little amusing and wonder how decisions were made; the entry on Satan is stern: “The profoundly evil adversary of God and humanity, often identified with the leader of the fallen angels.” But God/god, well, they’re not so firm about: “A being conceived as the perfect, omnipotent, omniscient originator and ruler of the universe, the principal object of faith and worship in monotheistic religions.”
On a lighter note, you can read this dictionary to spot trends and subthemes, or categories to watch for:
Dead Dictators: Shah of Iran, Franco, Peron, Tiberius, Somoza
Athletes: Pele, Josh Gibson, Pete Rose, Gertrude Ederle, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Ty Cobb, Michael Jordan
Journalists: Lowell Thomas, Walter Cronkite, Dorothy Thompson
Clothing: kilt, izar, huipil, kepi, haik, raglan, camouflage.
And for illustrations, while all the photos are nice, some of the most attractive work is lavished on charts and tables, making them a joy to peruse, including these charts and tables:
Periodic, subatomic, currency, books of the Bible, geologic time scale, proofreader marks.
Each chapter opens with a beautifully illustrated version of the letter, using, for example for the letter I, a mid-16th century Spanish letter. Each letter is accompanied by its Phoenician, Greek and Roman versions.
I have one possible quarrel with the editors. The explanation of the discrepancy between the spelling and the pronunciation of the River Thames in London is at odds with something I was told years ago in Connecticut. That state has its own Thames, but there it is pronounced as it looks: a long “a” and the Th sound heard in “thought.” In Connecticut, the argument is that their river was always pronounced that way and that it was the Londoners, responding to the pronunciation of a German-speaking king, who changed their pronunciation. Hmm. It bears exploration. Don’t let it stop you from buying this dictionary.
You can learn as much as you want from this book. Here are a few words I learned before prying myself from these pages:
Kurgan
Zwitterion
Haplology
Thalweg
Perse
Kaboom. No, Of course I knew that word. That was the sound of my Webster’s landing in the trash can.
Note: This review covers the 4th edition, which has just been released; its ISBN is 0395825172.
Recommended:
Yes
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