Modern Slang

As the editors say in their introduction to this latest edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang, ‘A year, to paraphrase Harold Wilson, is a long time in slang’. In fact the principal difficulty in compiling lexical resources of this type is what to leave out – because a great deal of slang is very evanescent. Oxford University Press have the advantage of compiling their dictionaries from the huge ‘Corpus’ of recorded language use which makes up the data base from which their publications are compiled. This is a collection of examples of how the English language is actually being used, drawn from the printed word – from literary novels and specialist journals to everyday newspapers and magazines, and from Hansard to the language of chatrooms, emails, and weblogs. The database contains over two billion words, and expands at the rate of 350 million words a year ... more >>

A Dictionary of Modern English Usage

Henry Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage was first published in 1926. It was an immediate success on publication, selling 60,000 copies in its first year, and it went on to become the most influential set of guidelines on grammar and the use of the English language of the twentieth century. There were later versions revised by Sir Ernest Gowers in 1965 and Robert Burchfield in 1996, but this is a facsimile of the original first edition. It's reproduced photographically from the original - so the entries are arranged in two columns on the page, which was the style for books of this kind at the time. This presentation strikes me as doubly appropriate, because it captures the old-fashioned nature of the original, and it accurately reflects the slightly pedantic tone of the contents. Fowler is not unlike his great lexicological predecessor Samuel Johnson in issuing his judgements wrapped around with ironic asides, which makes for interesting reading... Read more >>

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Oxford Dictionary for Scientific Writers and Editors

This dictionary is for scientists 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 produced by Oxford University Press. The 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, usable 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... Read more >>

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The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary

When checking a word, I reach first for the Concise Oxford - because it's right in front of me on the desk. You can pick it up in one hand. If that doesn't give the answer, I go to the Shorter Oxford. This involves a trip to the bookcase, because it's in two volumes - and they're heavy. The term 'Shorter' is almost misleading, because this is a big, serious, scholarly work of reference. It's only shorter in being originally an abridged edition of the monumental Oxford English Dictionary. In recent editions however, the material draws on the OED's ongoing revision, as well as its own independent research program.The entries are slightly abbreviated, but still rich in historical etymology... Read more >>

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Dictionary of Euphemisms

Don't be fooled by the title. This is much more than a collection of polite expressions. It's also a detailed inventory of slang, sexual code terms, metaphors, evasiveness, underworld argot, and indecent language. The terms are explained, discussed, illustrated, and commented upon in a witty and it has to be said rather dryly satirical manner. The compiler is a business man who has no truck with fashionable political correctness or weak-kneed liberalism, and he takes a particular interest in the way 'professions' avoid speaking plainly of their doings. The obvious topics which invoke euphemism are sex, lavatories, drinking, drugs, crime, and death... Read more >>

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