Best Slang & Idiom Reference Books

Brits and Americans dress the same, eat at the same chain restaurants, pass music back and forth across the Atlantic, and our national leaders are practically conjoined twins.

The quintessential A to Z guide to British English—perfect for every egghead and bluestocking looking to conquer the language barrier Oscar Wilde once said the Brits have "everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language." Part language guide, part cultural study, How to Speak Brit is the perfect addition to every Anglophile’s library and an entertaining primer that will charm the linguistic-minded legions. “Language most shewes a man: speake that I may see thee,” wrote the playwright Ben Jonson as early as 1641 to point out that your life could literally depend on the way you spoke. Over the next three centuries, many other writers pursued the same ideal, driven by their annoyance with lax standards to publish guides and norms for good writing and speaking. Lessons in elocution—the art of speaking properly—became a necessary part of the education of any young lady, especially those, like Jane Austen’s heroines, in search of a husband with estates and an income of more than three thousand a year. Perhaps the most famous example in literature of the social power of received English is found in George Bernard Shaw’s 1916 play Pygmalion , popularized in the 1960s stage musical and movie My Fair Lady . Wal, fewd dan y’ de-ooty bawmz a mather should, eed now bettern to spawl a pore gel’s flahrzn than ran awy athaht pyin. The professor, spurred on by a bet with a friend, takes on the challenge of changing the flower girl’s speech and manners to make her acceptable to upper-class London society. In the remotest corners of Britain, modest and retiring grannies were surprised to find microphones thrust under their noses, with the invitation to sing, chant, or narrate anything that came into their heads. Added to the new linguistic freedoms was that of ignorance, as grammar was no longer taught in schools, and no British person under the age of forty now has any idea what a substantive, preposition, or adverb is, let alone the correct use of the apostrophe. Linguists gave us the freedom to speak as we like, and as a result, perhaps at no time since the first Elizabethan period, when Shakespeare took full advantage of it, has the language been in such a state of rapid and creative change. A cozy, private home with a roaring fire to keep the gloomy weather at bay, a pipe and slippers, and a cherished dog snoozing at your feet—all of these are parts of the British psyche that run deep. Agas, despite being somewhat clunky in appearance, are surprisingly fuel-efficient and capable of running for twenty-four hours on only eight pounds of solid fuel while producing an intense and lasting radiant heat. A faded, yet elegant, area in central London near the British Museum, known as the home for scandalous behavior by the literary and artistic set in the early twentieth century. Once characterized by Georgian period squares, and known for its bookshops, publishing houses, and social elegance, Bloomsbury was devastated by German bombs during the Second World War. It is a major event for all those men and women who have spent the entire year pottering (and probably potting, too) and who come out by the thousands to see how the professional garden designers fare in competition against each other. But if there is one consolation found in coming to Chelsea, it seems that the professionals have precisely the same problems: Plants fail to thrive, water features dry up or overflow, neighbors complain, workmen don’t turn up on time, and trellises collapse in the wind. In earlier centuries, it was considered an essential element of a young person’s proper education to do the Grand Tour of European cities, learning something of our neighbors’ artistic and cultural achievements in the process. It may have its roots in the seventeenth century when, during the English Civil War between Royalists and Parliamentarians, any soldiers of King Charles I that were captured in the battles around the Midlands were literally sent to Coventry, a town that was loyal to Parliament. The people of Coventry were not very welcoming to these enemies and tended to ignore the disgraced soldiers, refusing to serve them in taverns or inns so they were largely reduced to begging in the streets. The Parliamentarians subsequently defeated and deposed the forces of King Charles I and, in 1649, in an act that sent shockwaves around the royal courts of Europe, cut off his head. The Victorian novelist Charles Dickens (1812–70) wrote compelling works filled with vivid details of the difficult social conditions in the London of his day. The accounts in his novels of the appalling fate of the poor and the squalid conditions in prisons and poorhouses attracted much attention and increased public awareness of the terrible suffering endured by the lowest classes of society.

GET D!RTY Next time you’re traveling or just chattin’ in Japanese with your friends, drop the textbook formality and bust out with expressions they never teach you in school, including: •Cool slang. •Funny insults. •Explicit sex terms. •Raw swear words. Dirty Japanese teaches the casual expressions heard every day on the streets of Japan: Aitsu wa kanji warui kara. Random House Japanese-English Dictionary (trade)|Seigo|Nakao|0679780017|12.95|Random House|01/1997|91K since '01||. Random House Japanese-English Dictionary (mass mrkt)|Seigo|Nakao|034540548X|6.99|Random House|01/1996|65K since '01||.

With some one thousand entries, from “a, an” to “zoom,” that feature real-world examples of questionable usage from an international array of publications, and with a helpful glossary and guide to pronunciation, this precise, prescriptive, and–because it is written by Bill Bryson–often witty book belongs on the desk of every person who cares enough about the language not to maul or misuse or distort it. Fowler's A Dictionary of Modern English Usage as an authority, though he also makes a handful of references to recent texts, such as the Encarta World English Dictionary and Atlantic Monthly columnist Barbara Wallraff's "Word Court." Despite the revisions, the book often betrays its origins as a British text, as in citing words in common usage throughout the U.K. and British Commonwealth, but rarely used by American writers, such as Taoiseach, the Prime Minister of Ireland or City of London vs. city of London.

Special sections include: A Handbook of Style, Foreign Words & Phrases, Biographical Names and Geographical Names. The Merriam brothers desired a continuity of editorship that would link Noah Webster's efforts with their own editions, so they selected Chauncey A. Goodrich, Webster's son-in-law and literary heir, who had been trained in lexicography by Webster himself, to be their editor in chief. Assuming that a lower price would increase sales, the Merriams introduced the 1847 edition at $6, and although Webster's heirs initially questioned this move, extraordinary sales that brought them $250,000 in royalties over the ensuing 25 years convinced them that the Merriams' decision had been abundantly sound.

Second edition of the most highly regarded teaching text book on the Japanese language, covering speaking, listening, reading, and writing to cultivate overall language ability.

Special sections include: A Handbook of Style, Foreign Words & Phrases, Biographical Names and Geographical Names.

One of the biggest problem areas for writers is conveying a character's emotions to the reader in a unique, compelling way. Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi are bestselling authors, writing coaches, and international speakers.

Filled with fun facts—for example, the first documented usage of “OMG” was in a letter to Winston Churchill—and Stamper’s own stories from the linguistic front lines (including how she became America’s foremost “irregardless” apologist, despite loathing the word), Word by Word is an endlessly entertaining look at the wonderful complexities and eccentricities of the English language. An Amazon Best Book of March 2017: “We think of English as a fortress to be defended, but a better analogy is to think of English as a child,” writes Kory Stamper in her witty and surprising new book, Word by Word . And that’s why it flourishes.” Word by Word is part memoir, part history of dictionaries – in particular, those published by Stamper’s employer, Merriam Webster. The surprises come when she describes the difficulties of defining seemingly simple words like “nude” and “marriage.” Stamper and her fellow lexicographers work mostly in silence, but they can’t escape being drawn into our era’s vociferous political discourse. Along the way, there’s much pleasure to be had in Stamper’s down-to-earth, frequently ribald narrative style, which keeps Word by Word from feeling overly intellectual or highfalutin’. She has that special “feeling for language” she calls sprachgefühl: “the odd buzzing in your brain that tells you that ‘planting the lettuce’ and ‘planting misinformation’ are different uses of ‘plant.’” “Word by Word” offers laymen a glimpse into a crack lexicographer’s mind, and it turns out to be – definitively – a very entertaining place indeed. Stamper leads us through her own lexicographical bildungsroman, exploring how she fell in love with words and showing us how the dictionary works, and how it interacts with the world that it strives to reflect.” —Adrienne Raphel, The New Yorker “As a writer, Stamper can do anything with words. You will never take a dictionary entry for granted again.” —Mary Norris, best-selling author of Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen “A fascinating, even enthralling, examination of the way words actually work in our language, warts and all.” — The A.V. Stamper displays a contagious enthusiasm for words and a considerable talent for putting them together.” — The New Yorker “ Word by Word cherishes the dexterity involved in making dictionaries, and . Part of its quirky charm is a delight in the idiosyncrasies of others—not least Merriam-Webster’s many correspondents.” — The Wall Street Journal “Packed with the kind of word-lore that keeps readers and writers up late at night: Where do our words come from? An exuberant mash note to language.” — The Times Literary Supplement “[ Word by Word ] mixes memoiristic meditations on the lexicographic life along with a detailed description of the brain-twisting work of writing dictionaries.” — The New York Times “Anyone who loves words or has opinions about them will have fun in this sandbox of a book.” — The Washington Times “A delectable feast. [Stamper] declaims elegantly on the beauty and necessity of dialect, how to evaluate emerging words, and many other topics. [Stamper] presents passionate, precise, good-humored (and bad-humored) descriptions of every stage of the process that goes into making an entry.” — The Chronicle of Higher Education “[ Word by Word ] entertains as much as it instructs.” —Baltimore Sun “A captivating book.” — Lincoln Journal Star “Idiosyncratic and engaging.” — The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA). “A smart, sparkling and often hilarious valentine to the content and keepers of dictionaries. A paean to the craft of lexicography.’” — Shelf Awareness “A funny inside look at how new words make their way into dictionaries, an irreverent take on the history of English itself, and a memoir of [Stamper’s] own journey.” — Daily Hampshire Gazette “[A] marvelous insight into the messy world behind the tidy definitions on the page. It is perhaps unsurprising, given her line of work, that Stamper employs words with delightful precision in her writing.” — Booklist.