Dictionary of American Regional English: Volume 2: D-H (Volume II) - Hardcover

Cassidy, Frederic Gomes; Hall, Joan Houston

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 067420512X ISBN 13: 9780674205123

Publisher: Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press, 1991

Synopsis

Volume I of the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE), published to wide acclaim in 1985, captured the wondrous variety and creativeness of American folk words and expressions and tickled the imagination of lovers of language around the world. Decades in preparation, the DARE corpus reflects the liveliness of English as it is spoken on America’s main streets and country roads―the regional metaphors and similes passed along within homes and communities.

Like its popular predecessor, Volume II is a treasury of vernacular Americanisms. In Virginia a goldfinch is a dandelion bird, in Missouri an insufficient rain shower a drizzle-fizzle. Gate was Louis Armstrong’s favorite sender (a verbal spur to a sidekick in a band), a usage that probably originated from the fact that gates swing. Readers will bedazzled by the wealth of entries―more than 11,000―contained in this second volume alone. The two and a half pages on “dirt” reveal that a small marble is a dirt pea in the South. To eat dried apples, a curious rural euphemism for becoming pregnant, appears in the five pages on “eat.” Seven pages on “horn” and related words take readers on a tour of the animal and nether worlds: horned lark, horned frog, horned pout (look that one up), and that horned fellow, the devil.

Initiated under the leadership of Frederic G. Cassidy, DARE represents an unprecedented attempt to document the living language of the entire country. The project’s primary tool was a carefully worded survey of 1,847 questions touching on most aspects of everyday life and human experience. Over a five-year period fieldworkers interviewed natives of 1,002 communities, a patchwork of the United States in all its diversity.

The result is a database of more than two and a half million items―a monument to the richness of American folk speech. Additionally, some 7,000 publications, including novels, diaries, and small-town newspapers, have yielded a bountiful harvest of local idioms. Computer-generated maps accompanying many of the entries illustrate the regional distribution of words and phrases.

The entries contained in Volume II―from the poetic and humorous to the witty and downright bawdy―will delight and inform readers.

About this title

Review:

Volume II is every bit as excellent as A-C, and as thought provoking. It's sad to have lost words like faunch (to rant, rage, or fret). The words form a picture of the country a century back, when folks stored their stuff in a hide-nasty (closet), and when they hifered (loitered) and someone asked what they were up to, they might say "Oh, I'm just helping Andy" (doing nothing). The lesson: If I faunch less and just put projects away in the hide-nasty, I can hifer more and take up the art of helping Andy.

About the Author:

Frederic G. Cassidy was Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Joan Houston Hall is Distinguished Scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She joined the DARE staff in 1975, became Associate Editor in 1979, and was named Chief Editor in 2000.

About this edition

• Publisher: Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 067420512X
• ISBN 13: 9780674205123
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 1200