The Dimwit's Dictionary, 3rd Edition - Softcover

Fiske, Robert Hartwell

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1933338989 ISBN 13: 9781933338989

Publisher: Marion Street Press, LLC, 2012

Synopsis

Whereas a witticism is a clever remark or phrase -- indeed, the height of expression -- a "dimwitticism" is the converse; it is a commonplace remark or phrase. Dimwitticisms are worn-out words and phrases; they are expressions that dull our reason and dim our insight, formulas that we rely on when we are too lazy to express what we think or even to discover how we feel. The more we use them, the more we conform -- in thought and feeling -- to everyone else who uses them.

The Dimwit's Dictionary, Third Edition, is a compilation of thousands of dimwitticisms (clichés, colloquialisms, idioms, slang, and the like) that people speak and write unendingly.
 
 
 
"Mr. Fiske is, in short, a fanatic, an extremist who apparently believes that clear language is our only hope for clear thought, that dull language deadens the mind and dampens the imagination, that a felicitous phrase is good news, that a strong prose style is a gift to be cultivated and cherished, that nothing, no, nothing in the world exceeds language in its significance to the human enterprise. As it happens, I believe in all this, too, which makes it an honor to salute a fellow fanatic and wish him and his book the great good fortune both deserve." -- From the foreword by Joseph Epstein

About this title

About the Author

 
Robert Hartwell Fiske is the editor and publisher of The Vocabula Review (vocabula.com), a monthly online journal about the English language. He also publishes Robert Hartwell Fiske's Disagreeable English, a bimonthly bulletin of misused, misspelled, and mispronounced English. He is the author of The Dictionary of Unendurable English; The Dictionary of Concise Writing, Third Edition; The Best Words; 101 Elegant Paragraphs; and other books.

Review

"Readers will cheer his trouncing of cliche, redundancy, and windy generality."  —Dallas Morning News

"If you want to create fat-free sentences and paragraphs, you will pay heed to Robert Hartwell Fiske's advice."  —Richard Lederer, author, Anguished English

"Robert Hartwell Fiske adheres admirably to rules that are practical, that facilitate understanding through logic and lucidity, or even just by a sense of decorum that makes speech more communicative and writing more elegant."  —John Simon, New York Magazine

"Fiske shows how to make the turgid crisp."  —William Safire, New York Times

Edition details

• Publisher: Marion Street Press, LLC
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1933338989
• ISBN 13: 9781933338989
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 252