'What grammarians say should be has perhaps less influence on what shall be than even the more modest of them realize ...' No book had more influence on twentieth-century attitudes to the English language in Britain than Henry Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage. It rapidly became the standard work of reference for the correct use of English in terms of choice of words, grammar, and style. Much loved for his firm opinions, passion, and dry humour, Fowler has stood the test of time and is still considered the best arbiter of good practice. In this new edition of the original Dictionary, David Crystal goes beyond the popular mythology surrounding Fowler's reputation to retrace his method and arrive at a fresh evaluation of his place in the history of linguistic thought. With a wealth of entertaining examples he looks at Fowler's stated principles and the tensions between his prescriptive and descriptive temperaments. He shows that the Dictionary does a great more than make normative recommendations and express private opinion. In addition he offers a modern perspective on some 300 entries, in which he shows how English has changed since the 1920s. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

The most extensive Bible dictionary ever created: - The first major Bible dictionary to be published in America in 30 years - 6 volumes of approximately 1,200 pages each - More than 6,000 entries - More than 7,000,000 words - Nearly 1,000 contributors -all the biggest names from around the world - Multicultural and interdisciplinary in scope - An unprecedented interfaith exploration of the Bible - Illustrated throughout with easy-to-find references - Endpaper maps of the Near Eastern world keyed to text for quick location of archaeological and biblical sites - Extensively cross-referenced for comprehensive coverage of topics - Easy-to-read article and chapter headings for speedy location of material - Full bibliographic references following all major entries Inside you'll find: - Exciting articles on pseudepigraphic and apocryphal texts, Nag Hammadi tractates, and individual dead Sea Scrolls-including the very latest on the most recently published sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls - "Minor entries" on personal and place-names that go well beyond the one- or two-sentence descriptions found in other Bible dictionaries - Outstanding summaries of the latest research on the historical Jesus - Fascinating new articles discussing the growing reappraisal of early Christianity's relationship with Judaism (was Christianity an "offspring" or "sibling" of rabbinic Judaism?) - Many articles illustrating the literary artistry of the biblical text - Intriguing discussions of everyday life in Bible lands-including articles that help us to understand health and disease, the role of animals and plants in the ancient ecosystem, and the demographics of human settlement in ancient Palestine - A richness of information unequaled in the history of biblical studies Edited by David Noel Freedman Editorial Consultants: Hans Dieter Betz-Greco-Roman Religin James H. Charlesworth-Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha Frank More Cross-Old Testament William G. Dever-Archaeology A. Kirk Grayson-Mesopotamia and Assyriology Peter Machinist-Bible and Ancient Near East Abraham J. Malherbe-New Testament Birger A. Pearson-Early Christianity Jack M. Sassoon-Bible and Ancient Near East William R. Schoedel-Early Christian Literature

How do Americans really talk-what are their hometown, everyday expressions in the many regions and sections of this huge country? The Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE), twenty years in preparation, answers these questions. It gives visible proof of the diversity-and the vitality-of American folk language, past and present. DARE includes thousands of words and phrases not found in conventional dictionaries, and out-of-the-way meanings for common terms. Here are local names for familiar objects, from old cars to frying pans to dust-balls under the bed (176 names for these); for plants, animals, and critters real and imaginary; for rainstorms and heat waves; for foods, clothing, children's games and adults' pastimes; for illnesses and traditional remedies. Here are terms-salty, sarcastic, humorous-by which people describe each other, their physical appearance, characters, emotions, states of mind. Here are metaphors and similes galore. In Wisconsin a man whose motives are suspect "has beans up his nose." In Georgia a conceited person is "biggity"; someone important or self-important in the Northwest is "bull of the woods." A close friend may be "bobbasheely" (Mississippi) or an "ace boon coon" (New York City). West of the Appalachians the old saw "I wouldn't know him from Adam" becomes "I wouldn't know him from Adam's off-ox" (or, in the South, "from Adam's housecat"). These and some twelve thousand other expressions are identified and explained in the first volume of DARE. While DARE is the work of many dedicated people, it owes its existence to Frederic G. Cassidy, who in 1963 agreed to organize the project, raise funds for it, and serve as Editor-in-Chief. Cassidy trained teams of fieldworkers and equipped them with a carefully worded questionnaire: 1,847 questions grouped in 41 broad categories ranging over most aspects of everyday life and common human experience. From 1965 to 1970 the fieldworkers conducted week-long interviews with natives of 1,002 representative communities in all fifty states. The two and a half million items gleaned from the fieldwork, coded and computer-processed, are DARE's primary data base, a rich harvest of regional Americanisms current in the seventh decade of this century. Earlier collections have been drawn upon as well, notably the 40,000 expressions recorded by the American Dialect Society since 1889; and some 5,000 publications, including regional novels and diaries and small-town newspapers, have been combed for local idioms. A unique feature of the dictionary is the computer-generated maps that accompany many of the entries to show the geographical distribution of the term. The base map is schematic, distorting the areas of the states to reflect their population density. Volume I includes extensive introductory material on DARE itself and on American folk speech. Its entries, from Aaron's rod to czarnina, cover nearly a quarter of the total DARE corpus.

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