The Dictionary of American Regional English

[Jeffrey Kopp]

Oops! I confused the huge, still-in-progress DARE with another tome, the "Dictionary of American Slang."  I had bought the 1967 update ("first supplement") to Stewart Berg Flexner's 1960 first edition, edited by Harold Wentworth.

I mis-remembered the "DARE" because I ran across it while hunting for a slang reference useful to an educated immigrant. I selected this used "DAS" edition because it was cheap enough to make a semi-joke gift of, but considered comprehensive and authoritative.  A bit dated today, it was perhaps less useful for my intended purpose than some more contemporary works; there are also simpler slang references for immigrants that resemble children's or comic books, but I didn't want to risk insulting my friend.

But I (and his bored, retired-sociologist bartender) found the older DAS delicious reading: lots of WWI/II, prison, prohibition and jazz-age terms, a fair number of Southernisms, and a reach back into the 19th century.

I found the DAS was updated by Wentworth again in 1975 ("second supplemented ed"; probably includes Vietnam and the disco era) and just ordered a copy for $10.   Now that I'll have a chance to read it through myself, maybe I can find some Jargon in there.  (Whew, finally made this post somewhat on-topic.) A new 1998 edition by Robert L. Chapman is still in print for $30.

Now wandering wayyyy off topic:  As a child I ran across a copy of "Over the Top" by Arthur Guy Empey (Knickerbocker Press, 1917), a bestselling, somewhat cheesy adventure memoir of an American who joined the British Army in WWI.  In the back he included, "Tommy Atkins' Dictionary of the Trenches."  Lotsa black-humor yuks.  At 10 years old, I was fascinated by it. ("Blackadder Goes Forth" fans, take note.)

(The DARE project Web site: http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/dare/dare.html )

Jeff

On Fri, 15 Nov 2002 02:51:57 -0500, "David D. Robertson" <ddr11 at COLUMBIA.EDU> wrote:

>Jeff, a bar with DARE on the shelves is a place I need to visit, some days.
>
>==Dave