frowy
futz
garden house
givey
goozle
goozlum
hell-for-leather
hellbender
honeyfuggle
hook Jack
hookem-snivey
hooky bob
hopping John
hosey
izzard
Jersey mosquito
jugarum
julebukk
king’s ex
kitty-corner
kolacky
lagniappe
A sampling of some of the words found in the Dictionary of American Regional English — which is now on Twitter.
In a sense, the AHD was a line in the sand between prescriptivists like Morris, who insist that one of a dictionary’s primary functions is to make informed distinctions between correct and incorrect uses of words, and descriptivists like Webster III’s makers, who contend that a dictionary’s function is merely to chronicle current practices. Here is Morris’s description of the prescriptivist goal for The American Heritage Dictionary: “It would faithfully record our language, the duty of any lexicographer, but would not, like so many others in these permissive times, rest there. On the contrary, it would add the essential dimension of guidance, that sensible guidance toward grace and precision, which intelligent people seek in a dictionary.” A good dictionary, he added, ought to be “a treasury of information about every aspect of words” and “an agreeable companion.” After nearly four decades of poring over my first edition of The American Heritage Dictionary – it’s a book that invites you to read it rather than just refer to it — I can report that it has been a most agreeable companion. —Bill Morris reviews the 5th Edition of The American Heritage Dictionary
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In a sense, the AHD was a line in the sand between prescriptivists like Morris, who insist that one of a dictionary’s primary functions is to make informed distinctions between correct and incorrect uses of words, and descriptivists like Webster III’s makers, who contend that a dictionary’s function is merely to chronicle current practices. Here is Morris’s description of the prescriptivist goal for The American Heritage Dictionary: “It would faithfully record our language, the duty of any lexicographer, but would not, like so many others in these permissive times, rest there. On the contrary, it would add the essential dimension of guidance, that sensible guidance toward grace and precision, which intelligent people seek in a dictionary.” A good dictionary, he added, ought to be “a treasury of information about every aspect of words” and “an agreeable companion.”

After nearly four decades of poring over my first edition of The American Heritage Dictionary – it’s a book that invites you to read it rather than just refer to it — I can report that it has been a most agreeable companion.

—Bill Morris reviews the 5th Edition of The American Heritage Dictionary