The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. 2000.
Introduction
This Fourth Edition of The American Heritage Dictionary combines the best of traditional dictionary making with key innovations that afford new ways of looking at our language. The Dictionary covers the latest developments in vocabulary, gives intelligent guidance on perennial and emerging usage problems, has a variety of new language Notes and an innovative etymological Appendix, and presents an abundance of material in a stunning new color format. This book is more than a reliable resource for checking information about words. It is a linguistic storehouse that invites readers to explore and discover the riches of the English language.
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This edition has nearly 10,000 new words and senses that reflect the rapid pace of change in the English language today. Technological innovations in computing and communications along with advances in the sciences have been especially rich sources of development in the lexicon (for example, bit map, domain name, and raster in computing; dark matter, photonics, and yoctosecond in science). Medicine and medical research continue to produce an astonishing array of new terms for chemicals and substances (endostatin, leptin, transfatty acid), for disorders and infectious agents (Asperger’s syndrome, erectile dysfunction, hantavirus), for treatments (cocktail, molecular knife, xenotransplant), and for a variety of creations and discoveries (designer gene, enteric nervous system, microsleep).
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In addition, continuing social change in postindustrial society has given rise to expressions that describe new business practices (buyback, microcredit, reverse mortgage), a changing workplace (face time, job-share, mommy track), and evolving political positions and governmental policies (family leave, term limit, workfare). New sports terms have arisen (clap skate, five hole, skyboard), as have words for new educational practices (charter school, distance learning, homeschool). The names of foods from other cultures continue to be adopted (baba gannouj, garam masala, quesadilla). A host of new cultural developments has produced a host of new compound words (assisted living, poetry slam, shock jock). And English speakers continue to be an exuberant force in creative coinage (bloviate, newbie, wannabe).
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To identify these new words the Dictionary staff has taken advantage of the latest technology. We have replaced the citation card file of traditional lexicography with a searchable database of electronic citations, and we have supplemented this in-house resource by making extensive use of online databases that contain billions of citations. As a result, this Dictionary reflects a very broad base of American usage. Thousands of words are illustrated by quotations from contemporary writers, who reflect all regions and backgrounds of our culture, and by quotations from writers of the traditional English canon. Thus, the phrasings of Mary McGrory and Stephen Jay Gould appear beside those of Edith Wharton and William Faulkner, as well as Shakespeare, Milton, Samuel Johnson, and other luminaries.
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To ensure accuracy in the coverage of our rapidly changing vocabulary, we have worked closely with distinguished consultants in a wide variety of specialized fields, including anthropology, astronomy, genetics, immunology, philosophy, and physics, to name but a few. We have also gone to great lengths to make our biographical and geographic entries as timely as possible. Many new biographical entries have been added, especially in the areas of sports, music, filmmaking, and literature. To the geographic entries we have added new country names, such as Myanmar and the Republic of the Congo, and newly prominent places such as Kosovo.
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The Fourth Edition of TheAmerican Heritage Dictionary has five types of Notes that provide a deeper appreciation of words than is possible in traditional dictionary format. Nearly 750 Notes discuss groups of synonyms, with many distinguishing nuances of meaning among them; more than 500 Notes analyze usage issues; more than 400 Notes recount the histories of interesting words; more than 100 Notes call out regionalisms that help give American English its distinctive character; and more than 50 Notes, labeled “Our Living Language,” address the social dimensions of language.
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It is worth reviewing the innovations in several of these note programs. The Usage Notes are based on periodic surveys of the Usage Panel, a group of some 200 distinguished writers, scholars, scientists, and other respected users and students of the English language. The record of opinions on usage issues covered by such surveys now extends back to the 1960s, giving the Dictionary a rich historical perspective on linguistic controversies. Throughout the 1990s new members joined the Usage Panel, and a series of new surveys included questions on emerging usage issues as well as traditional bugbears. Many Notes written for this edition address issues posed by recent developments in the usage of words such as disingenuous, Latina, and virtual,while other Notes discuss words with variable or controversial pronunciations, such as forte and schism.
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One of the great discoveries of linguistics in the last generation has been that language varies not just by region but by social group. Until now, no commercial dictionary has taken this field of linguistics—called social variation or social dialectology—into account. The Our Living Language Notes explain key features of nonstandard dialects—the kinds of features we all use to identify nonstandard speech without being aware of exactly how we do it. Thus, the Note at be discusses the widely recognized but often misunderstood use of “invariant be” in African American Vernacular English, and the Note at mine discusses the background of nonstandard possessive pronouns ending in n like ourn. Other Our Living Language Notes discuss change in progress (as far as) or show how groups of interesting words in Standard English have emerged from various subcultures, such as teenagers (rent3) and speakers of Yiddish (schlock).
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Among the new Word History Notes we have written, some show how several English words (such as genteel, gentile, gentle, jaunty) were borrowed into English from the same source at different times; others explain how English words got their current form (seeJapan); still others demonstrate how English words with very different forms are in fact descended from a common Indo-European ancestor (see water).
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All of our Word History Notes are supported by detailed and accurate etymologies. Thousands of etymologies were researched and written for the new words in this edition, and every existing etymology was reviewed for accuracy. No dictionary in the history of the English language offers a more thorough and precise view of the history of individual words. The Appendix of Indo-European Roots (Appendix I) was revised and updated by Calvert Watkins, who created the original appendix for the First Edition of this Dictionary back in 1969. The Fourth Edition also contains an entirely new Appendix of Semitic Roots (Appendix II), edited by John Huehnergard. This Appendix brings together English words descended from a common ancestor through various Semitic languages. It shows, for example, that the Semitic root l, the root for God, appears in words such as Allah, ayatollah, and Elohim; in the personal names Elijah, Michael, Ezekiel, and Ishmael; and in the place names Israel and Babylon.
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Preserving the most well-liked aspects of the design of previous editions, the Fourth Edition advances the integration of text and illustration to a new level with the introduction of color. Most of the nearly 4,000 pieces of art are color photographs and drawings. While it is easy to be captivated by the handsomeness of these images, the art was selected above all for its ability to clarify the definitions or help explain concepts rather than for its decorative appeal. To achieve this goal, every piece of art selected by the art researchers was examined by a group of editors and compared with the entries in the dictionary. Many definitions were improved as a result of this process, since the art provided a useful “reality check.” The tables and charts were updated to take full advantage of color. Even the text was designed to make use of color: entry words are presented in color for ease of identification.
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All dictionary projects are large undertakings, and this one has proved no exception. The editors and production staff at Houghton Mifflin have invested four years of intense work to complete it, and many consultants from around the United States and Canada have given generously of their time and expertise to help in this endeavor. I believe that our combined efforts have produced a book that readers will find inexhaustibly informative and enjoyable, and I thank all who contributed to this end for their professionalism and dedication.
l, the root for God, appears in words such as Allah, ayatollah, and Elohim; in the personal names Elijah, Michael, Ezekiel, and Ishmael; and in the place names Israel and Babylon.
