The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition.
2000.
Our Living Language Notes.
Our Living Language Notes. Since language varies not just by region but also by social group, this Dictionary contains Notes that discuss the social aspect of words. Like regionalisms, some of these words and constructions fall outside Standard usage. Others are limited to a particular social group, such as teenagers. But most are widely recognized, and some have been incorporated into the Standard language. For a discussion of social variation in English, see John R. Rickford's essay, “Variation and Change in Our Living Language.”
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Some Notes, such as those at be and zero copula, explain the patterns of usage of particular constructions and describe the linguistic situations under which they are and are not used, in order to show how they fit into the broader phenomenon of language. Other Notes, such as those at comparative and mine2, explain the linguistic processes governing certain constructions that might at first appear to be errors or anomalies, relating such constructions to similar examples in earlier times and showing them to have traveled a different path from their standard counterparts for centuries. Still other Notes, such as those at cool,schlock, and za, describe groups of words that have arisen from the lingo of particular subcultures, such as jazz musicians, speakers of Yiddish, and teenagers. Most of the entries discussed in the Our Living Language Notes are cross-referenced.
