Dictionaries

After being pulled from the shelves for what some saw as racy content, Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary may have the last word in Menifee. A committee of parents, teachers and administrators decided Tuesday to return the dictionaries to the fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms at Oak Meadows Elementary School just days after they were removed over complaints about entries detailing references to various types of oral sex. "The dictionary...

Ebenezer Scrooge took only one night to change his tune from "Bah! Humbug!" to "God bless us, every one!" Ambrose Bierce was made of sterner stuff. He reviled the holiday (and just about everything else) to the day he was last heard from, south of the border, on Dec. 26, 1913. Perhaps the greatest wit in American literature, and certainly its greatest cynic, Bierce defined Christmas in his satirical 1911 lexicon "The Devil's Dictionary" as "a day set apart and consecrated to gluttony, drunkenness, maudlin sentiment, gift-taking, public dullness and domestic misbehavior.

I read with great interest the article written by Janny Scott about marketing of dictionaries ("Publicity Wars Rage Unabridged," May 25). The use of unorthodox methods of marketing of dictionaries, however, is not a recent development. There is a tract of real estate in rural San Diego County called Dictionary Hill. At the turn of the century, some enterprising dictionary vendors spurred interest in their products by giving away a parcel of land in this tract with every dictionary sold.

Katherine Siva Saubel, an elder of the Cahuilla Indian tribe of Southern California, once described herself as "just a voice in the wilderness all by myself. " She meant that she had few people with whom she could speak the Cahuilla language or sing the songs that conveyed her people's ancient stories. "My race," she told The Times in 2000, "is dying. " Now Saubel, long its feistiest guardian, has died. "It's a huge loss … the end of an era," said Nathalie Colin, an ethno-historian at the Malki Museum near Banning, which Saubel co-founded more than 45 years ago to preserve Cahuilla history and traditions.

It may be the last word in spelling bees and Scrabble, but Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary now faces a new if unlikely notoriety: being too sexy for its own good. That was the verdict from at least one parent in Menifee last week who called the principal of Oak Meadows Elementary School to say that entries describing oral sex in the dictionary were too explicit. The books were immediately pulled off the shelves and "temporarily housed off location" until a committee could determine their suitability for children.

If lexicographers at the new World Oxford Dictionary of English have their way, everyone will be a deipnosophist--someone skilled in after-dinner chat--once armed with their latest dictionary. The Dictionary of Weird and Wonderful Words came about as a form of light relief for word compilers of weightier tomes. "We know people love unusual words, and so do we. It was an enjoyable sidebar to the core of our job.

Weighing in at almost 10 pounds, "The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz" is the undisputed, world heavyweight champion of jazz scholarship, a highly readable, scrupulously researched two-volume, 1,400-page compendium packed with everything you always wanted to know about jazz but were afraid to ask. About as hefty is the price: $295. "We haven't aimed the dictionary just at the jazz insider.

All the dorky glitterati carried their boom boxes to the fern bar where some klutzy break-dancing was exciting a denturist. At the same time, a grungy hacker ate all the enoki, callaloo and dim sum but said he was only grazing. A nearby anchorperson, who was chatting with a co-parent about edutainment, said it was all very rinky-dink. It might be the language of the 1980s, but most Americans might still need an interpreter.

The scribbled note on a yellow pad sent Rick Mailly through the roof: "Wanted," it read. "Long-term relationship thru college and beyond. Am resourceful and well-defined with good karma. Here 4 U 24 hrs. a day, fulfilling your every need. Meet me in the campus bookstore. I'll be in a blue and yellow striped jacket." Mailly confronted his wife, Sandy Goroff-Mailly. Just what was she up to now?

The fifth-graders barely had time to take in the colorful, glossy cover of the new dictionaries before their teacher, Brian Matthews, made them look up last night's vocabulary word: whimpering. It was an assignment Matthews was happy to give Thursday as volunteers from the Assistance League of San Fernando Valley distributed more than 400 children's dictionaries at Montague Charter Academy.

Every year around this time, the Concise Oxford English Dictionary releases a list of words that will be added to its next edition. It's lucky that the announcement comes toward the end of August, when most humans want to go on vacation and most columnists, therefore, need to write an "evergreen. " Evergreen is journalist lingo for a topic that, like its namesake, is always in season (or, at least, one that won't go stale immediately). I suppose "frozen casseroles" could also work, but for whatever reason, that term never took off. So this column is the casserole I made early and lovingly preserved for you, since at this moment I am sleeping in a tent or getting my credit card declined at a Holiday Inn Express, which is how journalists vacation these days.

For its 100th anniversary, the Oxford English Dictionary is proving it's still hip with the times by adding some tech-centric terms to its pages. Cyberbullying, sexting, retweet, textspeak and woot have joined the ranks as real words, along with some 400 new entries the OED has added to its 12th edition. "These additions are just carrying on the tradition of a dictionary that has always sought to be progressive and up to date," OED said in an online statement, describing itself as a word curator that had always "sought primarily to cover the language of its own time.

The New Biographical Dictionary of Film Updated and Expanded David Thomson Alfred A. Knopf: 1,076 pp., $40

After being pulled from the shelves for what some saw as racy content, Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary may have the last word in Menifee. A committee of parents, teachers and administrators decided Tuesday to return the dictionaries to the fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms at Oak Meadows Elementary School just days after they were removed over complaints about entries detailing references to various types of oral sex. "The dictionary...

It may be the last word in spelling bees and Scrabble, but Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary now faces a new if unlikely notoriety: being too sexy for its own good. That was the verdict from at least one parent in Menifee last week who called the principal of Oak Meadows Elementary School to say that entries describing oral sex in the dictionary were too explicit. The books were immediately pulled off the shelves and "temporarily housed off location" until a committee could determine their suitability for children.

Out this week, just in time for Octoberfest, is "Drunk: The Definitive Drinkers Dictionary." The book contains no fewer than 2,964 synonyms for "drunk." "The English language includes more synonyms for the word 'drunk' than for any other word," writes author Paul Dickson. He should know, being the Guinness World Records holder for cataloging synonyms such as "in his cups," "irrigated," "beer-soaked" and "casters up." Several words and phrases for "drunk" come with literary pedigrees.

"Muppet" and "Eeyorish" are among 3,000 new words and expressions, many of them slang or foreign, that have entered English usage and are included in the new edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English. "Muppet," taken from "Sesame Street," is defined as a foolish person, while "Eeyorish," from "Winnie the Pooh," describes a gloomy outlook.

The music called the blues can express emotions with unmistakable clarity, but some of the words, whether sung by 1930s Mississippi Delta sharecroppers or big-city electric-guitar heroes, can be pretty obscure. Hunting down the origins and meanings of those words was the mission of New Jersey rock musician and journalist Debra DeSalvo. The result, "The Language of the Blues," is a witty, bawdy and fascinating dictionary.

Those who pore over congressional legislation in search of earmarks often have been guided by the "I know it when I see it" maxim that Justice Potter Stewart made famous when the Supreme Court struggled to define pornography. But now there is an authoritative source they can consult.