Recommended Resources

Oxford English Dictionary (OED)

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Over 550,000 acronyms and abbreviations.

A "practical and authoritative guide to contemporary English." Covers grammar, style, diction, word formation, gender, social groups and scientific forms.

This is H.L. Mencken's "inquiry into the development of English in the United States."

the etymology and history of first names

This is a collection of bilingual dictionaries published by Oxford University Press, searcheable as a group or individually.

2012 work is a unique volume devoted exclusively to English-language proverbs that originated in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, listing more than 1,400 individual proverbs.

Strunk's 1918 edition.

This is a collection of English-language dictionaries published by Oxford University Press, searchable as a group or individually.

A collection of English-language guides (style, grammar, proverbs, etc.) published by Oxford University Press, searchable as a group or individually.

The 14th edition of this massive compilation of information on over 6,500 languages around the world.

Geoffrey Leech's 2006 collection of definitions of grammatical terms, with examples of use.

Jonothon Green's landmark collection (2010) of over 100,000 "impertinent, vile, censored, hip, witty, and fascinating slang words of the English language" reflects many years of research. Covers 500 years of English-language use, with supporting citations, from all English-speaking countries and regions, including the U.K., U.S.A., Australia and New Zealand, Ireland, the Anglophone Caribbean, and South Africa.

A forty-year project, this database offers new access to the unique content of the Oxford English Dictionary, the premier etymological dictionary of the English language. In the words of one reviewer, "whereas a historical dictionary shows the ideas associated with a given word over the centuries, the Historical Thesaurus shows the words associated with a given idea."

Dictionary and thesaurus.

The Compendium weaves together three separate resources: the Middle English Dictionary; the HyperBibliography; and the Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse. The MEC was develped at the University of Michigan's Digital Library Production Service. It represents decades of effort, with almost 55,000 entries taken from nearly 900,000 quotations.

Uses data from the 2000 United States census to display the locations and numbers of speakers of thirty languages and seven groups of less commonly spoken languages in U.S. counties and Zip Codes. The census data were based on responses to the question, "Does this person speak a language other than English at home?"

Third edition (2010) contains more than 350,000 words and phrases in "American Ennglish," with an emphasis on contemporary use.

Third edition (2009) explains over 6,000 English-language idiomatic phrases and expressions, based in part on the ongoing updates to the Oxford English Dictionary.

Second edition (revised 2010) provides explanations of 20th- and 21st-century slang from around the English-speaking world, covering about 6,000 words and expressions.

Wide-ranging dictionary which explores nearly 8,000 names and sayings found in classic and contemporary literature and other writings.
Also available in our printed collection.

First edition (2006) "contains rhymes for 45,000 words, including proper names, place names, and foreign terms used in English."

Second edition (2009) succinctly "describes the origins and development of over 3,000 words and phrases in the English language." Much more detailed etymological information can be found in the Oxford English Dictionary.

The OED is the accepted authority on the history of words in the English language. It is the most important guide to the meaning and history of over a half-million words, both past and present, tracing the meanings of these words through the use of over 2.5 million quotations, drawn from a wide range of sources. The database contains the Second Edition and additions, including quarterly updates of at least 1,000 new and revised entries.
The library also has the first and second editions in printed form.

Published in 2000, this guide contains about 170 substantial entries on individual works (such as Virgil's Aeneid or Thousand and One Nights), writers, genres, and national literatures, complemented by more substanital essays on such issues as the problems of translating poetry. A printed volume is available in the library's collection.

Second edition (2008) contains 4,000 entries offering respected advice on current use of the English language. The library also has related earlier publications in printed form.

"Over 100,000 words, phrases, and translations." Revised edition, 2005.
This is the Latin-to-English form of the dictionary. For English-to-Latin, see this link.

Rich Electronic Archive for Language Instruction Anywhere
The goal of the REALIA Project is to develop and implement a searchable digitized media database which will provide instructors of modern languages with teaching resources accessible via the Web. REALIA will publish royalty-free, faculty-reviewed media for scholars and students, and be open to all disciplines that wish to contribute or use cultural materials appropriate for instruction at the college and secondary level. The REALIA Project seeks to increase through collaboration the quantity of high-quality teaching and learning materials by providing a respected venue for media projects that otherwise might not be shared or published. This website showcases an image database prototype for use by the educational community. Sponsored by NITLE and NEH funds.

2008 volume contains about 25,000 entries, accompanied by citations that authenticate the words, as well as offer lively examples of usage from popular literature, newspapers, magazines, movies, television shows, musical lyrics, and Internet user groups. Etymology, cultural context, country of origin and the date the word was first used are also provided.

From Alexander and Nicholas Humez, this delightful 2010 book explores the "ever-growing field of minimalist genres, ranging from the bank robbery note to the billboard, from the curse hurled from a car window (or the Senate floor) to the suicide note, and from the ghost-word to the ring tone. You may see an overview of the table of contents.

Second edition (2012) "defines the general symbolism of over 15,000 terms, from ancient to modern, as well as specialized meanings in mythology, religion, art, literature, folklore, flower language, astrology, heraldry, numerology," etc.

"more than 2,500 Western signs, arranged into 54 groups according to their graphic characteristics. In 1,600 articles their histories, uses, and meanings are thoroughly discussed. The signs range from ideograms carved in mammoth teeth by Cro-Magnon men, to hobo signs and subway graffiti."

Subtitled A Guide to Accurate, Free Sites, this compilation lists "gateways to precise multilingual dictionaries and glossaries, as well as directories with access to professional tools."

2005 guide includes concise explanations of difficult rules, easy-to-understand examples, common pitfalls, suggestions for common writing formats (business letters, job applications, e-mail, etc.), and citation styles.
You can view the table of contents here.