Sources About Words and Their Uses (Dictionaries:
College/Desk,
Unabridged, Subject, Children’s, Historical,
Reverse, Slang, Translation; Thesauri, Style Manuals, Quotations)
First, have a look at a few and make sure to visit the list of Dictionaries and Encyclopedias on the UM Library Electronic Resources page of General Reference tools.
Acronyms, Initialisms and Abbreviations Dictionary (AS 8)
The Alternative Dictionaries
American Heritage, 4th ed (PE 1625)
American National Corpus
Anchor Bible Dictionary (BS 440 .A541 1992)
Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations in print (PN 6081 .B289 2002)
Bernstein’s Reverse Cassell Dictionary of Slang
Corpus of Academic Spoken English
Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) (PE 2843)
Handspeak
NetLingo
Onelook Dictionaries
Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (PN 6081)
Oxford English (in print, on Web), Shorter Oxford (PE 1625)
Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang (PE 2846)
Random House Unabridged (2d ed)
Rhyming Dictionary
Roget’s International, 5th ed (PE 1591)
SYMBOLS.com
thesaurus.com
Track That Word
Webster’s New World (PE 1628)
Webster’s Third New International (PE 1625)
Wilton's Word and Phrase Origins
WordNet
YourDictionary.com
See also: IPL Dictionaries , Quotations and the University of Michigan Library Networked Electronic Resources
See also: style manuals: University of Chicago, MLA, Turabian, American Psychological Association guide
And see also: concordances: Shakespeare, Bible
Then, answer some questions about words and their uses:
1. What is cassava? In a book I am reading there is a reference to cooking cassava.
2. Nanosecond and picosecond are measurements of time. Where do the root words “nano” and “pico” originate?
3. I need the sources/meaning of “waiting for the other shoe to drop”.
4. Who said, “Libraries are not made. They grow.”?
5. In England or Ireland in the early 19th century, was the occuptation we know as “tailor” spelled “taylor”? In a number of documents from the 1800’s, I have seen the occupation of “taylor” listed. I am wondering if this is Old English for what we know as a “tailor”.
6. Please give me the translation of "mis en plis", which I think is a French idiom. What is the literal translation, what is the general meaning of this term, and when is it used? I think it may mean "everything in its place" and is sometimes used by chefs/cooks. I assume it refers to being organized, having an exact location to store or keep things. I am a professional organizer, and wonder if the term is appropriate to putting things where they belong. I hope to use the term and its translation as a tag-line with my company name.
7. Who said, “The English and Americans are two peoples separated by a common language”? I thought it was Shaw but I can’t find it.
8. I'm confused by a message from my editor. This article is going to be published in an APA journal. In my bibliography they've made some changes: for some of the book references they took out the state abbreviation - you know, for example Boston MA they changed to just Boston - and for others they left the state in. Is there an APA rule about this or is my editor messing up?
9. What is a word that means “something that happens every day“?
10. Who said “Between two evils, I always pick the one I never
tried before“?
11. What is a “mackerel sky“?
Finally, think about these, and be prepared to discuss them
in
class:
When might you consider using each of these sources?
What are the most important criteria for evaluation of these kinds of sources and how would you carry out that evaluation?
What importance does format play? Are the factors the same when you consider personal use rather than institutional use?
What other ways might you get at this information?
How do you think this type of information resource might change over the next few years?
What new resource did you discover that you'd like to add to our list?
mholland@umich.edu
dpn@umich.edu
8/26/2005