new biographical entries

NEW BIOGRAPHICAL ENTRIESWith the Fourth Edition, the American Heritage Dictionary has added to its already extensive biographical program, including summaries of the lives of thousands of notable figures from science, politics, sports, and the arts. Some of the new entries are:

Cline (klXn), Virginia Patterson Known as “Patsy.” 1932–1963.American singer best known for country and western ballads such as “IFall to Pieces” (1960) and “Crazy” (1961).

Reno, Janet Born 1939. American lawyer who became the firstwoman attorney general of the United States (1993). Known for her ag-gressive protection of children's rights, she was previously state attorneyin Florida (1978–1993).

Powell, Colin Luther Born 1937. American general who served aschairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989–1996) and was influential inplanning U.S. strategy during the Persian Gulf War.

Ma (mä), Yo-Yo Born 1955. American cellist known for his perfor-mances and recordings of orchestral, recital, and chamber music.

Kas•pa•rov (käsùpN-rôfÙ), Garry Born 1963. Azerbaijani chessplayer who became the youngest world champion ever in 1985 after de-feating Anatoly Karpov. He beat the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue 4games to 2 in 1996, but lost a rematch in 1997.

Gretz•ky (grHtùskK), Wayne Born 1961. Canadian hockey player. Acenter mainly for the Edmonton Oilers (1978–1988) and Los AngelesKings (1989–1995), he became the National Hockey League's all-timeleading scorer in 1989 and the all-time leading scorer in North Americanprofessional hockey in 1999.

Gates, William Henry Known as “Bill.” Born 1955. American com-puter software designer and business executive who cofounded Microsoftin 1975 and as chairman built it into one of the largest computer softwaremanufacturers in the world.

Win•frey (wVnùfrK), Oprah Born 1954. American talk-show host,producer, and actress. Producer and host of The Oprah Winfrey Show(1986–present), Winfrey has also acted in films such as The Color Purple(1985) and Beloved (1998).

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NEW GEOGRAPHICAL ENTRIESThe American Heritage Dictionary is known for the comprehensiveness and detail of its geographical entries. New entries in the Fourth Edition reflect the ongoing changes in our world:

Be•la•rus (bHlÙN-rusù, bHlùN-rusÙ, byHlÙ-) Formerly Be•lo•rus•sia(bHlÙo-rƒshùN, byHlÙ-) also Bye•lo•rus•sia (byHlÙo-). A country ofeastern Europe east of Poland and west of Russia. Originally settled bySlavs, the region was subject to Lithuania and Poland before passing toRussia in the late 18th century. It was a constituent republic of the USSR,known as the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, from 1922 to 1991.Minsk is the capital and the largest city. Population: 10,355,000.

Chech•nya (chHchùnK-N, chHch-nyäù) A region of southwest Russia inthe northern Caucasus bordering on Georgia. Conquered by Russia inthe 19th century, it later formed part of the Chechen-Ingush Autono-mous Soviet Socialist Republic. Chechnya declared its independencefrom the USSR in 1991. Russian troops invaded in late 1994, and fightingcontinued until 1996, when Russia and Chechnya signed an accord call-ing for an end to hostilities and the opening of negotiations on Chech-nya's future political status. —Chech*nyan (-nK-Nn, -nyänù) adj. & n.

Ko•so•vo (kôùsN-voÙ, koù-) A province of southern Yugoslavia in theSerbian republic. Settled by Slavs in the seventh century, the area wasunder Turkish rule from 1389 to 1913 and became part of Yugoslaviaafter World War I. An autonomous region within Serbia after World WarII, Kosovo was stripped of its autonomy in 1990 by Serbia, which led toarmed conflict with Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority. —Koùso•varÙ(-värÙ) adj. & n.

Nu•na•vut (nuùnN-vutÙ) A territory of northern Canada includingpart of the mainland west of Hudson Bay and north of latitude 60˚ north,islands in the Hudson Bay, and most of the Arctic Archipelago. Nunavut,which comprises what was formerly the eastern portion of NorthwestTerritories, is primarily inhabited and controlled by the Inuit. It officiallybecame a new territory of Canada on April 1, 1999. Iqaluit, at the headof Frobisher Bay on Baffin Island, is the capital.

Pin•a•tu•bo (pVnÙN-tuùbo), Mount A volcano, 1,699 m (5,771 ft)high, of the Philippines, in the west-central part of Luzon Island north-west of Manila. It erupted catastrophically in June 1991 after 600 yearsof dormancy, killing hundreds of people and burying hundreds of squaremiles under volcanic ash.


NEW WORDSThe Fourth Edition includes over 10,000 new words and senses in virtually every category, reflecting the explosion of new vocabulary constantly entering our language. Here are just a few examples:

ability grouping n. 1. The practice of placing students with otherswith comparable skills or needs, as in classes or groups within a class.2. See tracking (sense 1).

ar•bo•ri•o rice (âr-bôrùK-o, -borù-) n. A rounded, medium-grainrice from Italy that is both firm and creamy when cooked. [ After Arborio,town in the Po valley in Italy where the rice is grown.]

bo•no•bo (bN-noùbo) n., pl. -bos A species of chimpanzee (Pan pa-niscus) of north-central Congo (formerly Zaire), having black hair andmore arboreal habits than the common chimpanzee (P. troglodytes). Alsocalled pygmy chimpanzee. [Of central African origin.]

control freak Slang n. One who has an obsessive need to exert con-trol over people and situations.

dip•sy-doo•dle (dVpùsK-dudùl) intr.v. -dled, -dling, -dles Infor-mal To move in or follow a zig-zag course: “the narrow trail . . . dipsy-doodled through the brush until it finally reached the river” (Pete Bodo).[Alteration of dipsy-do, baseball term to describe motion of a screwball,from DIP.]

domain name n. A series of alphanumeric strings separated by pe-riods, such as www.hmco.com, that is an address of a computer networkconnection and that identifies the owner of the address.

false-mem•o•ry syndrome (fôlsùmHmùN-rK) n. Abbr. FMS Thebelief that one remembers events, especially traumatic events, that havenot actually occurred. Not in scientific use.

in•tra•net (VnùtrN-nHtÙ) n. A privately maintained computer net-work that can be accessed only by authorized persons, especially mem-bers or employees of the organization that owns it.

in-your-face (VnùytrÙf7sù, -yôrÙ-, -yorÙ-, -yNr- ) adj. Marked by ordone in a bold, defiant, or aggressive manner: in-your-face advertising;an in-your-face challenge to authority.

nail biter also nail•bit•er (n7lùbXÙtNr) n. 1. One who bites one'sfingernails as a nervous habit. 2. A situation marked by tense nervous-ness or apprehension, especially an athletic contest whose outcome is un-certain near its finish. —nail biting n.

reverse mortgage n. A mortgage in which a homeowner, usuallyan elderly or retired person, borrows money in the form of annual pay-ments which are charged against the equity of the home.

nanny state n. Informal A government perceived as having excessiveinterest in or control over the welfare of its citizens, especially in the en-forcement of extensive public health and safety regulations.

trash talk n. Disparaging, often insulting or vulgar speech about an-other person or group.

work•fare (wûrkùfârÙ) n. A form of welfare in which capable adultsare required to perform work, often in public-service jobs, as a conditionof receiving aid. [WORK + (WEL)FARE.]

wuss (wts) n. Slang A person regarded as weak or timid and espe-cially as unmanly: “Cats are for wusses, dog men say” (Laura Blumenfeld).[Probably blend of WIMP and PUSSY1.] —wuss*y adj.

zine also 'zine (zKn) n. An inexpensively produced, self-published, un-derground publication: I often contributed cartoons and essays to otherpeople's 'zines, so why didn't I just buckle down and start my own? (PaganKennedy). [Short for MAGAZINE.]

zouk (zuk) n. A popular dance music of the French West Indies, com-bining African drumming styles with influences from American andCaribbean popular music. [Antillean French Creole, party; probably akinto JUKE1.]


OUR LIVING LANGUAGEThis new series of Notes illustrates the way social factors such as age, ethnicity, and social class influence the way particular speakers use and shape the language. It also demonstrates how words coined by groups as various as bureaucrats and teenagers enter our national vocabulary:

down•size (dounùsXzÙ) v. -sized, -siz•ing, -siz•es —tr. 1. Toreduce in number or size: a corporation that downsized its personnel inresponse to a poor economy. 2. To dismiss or lay off from work: workerswho were downsized during the recession. 3. To make in a smaller size: carsthat were downsized during an era of high gasoline prices. —intr. Tobecome smaller in size by reductions in personnel: Corporations contin-ued to downsize after the economy recovered.

Our Living Language Nothing fails so miserably as a failed euphe-mism—though there have been plenty of successes. The English lan-guage, especially business jargon, is littered with words that now seemordinary but were once regarded as euphemisms. Consider the terms sen-ior for old person, custodian for janitor, and rest room for toilet (itself aeuphemism). These words arise from a natural tendency to ease the painor embarrassment associated with things such as death or bodily func-tions, or from a conscious desire to recast something unpleasant in amore dignified light. Downsize is a recent example of a euphemism thatfound broad acceptance in the language and is not particularly thoughtof as a deceptive attempt to smooth over the pain of large-scale firings.But the search for less harmful terms goes on and on. The attempt to findeven more positive-sounding ways to say “downsize” has led business exec-utives and people working in human resources and public relations (botheuphemisms themselves) to float a number of alternatives. Companieswere being “reengineered” and even “right-sized”; laid-off workers hadto be “separated” or “unassigned” for being “nonessential”; their jobswere said to be “no longer going forward.” Most of these terms were metwith scorn, being regarded as cynical attempts to sugarcoat an inherentlydistressing phenomenon, and as failed euphemisms they accomplishedthe exact opposite of what they were designed to. Why one euphemismshould be accepted while another is not remains something of a mystery,but the selection of such terms indicates one way in which social attitudeshave a powerful effect on language change.

rent3 (rHnt) n. Slang A parent. Often used in the plural: had to stayhome with the rents. [Short for PARENT.]

Our Living Language When young people talk about their rents,that is, their parents, they are using a slang term that is of interest to lan-guage historians, if not necessarily thrilling for parents themselves. Theterm is a prime example of one of the fundamental characteristics ofslang, which continually creates novel ways of expressing what are oftenrather ordinary things (if parents may be considered ordinary things).Slang has recently produced two expressions for “parents” that havegained wide currency—rents and parental units. Both expressions dem-onstrate slang's use of unusual or creative linguistic means to achievenovelty of expression. While there are many slang terms, such as bod forbody or rad for radical, that result from the clipping of unstressed sylla-bles, rents is a clipping that drops a stressed syllable, much like the similarterm za, “pizza.” The desire to coin new ways of referring to things alsoleads speakers of slang to use circumlocutions like knuckle sandwich for“punch.” Parental units falls into this category. It plays on the jargon ofbureaucrats and social science, in which the world is viewed as so muchdata waiting to be quantified. The appearance of terms such as rents andparental units also shows that all available styles and levels of languagecan be grist for slang's mill—so long as the material is perceived as irrev-erent, funny, or just plain cool.


UPDATED REGIONALISMSThe American Heritage Dictionary is the only dictionary of its kind to include a full Note program devoted to Regional American English. The Fourth Edition has over 100 Regional Notes that explore the distinctive vocabulary of specific geographic areas of the United States.

♦ vum (vƒm) interj. New England Used to express surprise. [Alterationof VOW2.]

Regional Note New Englanders sometimes express surprise by saying,“Well, I vum!” This odd-sounding word is in fact an alteration of the verbvow that goes back to the days of the American Revolution. It is also heardsimply as “Vum!” or as a sort of past participle: “I'll be vummed!” ASouthern equivalent is swan or swanny, also meaning “swear”: “Now, Iswanny!” According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word swannyderives from the dialect of the north of England: I s' wan ye, “I shall war-rant ye.”

♦ cay•use (kX-yusù, kXùyusÙ) n. Pacific Northwest A horse, especiallyan Indian pony. [Short for cayuse pony, from CAYUSE.]

Regional Note The noun cayuse comes from the name of the Cay-use people in the Pacific Northwest. Cayuse is used chiefly in the territoryof the word's origin—the states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho—al-though its use has also spread into other Western states. A verb meaning“to buck,” derived from the noun, is cited by Ramon F. Adams in Old-Time Cowhand (1961): “What cowboys in other sections called buckin',the Texan called pitchin', and a term used in South Texas, though seldomheard in other sections, was cayusein'.”

♦ pone (pon) n. Chiefly Southern U.S. See johnnycake. See RegionalNotes at johnnycake, light bread. [Virginia Algonquian poan, ap-poans, cornbread.]

Regional Note A staple of the early American colonies from NewEngland southward to Virginia was pone, a bread made by Native Amer-icans from flat cakes of cornmeal dough baked in ashes. Pone is one ofseveral Virginia Algonquian words (including hominy and tomahawk)borrowed into the English of the Atlantic seaboard. The word pone, usu-ally in the compound cornpone, is now used mainly in the South, whereit means cakes of cornbread baked on a griddle or in hot ashes—as theNative Americans originally cooked it.

♦ do•gie also do•gy (doùgK) n., pl. -gies Western U.S. A stray or moth-erless calf. [Origin unknown.]

Regional Note In the language of the American West, a motherlesscalf is known as a dogie. In Western Words Ramon F. Adams gives onepossible etymology for dogie, whose origin is unknown. During the1880s, when a series of harsh winters left large numbers of orphanedcalves, the little calves, weaned too early, were unable to digest coarserange grass, and their swollen bellies “very much resembled a batch ofsourdough carried in a sack.” Such a calf was referred to as dough-guts.The term, altered to dogie according to Adams, “has been used ever sincethroughout cattleland to refer to a pot-gutted orphan calf.” Another pos-sibility is that dogie is an alteration of Spanish dogal, “lariat.” Still anotheris that it is simply a variant pronunciation of doggie.

New England

Pacific Northwest

South

Western


USAGE NOTESThe Usage Panel, unique to the American Heritage Dictionary, is a distinguished group of over 200 writers, scholars, and others noted for their facility with language. The opinions of the panelists are an important contribution to the Usage Note program, which addresses both old and emerging usage problems. The Fourth Edition includes over 400 Usage Notes.

hope•ful•ly (hopùfN-lK) adv. 1. In a hopeful manner. 2. Usage Prob-lem It is to be hoped: “Marriage is a coming together for better or for worse,hopefully enduring” (William O. Douglas).

Usage Note Writers who use hopefully as a sentence adverb, as inHopefully the measures will be adopted, should be aware that the usage isunacceptable to many critics, including a large majority of the Usage Pan-el. It is not easy to explain why critics dislike this use of hopefully. Theuse is justified by analogy to similar uses of many other adverbs, as inMercifully, the play was brief or Frankly, I have no use for your friend. Andthough this use of hopefully may have been a vogue word when it firstgained currency back in the early 1960s, it has long since lost any hint ofjargon or pretentiousness for the general reader. The wide acceptance ofthe usage reflects popular recognition of its usefulness; there is no precisesubstitute. Someone who says Hopefully, the treaty will be ratified makesa hopeful prediction about the fate of the treaty, whereas someone whosays I hope (or We hope or It is hoped) the treaty will be ratified expressesa bald statement about what is desired. Only the latter could be continuedwith a clause such as but it isn't likely. • It might have been expected, then,that the initial flurry of objections to hopefully would have subsided oncethe usage became well established. Instead, critics appear to have becomemore adamant in their opposition. In the 1969 Usage Panel survey, 44percent of the Panel approved the usage, but this dropped to 27 percentin our 1986 survey. (By contrast, 60 percent in the latter survey acceptedthe comparable use of mercifully in the sentence Mercifully, the game end-ed before the opponents could add another touchdown to the lopsided score.)It is not the use of sentence adverbs per se that bothers the Panel; rather,the specific use of hopefully in this way has become a shibboleth.


WORD HISTORIESThe American Heritage Dictionary features hundreds of Word History Notes that offer a thorough view of the stories behind words we use all the time–from abracadabra to zipper, from circus to sanguine. And the Notes are supplemented by two unique Appendixes: a newly expanded Appendix of Indo-European Roots and an all-new Appendix of Semitic Roots.

grem•lin (grHmùlVn) n. 1. An imaginary gnomelike creature to whommechanical problems, especially in aircraft, are attributed. 2. A makerof mischief. [Perhaps blend of Irish gruaimín, bad-tempered little fellow(from Middle Irish gruaim, gloom, surliness) and GOBLIN.]

Word History Elves, goblins, and trolls seem to be timeless creationsof the distant past, but gremlins were born in the 20th century. In fact,gremlin is first recorded only in the 1920s, as a Royal Air Force term fora low-ranking officer or enlisted man saddled with oppressive assign-ments. Said to have been invented by members of the Royal Naval AirService in World War I, gremlin is used in works written in the 1940s for“an imaginary gnomelike creature who causes difficulties in aircraft.”The word seems likely to have been influenced by goblin, but accounts ofits origin are various and none are certain. One source calls in Fremlinbeer bottles to explain the word; another, the Irish Gaelic word gruaimín,“ill-humored little fellow.” Whatever the word's origin, it is certain thatgremlins have taken on a life of their own.

loaf1 (lof) n., pl. loaves (lovz) 1. A shaped mass of bread baked inone piece. 2. A shaped, usually rounded or oblong, mass of food: vealloaf. [Middle English lof, from Old English hl7f.]

Word History Loaf, lord, and lady are closely related words that testifyto bread's fundamental importance in the Middle Ages. Curiously,though bread was a staple food in many Indo-European cultures, loaf andits cognates occur only in the Germanic languages, and lord and lady onlyin English. Loaf derives from Old English hl7f, “bread, loaf of bread,”related to Gothic hlaifs, Old Norse hleifr, and Modern German Laib, allof which mean “loaf of bread.” Hl7f survives in Lammas, originallyHl7fmaesse, “Loaf-Mass,” the Christian Feast of the First Fruits, tradi-tionally celebrated on August 1. A lord, Old English hl7ford, was a com-pound meaning “loaf-ward, keeper of bread,” because a lord maintainsand feeds his household and offers hospitality. Similarly, lady derivesfrom Old English hl<fdige, which became lady by 1382. The –dige comesfrom dæge, “kneader,” and is related to our dough. A lady, therefore, is “akneader of bread, a breadmaker.” Lord and lady both retain vestiges oftheir original meanings, although England's aristocrats have not been el-bow deep in flour, let alone dough, for several centuries.

dit•to (dVtùo) n., pl. -tos 1. The same as stated above or before. 2. Aduplicate; a copy. 3. A pair of small marks (") used to indicated that theword, phrase, or figure given above is to be repeated. ❖ adv. As before.❖ tr.v. -toed, -to•ing, -tos To duplicate (a document, for example).[Italian dialectal, past participle of Italian dire, to say, from Latin dXcere.See deik- in Appendix I.]

Word History Ditto, which at first glance seems a handy and insignif-icant sort of word, actually has a Roman past, for it comes from dictus,“having been said,” the past participle of the verb dXcere, “to say.” In Ital-ian dXcere became dire and dictus became detto, or in the Tuscan dialectditto. Italian detto or ditto meant what said does in English, as in the lo-cution “the said story.” Thus the word could be used in certain construc-tions to mean “the same as what has been said”; for example, having giv-en the date December 22, one could use 26 detto or ditto for 26 December.The first recorded use of ditto in English occurs in such a constructionin 1625. The sense “copy” is an English development, first recorded in1818. Ditto has even become a trademark for a duplicating machine.


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