Dictionary of American English.pdf

The Facts On File

S TUDENT ’ S

OF A MERICAN E NGLISH

Cynthia A. Barnhart

D ICTIONARY

e Facts On File Student’s Dictionary of American English

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Barnhart, Cynthia A.

e Facts on File student’s dictionary of American English / Cynthia Barnhart.

p. cm.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8160-6379-6 (alk. paper)

1. English language—Dictionaries, Juvenile. 2. English language—Dictionaries.

I. Facts on File, Inc. II. Title. III. Title: Student’s dictionary of American English.

PE1628.5.B38 2007

423—dc22 2007023460

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You can ﬁ nd Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonﬁ le.com

Text design by Erika Arroyo

Cover design by Salvatore Luongo

Printed in the United States of America

VB CGI 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

is book is printed on acid-free paper.

C ONTENTS

Preface iv

Explanatory Notes vi

Entries A to Z 1

P REFACE

e ﬁ rst purpose of any student’s dictionary is

to provide the basic information necessary to be

able to understand a meaning, decipher a pro-

nunciation, make a correct syllable break, and

employ vocabulary appropriate to a particular

situation. e Facts On File Student’s Dictionary

of American English is designed to provide such

information as accurately, concisely, and clearly

as possible. Its modest entry list of about 90,000

words includes the vocabulary most of us use

every day in ordinary writing and encounter in

reading a newspaper, novel, magazine, or online

article. It also includes a selection of widely used

new terms in English from science and technol-

ogy and contemporary American culture.

Each entry of the standard vocabulary has

been evaluated and revised according to cur-

rent usage. e English language o en adds

new meanings to “old words,” which have been

pressed into service to describe changing times,

perceptions, and attitudes. In order to call atten-

tion to extended and new meanings for older

words, the editor of this dictionary has made free

use of the label Fig. (Figurative) to mark usages

that have strayed from the bounds of a term’s

core meaning. Such adaptability is surely what

makes English a lively and inventive language.

Along with abundant use of the ﬁ gurative

label, this Student’s Dictionary of American Eng-

lish radically diﬀ ers from more expansive dic-

tionaries, and even collegiate dictionaries, in

its concise treatment of function words— come,

have, go, for, open, etc. ese are the words so

essential to the basic formulations of English

that traditional dictionaries o en identify scores

of meanings for them. Except for the language

specialist, most of these meanings are separated

by so little diﬀ erence that the ordinary student

or general user is hard pressed to understand

the distinction. In this dictionary, such entries

have been trimmed to core meanings; shades of

meaning are illustrated by phrases or sentences

that follow a deﬁ nition, not by diﬀ erent deﬁ ni-

tions entirely.

e editor has eschewed overreliance on usage

labels ( Slang, Informal ) as well, using them only

where the user should be alerted to the level of

use, so that an informed decision can be made as

to whether a particular word is appropriate to a

particular context. Likewise, archaic vocabulary

has been systematically reduced to those poetic

archaisms and other vestiges of ancient vocabu-

lary that students are most likely to encounter.

e argument that a student might encounter

a particular archaic term does not outweigh the

necessity of using available space in the diction-

ary to cover more completely current usage

of words whose deﬁ nitions have expanded in

recent years. While a glossary in a literary text

will most likely deﬁ ne an archaism, it will not do

the same for the expanded meanings of terms

such as marriage or partner, which today have

new and diﬀ erent meanings in addition to their

core meanings.

Any dictionary is a reﬂ ection of the work of

many people who have contributed their ideas

and knowledge of language to the long line

of dictionaries compiled over the years, and

any new dictionary draws heavily on works

that have preceded it. e editor has drawn on

the experience, expertise, and traditions of the

people and tools of the dictionary trade. One

such tool, without which the dictionary would

descend into a personal account of today’s Eng-

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