Bibliography

We’re often asked whether the words and facts we tweet are genuine (they are), and if so, where we get our information from. 

The fact is we’ve quite a library of dictionaries and other resources, both on and offline, that we mine our words and facts from—a number of which, purely for reference, recommendation and curiosity, are listed here:

Aldrich, Chris. The Aldrich Dictionary of Phobias and Other Word Families. Victoria, 2002.

Ayto, John. Dictionary of Word Origins. New York, 2001.

Ayto, John. 20th Century Words. Oxford, 1999.

B. E. A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew. London, c.1698.

Bailey, Nathaniel. An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. London, 1749.

Barnhart, Robert K. (Ed.) Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology. New York, 1988.

Barrère, Albert, and C. Leland. A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon and Cant. London, 1889.

Blount, Thomas. Glossographia. London, 1656.

Boswell, James. The Life of Samuel Johnson. London, 1791.

Brewer, E. Cobham. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Philadelphia, 1887.

Bullokar, John. An English Expositor. London, 1616.

Byrne, Josefa Heifetz. Mrs Byrne’s Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure and Preposterous Words (Reprint Ed.) London, 1989.

Chambers, Robert. The Book of Days: A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities. London, 1864.

Clapin, Sylva. A New Dictionary of Americanisms. New York, 1902.

Cockeram, Henry. The English Dictionary: An Interpreter of Hard English Words. London, 1623.

Cotgrave, Randle. A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues. London, 1611.

Coxe, Richard. A Pronouncing Dictionary. London, 1813.

Cresswell, Julia. Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins (2nd Ed.) Oxford, 2009.

Crystal, Ben, and David Crystal. Shakespeare’s Words: A Glossary and Language Companion. London, 2004.

De Vere, Schele. Americanisms: The English of the New World. New York, 1871.

Donald, James. Chambers’s Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. London, 1877.

Donkin, T. C. An Etymological Dictionary of the Romance Languages. Edinburgh, 1864.

Farmer, John S. Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present. London, 1890.

Farmer, John S. (Ed.) The Proverbs, Epigrams and Miscellanies of John Heywood. London, 1906. 

Farmer, John S., and W. E. Henley. A Dictionary of Slang and Colloquial English. London, 1905.

Fraser, Edward, and John Gibbons. Soldier and Sailor Words and Phrases. London, 1925.

Freeman, Morton S. A New Dictionary of Eponyms. Oxford, 1997.

Gelling, Margaret. Signposts to the Past: Place-Names and the History of England (3rd Ed.) Chichester, 1997.

Goldin, Hyman E. The Dictionary of American Underworld Lingo. New York, 1950.

Grant, William. The Scottish National Dictionary. Edinburgh, 1931-41.

Green, Jonathan. Chambers Slang Dictionary. London, 2008.

Green, Jonathan. Newspeak: A Dictionary of Jargon. London, 1984.

Grose, Francis. A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. London, 1785.

Grose, Francis. A Glossary of Provincial and Local Words Used in England. London, 1787.

Halliwell, James. A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words. London, 1855.

Harrison, Henry. Surnames of the United Kingdom: A Concise Etymological Dictionary (Reprint Ed.) Balitmore, 2013.

Heywood, John. Proverbs in the English Tongue. London, 1546.

Holloway, William. A General Dictionary of Provincialisms. London, 1840.

Hollyband, Claudius. A Dictionary of French and English. London, 1593.

Hotten, John Camden. The Slang Dictionary. London, 1887.

Jamieson, John. An Etymological Dicionary of the Scottish Language. Paisley, 1879.

Johnson, Samuel. A Dictionary of the English Language. London, 1755.

Jones, Stephen. A General Pronouncing and Explanatory Dictionary. London, 1818.

Kipfer, Barbara Ann (Ed.), and Robert L. Chapman. Dictionary of American Slang (4th Ed.) New York, 2007.

Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. Amsterdam, 1971. 

Knowles, James. A Pronouncing and Explanatory Dictionary of the English Language. London, 1835.

Lehmann, Winfred P. A Gothic Etymological Dictionary. Leiden, 1986.

Liberman, Anatoly. Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology. Minneapolis, 2008.

Maclennan, Malcolm. Gaelic Dictionary. Edinburgh, 1925.

Manser, Martin H. The Wordsworth Dictionary of Eponyms (Reprint Ed.) Ware, 1996.

Marples, Morris. University Slang. London, 1950.

Mills, A. D. A Dictionary of English Place Names (2nd Ed.) Oxford, 1998.

Mollett, J. W. An Illustrated Dictionary of Words Used in Art and Archaeology. London, 1883.

Nares, Robert. A Glossary or Collection of Words, Phrases, Names, and Allusions […] in the Works of English Authors, Particularly Shakespeare, and his Contemporaries. London, 1859.

Onion, C. T. A Shakespeare Glossary. Oxford, 1911.

Partridge, Eric. A Dictionary of Catchphrases (2nd Ed.) London, 1985.

Partridge, Eric. A Dictionary of Clichés. London, 1940.

Partridge, Eric. A Dictionary of Forces Slang, 1935-1945. London, 1948.

Partridge, Eric. A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (8th Ed.) London, 1984.

Partridge, Eric. A Dictionary of the Underworld. London, 1949.

Partridge, Eric. The Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang (Revised 6th Ed.) London, 1973.

Pegler, Martin. Soldiers’ Songs and Slang of the Great War. Oxford, 2014.

Pepys, Samuel. The Diary of Samuel Pepys: A New and Complete Transcription (Robert Latham and William Matthews, Eds.) London, 1970-83.

Phillips, Edward. The New World of English Words. London, 1658.

Reaney, Percy Hide, and Richard Middlewood Wilson. A Dictionary of Surnames, Revised Edition. Oxford, 1997.

Robertson, John G. Robertson’s Words for a Modern Age (Reprint Ed.) London, 1991.

Robinson, C. Clough. A Glossary of Words Pertaining to the Dialect of Mid-Yorkshire. London, 1876.

Schneider, Lucien. Ulirnaisigutiit: An Inuktitut-English Dictionary. Laval, 1985.

Sheard, K. M. Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Names […] from Every Place and Every Time. Woodbury, MN, 2011.

Sheridan, Thomas. A Complete Dictionary of the English Language. London, 1790.

Skeat, Walter. A Glossary of Tudor and Stuart Words. Oxford, 1914.

Smith, Alexander. The Thieves’ New Canting Dictionary. London, 1719.

Smyth, William. The Sailor’s Word-Book: An Alphabetical Digest. London, 1867.

Walker, John. A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary and Expositor of the English Language. Edinburgh, 1835.

Warrack, Alexander. A Scots Dialectic Dictionary. Edinburgh, 1911.

Watts, Victor. The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names. Cambridge, 2004.

Webster, Noah. A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language. New Haven, 1806.

Wedgwood, Hensleigh. A Dictionary of English Etymology. New York, 1878.

Wentworth, Harold. American Dialect Dictionary. New York, 1944.

Wilkinson, P. R. Wilkinson’s Thesaurus of Traditional English Metaphors (2nd Ed.) London, 2002.

Worcester, Joseph. A Dictionary of the English Language. Boston, 1881.

Wright, Joseph. The English Dialect Dictionary (Vols. 1-6). Oxford, 1896-1905.

Wright, Thomas. Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial Words. London, 1857.