Erin McKean

When Dora returns to her home town to run her grandmother's vintage clothing store, it feels like a step back in time.

The Secret Lives of Dresses

Produced by Oxford's American Dictionaries Program, and drawing on the expertise of scores of American scholars and advisors, The New Oxford American Dictionary sets the standard of excellence for lexicography in this country.Here is the most accurate and richly descriptive picture of American English ever offered in any dictionary. Oxford's American editors drew on our 200-million-word databank of contemporary North American English, plus the unrivaled citation files of the world-renowned Oxford English Dictionary. We started with American evidence--an unparalleled resource unique to Oxford. Our staff logged more than 50 editor-years, checking every entry and every definition. Oxford's ongoing North American Reading Program, begun in the early 1980s, keeps our lexicographers in touch with fresh evidence of our language and usage--in novels and newspapers, in public records and magazines, and on-line, too.To provide unprecedented clarity, the entries are organized around core meanings, reflecting the way people think about words and eliminating the clutter and confusion of a traditional dictionary entry. Each entry plainly shows the major meaning or meanings of the word, plus any related senses, arranged in intuitive constellations of connected meanings. Definitions are supplemented by illustrative, in-context examples of actual usage.This major new edition of The New Oxford American Dictionary includes a guide to the pronunciations on every page, a new etymology essay by Anatoly Liberman, completely updated and revised maps, and more than a thousand new entries, covering everything new in our language from low-carb to warblog and beyond.The New Oxford American Dictionary is designed to serve the user clearly, simply, and quickly, with the precise guidance you expect from Oxford University Press. With in-depth and up-to-date coverage that all users need and expect--for reading and study, for technical terms, for language guidance--it continues the tradition of scholarship and lexicographic excellence that are the hallmarks of every Oxford dictionary.Web SiteA companion web site is now available at www.oup.com/us/noad.

The New Oxford American Dictionary

For thirty years Verbatim: The Language Quarterly has published amusing, interesting and occasionally useful essays on concept, usage, jargon, wordplay, lexicography, linguistics, blunders, malapropisms and anything else remotely tied to the English language. Here, collected for the first time, are some of the most fascinating, funniest and strangest pieces that first debuted in its pages. Verbatim is a smart and sassy collection for anyone seeking the highly scholarly or the completely frivolous. From the roots of medieval words to the components of a British football chant, Verbatim will offer something for every language lover and word nerd to enjoy.

Verbatim

A stylishly illustrated and informative A to Z of the 100 iconic dresses - from The Bandage to The Sack, The Baby-doll to The Siren, and everything between - that have made their mark on the world.

The Most Iconic Styles of Our Time

The Hundred Dresses

"The best-selling author of The Secret Lives of Dresses presents a visual A-to-Z reference profiling iconic vintage and modern dresses, combining evocative four-color illustrations with lively assessments of each depicted style, their famous wearers and typical accessories."

Do you know what a snollygoster is? Would you eat something called a muktuk? Do you know anyone who engages in onolatry? Impress your friends and pepper your dinner party conversations with such nuggets as gobemouche, mumpsimus, and cachinnate. You can learn about all of these bizarre and beautiful words and many more in Totally Weird and Wonderful Words. Both witty and entertaining, this new paperback brings together two best-selling compendiums to all words unique and strange, Weird and Wonderful Words and More Weird and Wonderful Words. Offering a potpourri of colorful and fascinating words compiled by noted lexicographer Erin McKean, it contains hundreds of definitions, and has been updated to include two new essays, with over 150 words new to this edition. Written in a clear and conversational style, the book contains full-page cartoon illustrations by Roz Chast and Danny Shanahan. Featuring hundreds of words guaranteed to amuse and astonish, this is a book that will appeal to logophiles everywhere. It also features a bibliography of Oxford dictionaries and a guide to creating your own unusual words correctly from Greek and Latin roots. Smart and funny and with just a touch of whimsy, Totally Weird and Wonderful Words is the perfect book for reading in your sitooterie with a bumbo in your hand while mavises sing in your ear.

Totally Weird and Wonderful Words

Love is a defining human quality, one that is inherent to all cultures. Expressions of love are powerful and magical, wherever you live and whatever language you speak. That's Amore! is a captivating collection of the language of love from around the globe, celebrating the universality as well as the diversity of this most sought-after state. Embracing more than 50 languages, learn how the French flirt and the Danes date. Discover that while both the French and the Italians are thunder-struck by love coup de foudre and colpo di fulmine respectively, the Spanish are hit with Cupid's arrow fue flechazo. In Greece, you will be well served to understand the meanings behind the five types of love; philia, eros, agape, storge and xenia. Cleverly arranged by the stages of love-Love at First Sight, Flirting and Flattery, Declarations of Love, Terms of Endearment, and Lifelong Love and Intimacy-Christopher J. Moore once again enchants linguaphiles with his unique style. Including feature pages of customs of love from around the world, learn the history and etiquette of the kiss, Cupid and mythology, the symbolism of love and the language of flowers. Surprising, eclectic, and endearing, this book is the perfect gift for your lover and any lover of words.

The Language of Love for Lovers of Language

That's Amore!

Danny Shanahan

This title digs deep into forgotten corners of the dictionary, gathering both the most spectacular old and the most impressive new words. The result is more than 400 prime specimens with pronunciations, defined in a conversational style.

More Weird and Wonderful Words

An overview of the uses and abuses of the English language from the pages of Verbatim magazine features contributions by Richard Lederer, Jesse Sheidlower, and Joe Queenan on everything from the use of language in the Bible to the components of a Britishs

From the Bawdy to the Sublime, the Best Writing on Language for Word Lovers, Grammar Mavens, and Armchair Linguists

Christine A. Lindberg

When do you address correspondents by their first names over e-mail? Need a refresher on the proper format for a business letter? Or perhaps a cram-course on how business is conducted in a particular foreign country? Now, all your workplace questions can be found in one convenient source from the most trusted name in reference. The Office Professional's Guide takes you through office basics (frequently misspelled words; proper telephone, fax, and email etiquette; common filing systems), important business and financial concepts (P&L, ROI, price to earnings ratio), international business (a glossary of terms in five different languages; a guide to travel arrangements), giving presentations (with PowerPoint), making meeting arrangements, and much more. The Office Professional's Guide is an invaluable tool for any modern professional, no matter how high you are on your department's totem pole. Compiled and researched by Oxford's renowned reference team, this comprehensive book will be a daily source of knowledge and peace of mind.

The Office Professional's Guide

From the Sack to the Sari, each dress makes a powerful statement about the woman who wears it. Inspired by the Eleanor Estes' children's classic The Hundred Dresses, Erin McKean's classic-to-be by the same title, with chic illustrations by Donna Mehalko, is a definitive and witty look at what one hundred iconic dress styles, vintage and modern say about their wearers. Each beautifully illustrated entry looks at the history of that particular style, famous wearers (if applicable), possible accessories, where the style could be observed, and what message, subtle or overt, is conveyed by the dress. Featured are The Wench; The Vreeland; The Wrap; The Austen; The Beckham; The Siren (any style, as long as it's red); The Chanel Ingénue; The Caftan; The Guinevere; The Jackie; ; The Biohazard (any dress dangerous to bystanders or the wearer: think Lady Gaga); and many more. Part style commentary, part fashion blueprint, part clever field guide, The Hundred Dresses will ensure that no woman (or man) ever underestimates the power of the dress.

Compact Oxford Dictionary

Just as a rose would smell as sweet by any other name, so it is with love. Love is powerful, enduring, and magical in any language. For "Je T'Aime", word expert Erin McKean has scoured the world looking for the most colourful and seductive expressions to honour your loved one, and among the more than forty-six languages featured in this book, you're sure to find the right things to say. From the romantic 'hubbak yidhaw wibni' (Arabic, meaning 'your love makes me melt away') to the delightfully descriptive 'cinta monyet' (Indonesian for 'monkey love', similar to 'puppy love'), there's a phrase or word here for everyone who loves. Perhaps you can impress your beloved by telling them you are 'vliuben do ushi' (Bulgarian for 'in love up to your ears'), or discover that regardless of national boundaries the French, Italians, and Germans are all hit with similar bolts of lightning when they are lovestruck.

Je T'aime

Oxford University Press

Over 40,000 entries and 50,000 definitions fill the pages of this new American edition of the bestselling "Oxford English Minidictionary," which offers authoritative and up-to-date coverage of today's American English.

Oxford American Minidictionary

Roz Chast

Lists the meaning of hundreds of bizarre and unusual words and includes a guide to coining new words.

Erin McKean

Books

Your next favorite book is out there