BiblioVault - Books about Dictionaries

The New Harvard Dictionary of Music

Third Edition

Don Michael Randel

Harvard University Press, 1986

THIS EDITION HAS BEEN REPLACED BY A NEWER 2003 EDITION.

This classic reference work is simply the best one-volume music dictionary available today. Its nearly 6,000 entries, written by more than 70 top musicologists, are consistently lucid and based on recent scholarship. The New Harvard Dictionary of Music contains among its riches superb articles on music of the 20th century, including jazz, rock, and mixed media as well as twelve-tone, serial, and aleatory music; comprehensive articles on the music of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Near East; entries on all the styles and forms in Western art music; and descriptions of instruments enriched by historical background. Short entries for quick reference--definitions and identifications--alternate with encyclopedia-length articles written by experts in each field. More than 220 drawings and 250 musical examples enhance the text.

Combining authoritative scholarship with concise, lively prose, The New Harvard Dictionary of Music is the essential guide for musicians, students, and everyone who listens to music.

[more]

North Carolina English, 1861-1865

A Guide and Glossary

Michael E. Ellis

University of Tennessee Press, 2013

In North Carolina English, 1861–1865, Michael E. Ellis offers an Oxford English Dictionary–like take on regional language based on more than two thousand letters and diaries composed by North Carolinians during the Civil War. These documents are part of a larger project, the Corpus of American Civil War Letters (CACWL), aimed at locating, photographing, and transcribing letters written during the period from all parts of the country. With little formal education, the correspondents were men and women who wrote “by ear,” often reproducing their spoken language through unconventional spellings and grammatical forms, as well as regional or archaic words and usages.
    The core of the book is an alphabetically arranged glossary of words and expressions characteristic of mid–nineteenth century North Carolina, each containing excerpts from the letters themselves to illustrate meaning and usage. While the majority of the writers were Confederate soldiers and their family members, the collection also includes letters from slaves, former slaves, and African Americans from North Carolina serving in the Union Army. The soldiers’ letters rarely contain details about battles, except to list the names of relatives or neighbors among the killed or wounded. After a battle, a soldier might simply write, “the Like of ded men an horses I never saw before” or “we hav lost a heep of men and kild a heep of yankeys.” As Joel Howard of Lincoln County wrote home in June 1863, “I have bin in the ware and Saw the ware and heard tell of the ware till I have got tired of it. if I Could get clear of this ware I neve[r] want to Read of A nother.”
    Food is perhaps the most common topic, followed by illness. Numerous terms relate to farming, clothing, religion, and the effects of the war itself, as well as entries for expressions that have long since disappeared from American English: in the gants, on the goose, and up the spout.
    In addition to the glossary, Ellis offers an extensive overview of North Carolina English of the period, delves into the social background of the letter writers, and provides invaluable guidance to the ways in which Civil War letters should be read. A unique window into a largely neglected corner of our extraordinarily rich and regionally distinct language, this volume will prove an indispensable reference for scholars and students seeking to reconstruct the world of the common Civil War soldier.

[more]

Northern Paiute–Bannock Dictionary

Compiled by Sven Liljeblad, Catherine S. Fowler, and Glenda Powell

University of Utah Press, 2011

Based on extensive fieldwork that spanned more than 50 years, this comprehensive dictionary is a monumental achievement and will help to preserve this American Indian language that is nearing extinction.

[more]

Norwegian-English Dictionary

A Pronouncing and Translating Dictionary of Modern Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk) with a Historical and Grammatical Introduction

Editor-in-Chief Einar Haugen

University of Wisconsin Press, 1974

For more than forty years, the Haugen Norwegian–English Dictionary has been regarded as the foremost resource for both learners and professionals using English and Norwegian. With more than 60,000 entries, it is esteemed for its breadth, its copious grammatical detail, and its rich idiomatic examples. In his introduction, Einar Haugen, a revered scholar and teacher of Norwegian to English speakers, provides a concise overview of the history of the language, presents the pronunciation of contemporary Norwegian, and introduces basic grammatical structures, including the inflection of nouns and adjectives and the declension of verbs.

[more]

Notable American Women

A Biographical Dictionary

Susan Ware, EditorStacy Braukman, Assistant Editor

Harvard University Press, 2004

The publication of the first volumes of Notable American Women in 1971 was a watershed event in women's history. By uncovering and documenting the enormous contributions that women had made--previously overlooked or underappreciated--this important reference work changed the way historians thought and wrote about American history.

This latest volume brings the project up to date, with entries on almost 500 women whose death dates fall between January 1, 1976, and December 31, 1999. The era they shared coincides with the great expansion of opportunities for women in the twentieth century. You will find here stars of the golden ages of radio, film, dance, and television; scientists and scholars; politicians and entrepreneurs; authors and aviators; civil rights activists and religious leaders; Native American craftspeople and world-renowned artists. Women from a broad spectrum of ethnic, class, political, religious, and sexual identities are all acknowledged.

For each subject, Notable American Women offers a substantial interpretive biographical essay by a distinguished authority that integrates the woman's personal life with her professional achievements set in the context of larger historical developments.

This volume will be an indispensable reference for students and scholars of women's history and for anyone interested in the rich and varied lives led by distinguished American women.

[more]

Notable American Women

A Biographical Dictionary

Barbara Sicherman

Harvard University Press, 1980

The life stories of American women--442 of them--who have in some way affected contemporary American life are explored in this lauded companion to Notable American Women, 1607-1950. The basics--the crucial dates, ancestry, parents, education, marital status, and children--provide invaluable material for both the researcher and the general reader. Beyond these essentials, a brief essay focuses on each woman's life and personality, and evaluates her career from a historical framework. Sixteen new pages of photographs specially selected for the paperback edition have been included.

[more]

Notable American Women

A Biographical Dictionary

Edward T. James

Harvard University Press, 1971

This superb biographical dictionary covers the lives of exceptional women throughout three and a half centuries of American history. Here are artists, lawyers, reformers, educators, entrepreneurs, physicists, writers, pioneers, presidents' ladies, film stars. Here are those known for their deeds and those famed for their looks--the genteel and the disreputable, the highborn and slave-born. Here are the famous in all areas of endeavor--names like Ruth Benedict, Jane Addams, Willa Cather, Isadora Duncan, Carole Lombard, Sojourner Truth, Pocahontas, Texas Guinan, the Everleigh sisters, Carrie Nation, Amelia Earhart. Here also are many names rescued from obscurity.

[more]