17 Aug 2010 Flanneltron   » (Journeyer)

A Dreadful Fine Title Page: Or, A Vast Amount of Absolutely Necessary Information

This is the title page of an 1879 dictionary I have:

THE AMERICAN POPULAR DICTIONARY: CONTAINING EVERY USEFUL WORD TO BE FOUND IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE WITH ITS TRUE MEANING, DERIVATION, SPELLING, AND PRONUNCIATION. ALSO, A VAST AMOUNT OF ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY INFORMATION UPON SCIENCE, MYTHOLOGY, BIOGRAPHY, AMERICAN HISTORY, INDIANS, LAND TITLES, CONSTITUTIONS, LAWS, CITIES, COLLEGES, ARMY AND NAVY, DEBTS, RATE OF MORTALITY, GROWTH OF CITIES, RATES OF INTEREST, INSOLVENT AND ASSIGNMENT LAWS, ETC. BEING A PERFECT LIBRARY OF REFERENCE, IN ONE HANDY VOLUME.

The full title is 506 characters. That’s 3.61 tweets!

And it’s quite the self-marketing title–in a single 512-page book they have amassed every useful word and a vast amount of absolutely necessary information. It reminds me of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy a bit.

SLANG AND VULGAR PHRASES

The title of this post is taken from the absolutely necessary section of the book called “SLANG AND VULGAR PHRASES” which informs us that “dreadful fine” is a contradiction. Here are few interesting quotes from that section:

At loggerheads is uncouth.
Bad box.—”He is in a bad box” has a vulgar air. Say bad predicament, or unpleasant situation.
Comeatable, for approachable; as, “European monarchs are not easily comeatable.”
Fizzle should be applied only to inglorious failures.
Full chisel.—”He went full chisel” is an absurd expression. Say “as fast as he could,” or “he ran his best.”
“How’s yourself, this morning,” savors of the familiarity that breeds contempt.
Otherguess, for otherguise, very different from, or superior to…
A precious mess, a pretty kettle of fish, mean nothing.
Crank, for pert, saucy; as, “He was so crank that he was little respected.” New England.

Syndicated 2010-08-17 06:52:54 from SynapticNulship

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