What DARE Is Based On

The Dictionary is based both on face-to-face interviews carried out in all fifty states between 1965 and 1970, and on a comprehensive collection of written materials (diaries, letters, novels, histories, biographies, newspapers, and government documents) that cover our history from the colonial period to the present. These materials are cited in individual entries to illustrate how words have been used from the seventeenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first century. The entries also include pronunciations (if they vary regionally or differ from what would be expected), variant forms, etymologies (if DARE can add to what is already known about a word's history), and statements about regional and social distributions. A feature unique to DARE is the use of maps in the text of the Dictionary, to show where specific words were found in the 1,002 communities investigated during the fieldwork.   When completed, DARE will be not only a record of the language of the American people, but also a reflection of all the richness and diversity of our culture.  The first four volumes, covering the letters A through Sk-, have been published. 

The Anatomy of a DARE Entry

The following example of an entry provides an explanation of the features in a typical treatment of a word or phrase in DARE. While not every entry will include each of the features which this one, dropped egg, does, they will include all those justified by the evidence available to the Editors. Click on the dot before the feature discussed for an explanation.

dropped egg n Also drop egg [Prob from Scots dial; cf SND drap v. 5. (2) (b) 1824->] chiefly NEngSee Map somewhat old-fash

A poached egg.

Map of 'dropped egg'

1884Harper's New Mth. Mag. 69.306/1 MA, Martha was . . eating her toast and a dropped egg. 1896 (c1973) Farmer Orig. Cook Book 93, Dropped Eggs (Poached). 1933 Hanley Disks neMA, Dropped egg--take and put a pan of milk on the stove and boil and drop the egg in and let it cook. 1941 LANE Map 295 (Poached Eggs), throughout NEng, Dropped eggs. . .1 inf, ceVT, Drop eggs. 1948 Peattie Berkshires 323 wMA, In Berkshire . . you could not get a poached egg, but you could get a "dropped" egg, which was the same thing. 1965 PADS 43.24 seMA, 6 [infs] poached eggs, 4 [infs] dropped eggs, 1 [inf] dropped egg on toast. 1965-70 DARE (Qu. H35, When eggs are taken out of the shell and cooked in boiling water, you call them ______ eggs) 40 Infs, chiefly NEng, Dropped; NH15, Dropped egg on toast. [33 of 41 Infs old]  1975 Gould ME Lingo 82, Dropped egg--Maine for poached egg, usually on toast. 1977 Yankee Jan 73 Isleboro ME, The people on Isleboro eat dropped eggs instead of poached.