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REVIEWERS’ COMMENTS on DARE

“The most exciting linguistic project going on in the United States.”
                    William Safire, New York Times

“When it is completed the dictionary will rank as one of the glories of contemporary American scholarship. . . . It is endlessly rewarding to dip into, and if you look up a particular word or phrase you are in constant danger of being seduced by something else. . . . It is a work to consult, and a work to savor—a work to last a lifetime.”
                    John Gross, New York Times

“Sometimes it has seemed as if the reviewers of the Dictionary of American Regional English are engaged in a contest as to who can give it the most laudatory praise. That is not an unreasonable thing to do, because our laudatory remarks are, I believe, true. It would be difficult to achieve hyperbole.”                                Allen Walker Read, Dictionaries

“In its scope and thoroughness, Cassidy’s dictionary is unmatched. . . . Writers, etymologists and other devotees of verbal arcana have never been given a richer browsing ground. . . . They are also bound to be awed by the dictionary’s staggering scholarship.”
                    Ezra Bowen, Time

“Absolutely fascinating. . . . This fine production of Harvard University Press will repay endlessly the attentions of the lonely scholar and the word-drunk braggadoe alike. . . . For the first time, in this nation of homogenized milk and golfheaded piffle-speakers, we have a definitive picture of who says what where when the TV is off. This picture, literally dotted out on helpful maps, provides a raucous hymn to linguistic diversity.”
                    Mark Muro, Boston Globe

“A staggering work of collective scholarship. . . . DARE is not only a reference treasure for the scholar and the general word lover, it’s a lode for raiding parties by specialists of all kinds. . . . Most of all, DARE is evidence that American speech will never become stale and fusty, that the great linguistic homogenization of television is a myth.”
                    Henry Kisor, Chicago Sun-Times

“Name scholars are . . . grateful for the vision, the enterprise, and the perseverance of those . . . who have created this superb research tool. Once one has used it one becomes addicted to it, wondering how one has ever managed without it.”
                    W.F.H. Nicolaisen, Names

“This survey of spoken English is, as its publisher proudly proclaims, unprecedented. It’s also scholarly, endlessly fascinating and enlightening. You can hear America talking from its pages.”
                    Howard S. Shapiro, Philadelphia Inquirer

“Ever wonder what a preacher’s nose is? (The rump of a cooked chicken, in areas of the South.) Or a skinny malink? (A derogatory term New Yorkers use to describe an emaciated person.) . . . With material from thousands of face-to-face interviews conducted between 1965 and 1970, as well as diaries, letters, novels and all other manner of written material, the dictionary is a fascinating history of American English.”
                    Seth Mnookin, Newsweek

“The New Year [2003] brings a happy present for lovers of the American language: Volume IV of the massive Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) is hot off the press [Dec. 2002]. . . . The newly published Volume IV, with Joan Houston Hall as chief editor, is a browser’s delight.”
                    James J. Kilpatrick, Charlotte Observer

“Here is the big news in the world of lexicography: DARE IV has come out of the wordwork. The Dictionary of American Regional English—repository of the most delicious dialect sources and most colorful evidence of the Americanization of the English language—has now covered letters P to Sk. This bargain, at 90 bucks from Harvard University Press, is the penultimate (one more to go) volume in the set that no library can afford to absquatulate.”
                    William Safire, New York Times Magazine

“This fourth and most recent volume of the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) replicates the wonderful success of the three preceding volumes (1985, 1991, 1996), the established elegance of complete, consistent, and deliberate lexicography. . . . Joan Houston Hall as chief editor [is] the perfect choice to sustain the excellence of editorial leadership and to complete the most important work ever undertaken in the field of American speech.”
                    Lee Pederson, American Speech