ATA Sept07-Final-REV.qxd 9/19/07 9:04 PM Page 28 Glossary Mining: Brush Up Your English By Lee Wright As the final topic of our ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS Canonical Abbreviation/Acronym List series on online resources for lan- Specialized references that provide www.astro.umd.edu/~marshall/ guage professionals, we will focus on information about slang and idiomatic abbrev.html those sites related to the English lan- expressions constitute a subcategory guage. It is hoped that the information of “regular” dictionaries. There is no Free Dictionary by Farlex will prove equally valuable both for shortage of online resources for this http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com translators working into English (i.e., particular subject. their mother tongue) and for those DICTIONARIES translating from English into another Abbreviations.com Translators always need to consult language. Although primarily focused www.abbreviations.com dictionaries in order to identify the on writing usage and vocabulary, the meanings of words encountered in list also addresses a number of other Acronyma their source documents. In this regard, aspects that often come into play (English, Dutch, French, German, you can find quite a large number of during the translation process, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish) online resources that provide defini- including slang and idiomatic expres- www.acronyma.com/?language=en tions and other information about sions, acronyms and abbreviations, English lexical items. Here is a sam- collocations and collective nouns, and Acronym Finder pling of the most reliable sites. language etymology. The article con- www.acronymfinder.com cludes with a selection of URLs for American Heritage Dictionary websites that contain information Businessballs.com www.bartleby.com/61 about the differences between U.S. www.businessballs.com/acronyms.htm English and “the King’s/Queen’s This site includes some humorous Ask Oxford.com English,” as well as several more eso- acronyms. www.askoxford.com/?view=uk teric or entertaining sites pertaining to the English language. 28 The ATA Chronicle I September 2007 ATA Sept07-Final-REV.qxd 9/19/07 9:04 PM Page 29 Online resources that focus on specific usage aspects of the language can offer invaluable help for both native and nonnative speakers. University of Toronto English Department www.chass.utoronto.ca/~cpercy/hell Cambridge Dictionaries Online WordNet Search 3.0 This site provides a history of the English http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/ language from a Canadian standpoint. default.asp?dict=P webwn This is a machine-readable lexical Word Origins e-Zine Dictionary of Difficult Words database organized by meanings that www.takeourword.com/arc_logi.html www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/ was developed at Princeton University. dictionaries/difficultwords/data/ GRAMMAR AND USAGE content_a.html Wordsmyth Many (if not most) of the websites This site contains many “esoteric” or www.wordsmyth.net dealing with English grammar and infrequently used lexical items. This site requires a subscription. usage are directed at speakers of other languages who are learning English. Die.net Your Dictionary.com Nevertheless, they generally contain a http://dict.die.net/a www.yourdictionary.com great deal of useful information for This is a combination dictionary/the- native speakers who need to clarify a Linguasphere Observatory saurus, and contains glossaries of given usage question (e.g., the differ- www.linguasphere.org/dictionary/ specialized terms. For example, the ence between restrictive and nonre- a.html Glossary of Quaint Southernisms strictive clauses). The sites that are (www.yourdictionary.com/library/ my personal favorites are marked with Merriam-Webster Dictionary southernese.html). an asterisk, but you should also check www.m-w.com out the others because each one is a ENGLISH LANGUAGE ETYMOLOGY little different. MSN Dictionary Not everybody is a devotee of http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/ English etymology like me, but if you Bartleby.com features/dictionary/dictionary are, you can find some very helpful www.bartleby.com/64 home.aspx (and occasionally entertaining) This site contains numerous links to resources at these websites. grammatical references. OneLook Dictionary Search www.onelook.com Anglik.net * Big Dog’s Grammar www.anglik.net/englishlanguage http://aliscot.com/bigdog Synonym.com history.htm This site contains basic and advanced www.synonym.com/synonym English grammar. This is an excellent source for syn- British English Translations onyms, antonyms, and definitions. www.uta.fi/FAST/US1/REF/ * Brian Paul’s Common Errors engtran.html in English Tiscali References www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/ www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/dictionaries/ Etymology Dictionary errors.html english/data/content_a.html www.etymonline.com British Council Grammar Archive Wiktionary Origin of Things www.learnenglish.org.uk/grammar/ http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ www.mindlesscrap.com/origins/ archive/mainindex_wide.html Main_Page moreorigins.htm CliffsNotes Origin and History of the www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/ English Language CliffsReviewTopic/English.topic www.krysstal.com/english.html ArticleId-28962.html ➡ The ATA Chronicle I September 2007 29 ATA Sept07-Final-REV.qxd 9/19/07 9:04 PM Page 30 Glossary Mining: Brush Up Your English Continued This site has separate pages for Purdue University Alternative English Usage grammar and writing. Owl Online Writing Lab http://alt-usage-english.org/ http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ index.shtml Eclectic English handouts/grammar www.eclecticenglish.com/index.html Anglo-Saxon Heathen Terminology Refdesk.com www.homestead.com/english English the Easy Way www.refdesk.com/factgram.html heathenism/glossary.html www.english-the-easy-way.com/ index.htm Speakspeak Grammar Anglo-Saxon Lexicon www.speakspeak.com/html/ www.keystothepast.info/durhamcc/ English Glossary of Grammar Terms d10_english_grammar.htm K2P.nsf/K2PGlossary?readform www.usingenglish.com/glossary.html &GLOSSARY=Anglo-Saxon * Tiscali English Page * Englishpage.com www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/ Cheesy American English Usage www.englishpage.com/grammar dictionaries/english www.heptune.com/english.html English Rules Writing Guide University of Illinois Dialectizer www.englishrules.com/writing Grammar Handbook http://rinkworks.com/dialect www.english.uiuc.edu/cws/wworkshop/ This site converts standard English to English-Zone.com writer_resources/grammar_handbook/ a variety of dialects. http://english-zone.com/index.php grammar_handbook.htm This site claims to be the best site for Dictionary of Foolish English English grammar and usage. University of Ottawa www.aaaugh.com/dictionary HyperGrammar Sample: WIDOW: The wife of a golfer Eslbase English Grammar www.arts.uottawa.ca/writcent/ during the opening of the season, www.eslbase.com/grammar hypergrammar unless she golfs, too. In that event, the children are golf orphans. * Guide to Grammar and Style Using English.com http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/ www.usingenglish.com/articles Dictionary of the Scots Language ~jlynch/Writing www.dsl.ac.uk/dsl Well Bred Sentence * Guide to Grammar and Writing www.englishgrammartutor.com/ Engrish.com http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/ Grammar%20Book.htm http://engrish.com grammar Wikipedia Grammar Fun with Words Hypertext Guide to English http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English www.rinkworks.com/words Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage _grammar Rules Hellatine Dictionary of http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~cs5014/courseNotes/ YourDictionary.com Language Bureaucratese 5.TechnicalCommunication/tc_2_ Library http://home.earthlink.net/~skilton/ Usage.html www.yourdictionary.com/library/ dictionary.html index.html#dr Internet Grammar of English Mathematical English Glossary www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/ MISCELLANEOUS www.emis.de/monographs/Trzeciak frames/glossary.htm Just to prove that the study of English can be lots of fun, make time to explore Old English Lexicon Modern English Grammar some of the following miscellaneous sites. www.keystothepast.info/durhamcc/ http://papyr.com/hypertextbooks/ You will be amazed by how much you can k2p.nsf/k2pGlossaryList?readform grammar learn about the language from them! &letter=A 30 The ATA Chronicle I September 2007 ATA Sept07-Final-REV.qxd 9/19/07 9:04 PM Page 31 Phrontistery Idiom Connection Phrasal Verb Dictionary International House of Logorrhea www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/6720 www.englishpage.com/prepositions/ http://phrontistery.info/ihlstart.html phrasaldictionary.html A free online dictionary of weird and Lexscripta Dictionaries of Slang unusual words. www.lexscripta.com/desktop/ VERBage dictionaries/slang.html www.oceansiderevolution.com/ Scientific English This site contains many varieties of verbage http://users.wpi.edu/~nab/sci_eng/ English slang, including terms from index.html Australia, Britain, France, Germany, Verb/Preposition Dictionary Ireland, New Zealand, and the U.S. www.englishpage.com/prepositions/ Words: Frequently-Asked-Questions There is even a link to the etymology verb_preposition.html http://dictionary.reference.com/help/ of slang. faq/language/index.html Wikipedia (Collective Noun) Online Slang Dictionary http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ SLANG AND IDIOMS http://onlineslangdictionary.com/ Collective_noun Specialized references that provide browse/a information about slang and idiomatic STYLE GUIDES expressions constitute a subcategory of Shadow Slang Glossary Usage guides also include a subcate- “regular” dictionaries. Here again, there www.intercom.net/user/logan1/ gory, namely