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WRT 105 - Word Origins and Meanings

Dictionary and Encyclopedia Sources

Many of the language and literature books are located in the call number ranges PE 1580 - PE 3729. Especially explore the Reference Collection, First Floor and Safire Room, Sixth Floor of E.S. Bird Library. Subject-specific dictionaries and encyclopedias are shelved with other works in that discipline.

Electronic

  • Oxford English Dictionary
    The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is is a historical dictionary, tracing the meaning and history of over half a million words, both present and past. Usage of words is documented through 2.5 million quotations from English language sources, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts and cookery books. For each word in the OED, quotations with the earliest usage of a word appear first, and the meanings which have developed more recently appear further down the entry or as a series of branches describing other meanings.
    Also in print: Reference Collection, First Floor, PE1625 .O87 1989

  • Oxford Reference Online
    The Oxford Reference collection contains over 100 dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press bringing together language and subject reference works into a fully-indexed, cross-searchable database.

  • Xreferplus
    Xreferplus includes more than 160 encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri and books of quotations, as well as subject-specific titles covering the arts, humanities, social sciences and sciences. Entries are cross-referenced to all the books in the collection.

  • Knovel : Answers for Science and Engineering
    Full-text science and engineering reference books from major publishers. Search across the entire collection or within broad subject categories.

  • Safari Tech Books Online
    Safari is an online reference library for computer science and information technology. Conduct searches across all of the technical books in the Syracuse Unversity Library package or find a specific book by author, ISBN, title, or publisher.

Print

  • Bierce, Ambrose. The devil’s dictionary. Bird-5th Floor, PS1097 .D4 2003 [also xreferplus]

  • Chantrell, Glynnis. The Oxford dictionary of word histories. Safire Room, 6th Floor, PE1580 .O94 2002

  • Green, Jonathon. Slang through the ages. Bird-Safire Room, 6th Floor, PE3711 .G74 1996

  • Heller, Louis G. The private lives of English words. Safire Room, 6th, PE1580 .H35 1984

  • Hendrickson, Robert. The Facts on File encyclopedia of word and phrase origins. Bird-Reference, 1st Floor, PE1689 .H47 2004

  • Partridge, Eric. A dictionary of slang and unconventional English : colloquialisms and catch phrases, fossilised jokes and puns, general nicknames, vulgarisms and such Americanisms as have been naturalised. Bird-Safire Room, 6th Floor. PE3721 .P3 2002

  • Rawson, Hugh. Devious Derivations: popular misconceptions--and more than 1,000 true origins of common words and phrases. Bird, 5th Floor & Safire Room, 6th Floor. PE1584 .R38 1994a

  • Rawson, Hugh. Dictionary of euphemisms and other doubletalk. Bird-Safire Room, 6th Floor, PE1449 .R34 1995 [also xreferplus]

  • Thorne, Tony. Bloomsbury dictionary of modern slang. Bird-Reference, 1st Floor, PE3721 .T53 1997 [also xreferplus]

Library Catalog

Keyword Searching

Use the SUMMIT Library Catalog to find books (e.g. dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc.) or other items. You can search a variety of ways. Sometimes a keyword search works well -- e.g.

  • (dictionary or encyclopedia) and ecology

Subject Headings

Books are assigned Library of Congress Subject Headings to better group them by topic. Some relevant subject headings for finding materials for your essay are:

  • English Language--Etymology
  • English Language--Terms and Phrases
  • Racism in Language
  • Sexism in language

Library Databases

These are electronic resources that you can use to find full text, abstract, or citation information from a variety of sources, such as dictionaries(see above), journal, or newspaper articles. some are interdisciplinary, while others are very subject specific.

Research Starting Points

  • Proquest Research Library
    Reference database containing abstracts, indexing, and full text articles from popular magazines, business periodicals, and academic publications, plus current coverage of articles from The New York times and The Wall Street journal. It covers a wide range of topics including the arts, business, children, education, general interest, health, humanities, international, law, military, multicultural, psychology, sciences, social sciences and women's interests.

  • Expanded Academic
    Full-text articles and images from scholarly journals, magazines, and newspapers. Spans all academic disciplines from arts and humanities to social sciences, science, and technology.

  • Masterfile Select
    Full-text from over 750 general reference, business, consumer health, general science, humanities, and multi-cultural periodicals. In addition to the full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for 2,290 periodicals. Full text backfiles go as far back as January of 1990, while indexing and abstract backfiles go as far back as January of 1984. This database is updated daily on EBSCOhost.

Newspapers and News Sources

  • NewspaperARCHIVE Elite
    Search hundreds of newspapers (.pdf) by title and date or by keyword. Database includes the Syracuse Post Standard. Coverage for some papers goes back to the 1700's. Includes a "additional related searches" feature which is very quick and helpful.

  • LexisNexis Academic
    Full-text files focusing on legal (federal, state, national) news (newspapers, newswires, transcripts), business and industry information.

  • 19th Century Masterfile
    19th Century Masterfile (NCM) is a digital compilation of a growing number of separately published indices to the literature from the period 1800-1920. NCM contains nearly 5 million citations to newspapers, periodicals, books and government documents.

  • Current newspapers are on the second floor. Past newspapers of some newspapers are on microfilm on the basement level; e.g., we have New York Times from 1857-

Speeches and Public Papers

Compiled from sources by Tasha Cooper, Bonnie Ryan, Elaine Coppola, Mary DeCarlo, and Tom Keays
rev. 9/30/05 tk

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