Bibliography of Word Information

Sources of Information about Words
and Their Family Units

Lists of books, dictionaries, etc. which function to present data about words and their definitions.




Lists of books, including various dictionaries, which have provided sources of information about the history and current functions of English words.

Bibliography or lists of reference books used for research in Focusing on Words topics.
There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates' loot on Treasure Island, and best of all, you can enjoy these riches every day of your life.
—Walt Disney
Academic Press Dictionary of Science and Technology. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, 1992.

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American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language.Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992.

Appel, Anita S. and Rev. Benedict Kukolt. Mastering Latin, Two Years. New York: Oxford Book Company, 1967.

Asimov, Isaac. Asimov's Chronology of Science & Discovery. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1989.

Asimov, Isaac. Asimov's New Guide to Science. New York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, 1984.

Asimov, Isaac. Words from the Myths. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1961.

Ayers, Donald M. English Words from Latin and Greek Elements, 2nd ed. Tucson, Arizona: The University of Arizona Press, 1986.

Ayto, John. Dictionary of Word Origins. New York: Arcade Publishing, 1990.

Barber, Charles L. The Story of Speech and Language. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1965.

Barnett, Lincoln. The Treasure of Our Tongue. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1964.

Barnhart, Robert K., ed. The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology. New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.

Barnhart, Robert K., ed. The American Heritage Dictionary of Science. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1986.

Baugh, Albert C. A History of the English Language, 2nd ed. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1968.

Berlitz, Charles. Native Tongues. New York: Grosset and Dunlap Publishers, 1982.

Bible, Old and New Testaments. The Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version. New York: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1953.

Bible, King James Version The New Analytical Bible and Dictionary of the Bible.Chicago: John A. Dickson Publishing Company, 1950.

Black, Henry Campbell. Black's Law Dictionary. St. Paul, Minnesota: West Publishing Co, 1990.

Brandreth, Gyles. The Joy of Lex. New York: William Morrow and Company Inc., 1980.

Brandreth, Gyles. More Joy of Lex. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1982.

Brandreth, Gyles. The Word Book. London: Robson Books Ltd., 1988.

Brown, Roland Wilbur. Composition of Scientific Words. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985.

Bryson, Bill. The Mother Tongue, English & How it Got That Way. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1990.

Burg, Miriam. A Play on Words. London: Collier-Macmillan Ltd., 1969.

Burnam, Tom. The Dictionary of Misinformation. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1975.

Campbell, Robert Jean. Psychiatric Dictionary, 7th Ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Cassell's New Latin Dictionary. New York: Funk and Wanalls Company, 1959.

Claiborne, Robert. The Roots of English. New York: Random House, Inc., 1989.

Cornog, Mary Wood. Merriam-Webster's Vocabulary Builder. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, 1994.

Crystal, David. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

Dickson, Paul. Words. New York: Delacorte Press, 1982.

Di Blasi, Augustine J. Words: Let's Get to Their Roots, a Collection of Word Derivations. New York: William-Frederick Press, 1980.

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Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary. Philadelphia, Pa.: W.B. Saunders Company, 2000.

Elster, Charles Harrington. There's a Word for it! New York: Scribner, 1996.

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Encarta World English Dictionary. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999.

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English-Latin Debt. 12000 English Words Derived from Latin, The. Syntactic Book Company, Chicago, Illinois; 1928.

Ernst, Margaret S. In a Word. Great Neck, New York: Channel Press, 1960.

Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients. Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life Books, 1990.

Freeman, Morton S. The Story Behind the Word. Phildelphia: iSi Press, 1985.

Friend, J. Newton. Words Tricks and Traditions. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1957.

Funk, Charles Earle. Thereby Hangs a Tale, Stories of Curious Word Origins. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1985.

Funk, Charles Earle. Word Origins and Their Romantic Stories. New York: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, 1950.

Garrison, Webb,. What's in a Word?. Nashville, Tennessee: Rutledge Hill Press, 2000.

Garrison, Webb,. Why You Say It. New York: Abingdon Press, 1955.

Gayley, Charles Mills. The Classic Myths in English Literature and in Art. Boston: Ginn and Company, 1939.

Girsdansky, Michael. The Adventure of Language. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice-hall, Inc, 1963.

Grambs, David. About Words. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1984.

Greene, Amsel. Word Clues, 2nd ed. Evanston, Illinois: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1949.

Guerber, H. A. The Myths of Greece & Rome. New York: London House & Maxwell, 1967.

Hart, Archibald and F. Arnold Lejeune. The Latin Key to Better English. New York: E.P. Dutton 7 Co., Inc., 1949.

Heller, Louis G., Alexander Humer, and Malcah Dror. The Private Lives of English Words. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Company, 1984.

Hellweg, Paul. The Insomniac's Dictionary. New York: Facts On File Publications, 1986.

Hendrickson, Robert. Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, Revised and Expanded Edition. New York: Facts On File Inc., 1997.

Herzberg, Max J. Classical Myths. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1935.

Hitt, Jack, Ed. In a Word. New York: Dell Publishing, 1992.

Hook, J.N. The Grand Panjandrum. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, Inc., 1980.

Horowitz, Edward. Words Come in Families. New York: Hart Publishing Company, Inc., 1977.

Howard, Philip. Winged Words. London: Hamesh Hamilton, Ltd., 1988.

Hudson, Kennth. The Dictionary of Diseased English, a dictionary of linguistic fog and fraud. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1977.

International Dictionary of Medicine and Biology. Volumes I-III. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1986.

Asimov, Isaac. Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts. New York: Bell Publishing Company, 1981.

Jennings, Gary. Personalities of Language. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1965.

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Klein, Dr. Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, Volumes I and II. New York: Elsevier Publishing Company, 1966.

Kravitz, David. Who's Who in Greek and Roman Mythology. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc./Publisher, 1975.

Krill, Richard M. Greek and Latin in English Today. Wauconda, Illinois: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 1990.

Laird, Charlton. The Miracle of Language. New York: The World Publishing Company, 1953.

Laird, Charlton. The Word, A Look at the Vocabulary of English. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981.

Lewis, Norman. The Comprehensive Word Guide. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1958.

Liberman, Anatoly. Etymology for Everyone, Word Origins . . . and how we know them. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Lincoln, R.J. and G.A. Boxshall. The Cambridge Illustrated Dictionary of Natural History. Cambridge, Great Britain: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

Macrone, Michael. It's Greek to Me! New York: Cader Books, 1991.

McAdam, E.L., Jr. & George Milne. Johnson's Dictionary, A Modern Selection. New York: Pantheon Books, 1963.

McArthur, Tom. The Oxford Companion To the English Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.

McCrum, Robert, et al. The Story of English. New York: Elisabeth Sifton Books-Viking, 1986.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 4th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1989.

Moment, Gairdner B. General Zoology. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1958.

Monson, Samuel C. Word Building., 2nd Ed. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1968.

Moore, Bob and Maxine. Dictionary of Latin and Greek Origins. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1997.

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Morris, William and Mary. Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1971.

Morwood, James. A Dictionary of Latin Words and Phrases. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Muschell, David. Where in the Word? Rocklin, California: Prima Publishing, 1990.

Norback, Craig and Peter. The Must Words. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1979.

Nurnberg, Maxwell and Morris Rosenblum. All about Words, an Adult Approach to Vocabulary Building. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.

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Oxford English Dictionary, The 2nd Ed. on Compact Disc. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Pei, Mario & Salvatore Ramondino. Dictionary of Foreign Terms. New York: Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1974.

Pei, Mario. The Story of the English Language. New York: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1967.

Pinkerton, Edward C. Word for Word. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Company, 1982.

Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd Ed. New York: Random House Inc, 1993.

Robertson, Stuart. The Development of Modern English, 2nd Ed. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1954.

Room, Adrian. Dictionary of Changes in Meaning. London: Rouitledge & Kegan Paul, 1986.

Room, Adrian. Room's Dictionary of Differences. New York: Everest House Publishers, 1981.

Room, Adrian. True Etymologies. London and New York: Routledge, 1986.

Rose, John E., Jr. Big Words for Big Shooters. New York: Everest House Publishers, 1982.

Sabin, Frances E. Classical Myths That Live Today. Morristown, New Jersey: Silver Burdett Company, 1958.

Schleifer, Robert. Grow Your Vocabulary by Learning the Roots of English Words. New York: Random House, 1995.

Schmidt, Jacob Edward. Reversicon, A Medical Word Finder. Springfield, Ilinois: Charles C. Thomas, 1958.

Schur, Norman W. 1000 Most Challenging Words. New York: Facts On File Publications, 1987.

Schur, Norman W. 1000 Most Obscure Words. New York: Facts On File Publications, 1990.

Schur, Norman W. 1000 Most Practical Words. New York: Facts On File Publications, 1983.

Shipley, Joseph T. Dictionary of Word Origins. New York: The Philosophical Library, 1945.

Shipley, Joseph T. In Praise of English. New York: Times Books, 1977.

Smith, Robert W.L. Dictionary of English Word-Roots. Totowa, New Jersey: Littlefield, Adams & Co., 1980.

Smith, S. Stephenson. The Command of Words, 2nd ed. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company Publishers, 1949.

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Stedman's Medical Dictionary, 27th Ed. New York: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, 1999.

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Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, 18th Ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: F.A. Davis Company, 1997.

Tripp, Edward. Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1970.

Urdang, Laurence. Loanwords Dictionary., 1st Ed. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Company, 1988.

Urdang, Laurence. -Ologies & -Isms, 3rd Ed. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Company, 1986.

Urdang, Laurence. Prefixes and Other Word-Initial Elements of English. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Company, 1984.

Urdang, Laurence. Suffixes and Other Word-Final Elements of English. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Company, 1982.

Van Aken, A.R.A. The Encyclopedia of Classical Mythology. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc, 1963.

Van Doren, Charles A History of Knowledge; Past, Present, and Future. New York: Ballantine Books, 1991.

Verbatim Book: Volumes III and IV. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Company, 1981.

Von Hagen, Victor W. The Roads That Led to Rome. Cleveland, Ohio: The World Publishing Company, 1967.


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Webster's, New International Dictionary of the English Language, 2nd Ed. Unabridged. Springfield, Massachusetts: G. and C. Merriam Company, Publishers, 1952.

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Webster's II, New Riverside University Dictionary. Boston: The Riverside Publishing Company, 1984.

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Webster's, New World Dictionary of the American Language, 2nd College Ed. Cleveland, Ohio: William Collins/World Publishing Co., Inc., 1974.

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Webster's Word Histories. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster Inc., Publishers, 1989.


Doing research is very much like going to "cemeteries" and opening the appropriate "graves" found there and re-arranging the "bones"; a concept that can be verified by this extensive list of graves that have been and are being picked through for suitable bone arrangements.


Lists of sources of information from magazines, newspapers, radio, TV, etc.

Allman, William F. "The Mother Tongue." U.S. News & World Report. November 5, 1990, pp. 60-70.

Gamkrelidze, Thomas V. and V.V. Ivanov. "The Early History of Indo-European Languages." Scientific American. March 1990, pp. 110-116.

Renfrew, Colin. "The Origins of Indo-European Languages." Scientific American. October 1989, pp. 106-114.

Renfrew, Colin. "World Linguistic Diversity." Scientific American. January 1994, pp. 116-123.

Wright, Robert. "Quest for the Mother Tongue." The Atlantic Monthly. April 1991, pp. 39-68.

Every man who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting.

—Aldous Huxley

 

Pointing to English words for our modern age from Latin Greek sources English words for a Modern Age, especially those from Latin Greek sources or etymologies (prefixes,roots, suffixes).

This site includes many words that are used in our modern age,, especially those from "Latin-Greek sources".



This is another way to find information on this Word Focus site or on Google.


The more words you know, the more clearly and powerfully you will think and the more ideas you will invite into your mind.
—Wilfred Funk