New American Heritage® Dictionary Surfaces as a Cultural Handbook
Reference Work Is a Resource for a Wide Variety of Media
November 30, 2000. When reporters for National Public Radio and Time Magazine needed a proper definition for the word "chad" -- now enjoying its fifteen minutes of fame -- they turned to The American Heritage Dictionary (Fourth Edition). The groundbreaking dictionary has established itself as the cultural handbook of choice for a wide range of media. It has popped up everywhere from NPR and Time, to the classic game show Jeopardy!, to the desk of character Josh Lyman on the Emmy-winning television program The West Wing.
"The American Heritage Dictionary has long been a preferred resource for proper usage," said Executive Editor Joseph Pickett, "but to see this new edition make its mark on such a broad cultural stage is very gratifying."
When NPR and Time called Pickett to shed some light the newly ubiquitous word "chad" (the tiny rectangles punched out from data cards), he mentioned that it was nearly stricken from the new edition of the dictionary because computer punch cards seemed to be an antiquated technology. "We thought that 'chad' had gone the way of the phrase 'record-changer,' a term deleted from this edition. But then we recalled that punch cards are still used in many elections so we decided to keep 'chad.'"
The dictionary has also surfaced on the game show Jeopardy! The program devoted a category to The American Heritage Dictionary in a show that aired in early November. The research staff members who devise the program's questions rely upon the dictionary for many other categories as well.
The American Heritage Dictionary has turned up on the desk of one of America's favorite (albeit fictional) White House employees, Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman, on the television show The West Wing. "It is natural that a program full of wordplay," said Pickett, "wants The American Heritage Dictionary to add a touch of verisimilitude."
The editors of the dictionary and some members of the stellar usage advisory panel (which includes such varied cultural figures as Susan Sontag and David Sedaris) took part in popular public forums on our changing language in Boston, New York City, Minneapolis, and Washington, D.C. In each city audience members had more questions than could possibly be answered in the allotted time. Each individual seemed to have an opinion about what is acceptable speech, making for lively discussions.
On January 29, 2001, Usage Panel Chairman Geoffrey Nunberg and Usage Panel members Wendy Lesser, Robert Hass, Maxine Hong Kingston, and John Baugh took part in a discussion of language at San Francisco's City Arts Lecture series at the Herbst Theater. The discussion was filmed by C-Span for rebroadcast at a later date.
"We've kept the best from the past," said Pickett, "but updated this latest edition of the dictionary with several new features." New elements include:
• 10,000 new words and senses
• All new, full-color design with more than 4,000 color images
• New series of notes on language variation and change
• Word histories that reveal the fascinating stories behind everyday words
• In-depth and up-to-date biographical and geographical entries
• More than 100 distinctive notes on American regional speech
The American Heritage Dictionary (Fourth Edition) marks the first time a dictionary has been launched in simultaneous print and electronic editions. The dictionary is available on CD-ROM, as a specially developed "embedded look-up" in Microsoft-based word processing programs, and is embedded in e-books produced by netLibrary. The dictionary will also be embedded as a research tool in a variety of Web sites.
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