Dictionary Of The American West: Over 5,000 Terms and Expressions from Aarigaa! to Zopolote | 
 enlarge | Author: Win Blevins
Publisher: Texas Christian University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $11.15
You Save: $8.80 (44%)
New (30) Used (5) from $10.59
Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 925556
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2 Exp Rev
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 429
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 1.3
ISBN: 0875653731
Dewey Decimal Number: 427.97803
EAN: 9780875653730
ASIN: 0875653731
Publication Date: September 30, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: selling the best for less
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Product Description
Did you ever need to spell "dogie" (as in, get-along-little) or need to know what a "sakey" is? This is the book that can tell you how to spell, pronounce, and define over 5,000 terms relative to the American West. Want to know what a "breachy" cow is? Turn to page 43 to learn that it's an adjective used to describe a cow that has a tendency to find her way through fences where she isn't supposed to be. Describes some teenagers we know! Spend hours perusing the dictionary at random, or read straight through to get a flavor of the West from its beginnings to contemporary days. Laced with photographs and maps, the Dictionary of the American West will make you sound like an expert on all things western, even if you don't know a dingus from a dinner plate. Compiled of words brought into English from Native Americans, emigrants, Mormons, Hispanics, migrant workers, loggers, and fur trappers, the dictionary opens up history and culture in an enchanting way. From "Aarigaa!" to "zopilote," the Dictionary of the American West is a "valuable book, a treasure for any literate American's library."--Tony Hillerman
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| Customer Reviews:
A Rip Snorter of a Read April 6, 2004
If you love reading about the Old West, if you value the language of settlers, pioneers, cowboys and cowgirls, then you will find this little gem hard to put down. You can open it anywhere and be instantly transported to cattle drives, saloons, cabins, and the wide open prairies. Wonderful slang, near-forgotten names for plants and people and the work they did - it's all here. There is pure Americana here and a real feel for our past with all its color, exaggeration, bravado and poetry. A rip snorter of a read and an invaluable asset for anyone aspiring to add a tone of authenticity to their Western writing.
What's a March 6, 2002
This is a wonderful dictionary. Western language takes work and violence and humor and a canny sexuality and uses them to enrich the terse conversation of cowboys, Indians, loggers, and other wild folk with history, culture, tradition, puns and irreverence. It's a language that comes from Spanish and French and Dutch and Indian and cussedness.
This dictionary pauses in its definition of mayordomo to discuss New Mexican acequias in a liesurely way. The definition of dogie, and speculation on its origins, is a satisfying essay on its own.
It's a book for reading, not a reference tool--it's too hard to get out of to be resorted to on a purely practical basis. Makes you glad to be a speaking creature. * A murder. A body in the streets at dawn. Said to have been commonplace in the early days of Los Angeles and in Denver.
Dictionary of the American West June 22, 2000
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is invaluable to me as I work in a Museum that specializes in western exploration and life. There have been very few inquiries from visitors from all over the world that cannot be found in this book. Information from the early 1800's to the present time abound in this book in very digestible terms. Excellent reference book.
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