An Interview With J E Lighter by Hugh Rawson精品.pdfVIP

T H E B E S T N E W S O F T H E Y E A R F O R W O R D Not to have completed this work beyond buffs, amateur etymologists, professional lin- the letter O would have been a tremendous guists, and all who respond to the incredible loss to American cultural history as well as richness of the American language is that J. E. to lexicography. But now Oxford University Lighter has found a home for his Historical Dic- Press has come to the rescue; a contract has tionary of American Slang. just been signed to car ry the project right on When Random House published the first two t h rough Z. Fort u n a t e l y, J. (for Jonathan) E. volumes of this dictionary, covering letters A Lighter, the research associate in the English t h rough O, in 1994 and 1997, critics reached f o r D e p a rtment at the University of Te n n e s s e e , such terms as definitive, absolutely outstand- Knoxville, had persevered, and currently he ing, and landmark publication. Nevertheless, is deep into the S ’s—a big letter, one that the publisher abandoned the project when it accounts for about 10 percent of the pages was only half-completed, leaving the author in most dictionaries. Oxford expects to bring and his dictionary in publishing lim