Ignore that man behind the curtain. When he says "currently under heavy construction", what he really means is that he hasn't touched this page in over two years and can't find the motivation to move a brick, much less build a wall. - 2/10/04
This is currently under heavy construction. Things may move around but they'll still be here somewhere unless I can no longer find them on the web. My main goal in this version is to remove the artificial distinction I've made between glossaries, dictionaries and encyclopedias. I'm throwing them all together and distinguishing via subject categories, or at least attempting to do so without bollixing things up too much.
An annotated listing of dictionaries, glossaries and encyclopedias that have some sort of version online or, if you will, a glossary of glossaries. All suggestions for additions are welcome and I really can't think of any reason why I wouldn't add anything new as long as it resembles a glossary, dictionary or encyclopedia, i.e. if I discriminate it'll be on the basis of form and most definitely not on the basis of content. Well, I might be prone to not list many more glossaries etc. of computer terms as we've got those coming out of our wazoo as it is.
I've made some attempt at categorization that, as is inevitable with all such attempts, ends up somewhere between completely arbitrary and meticulously exact - hopefully closer to the latter extreme.
If you feel the need to copy the thing wholesale then do be a decent enough sort to reference or acknowledge the original source if only to allow those perusing your version access to newer entries you may not have. In my most recent updating I've found four other sites that've obviously borrowed the whole thing without attribution. That is just not right.
And, by the way, if you find a dead link then feel free to drop me a line about it. Feel even more free to find out where it went and then drop me a line about it.
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This section was last updated on Nov. 29, 1999.
"An easy reference for anyone involved in or simply interested in the built environment."
"Technology, architecture, civil, structural, forensic, mechanical, pavement and materials engineering, roofing, and masonry with elements of testing and quality science. Mostly American English/French/Romanian."
"In this dictionary I have attempted to provide a text which explains many of terms associated with fortifications which were used between the Iron Age and the 18th century. There are a great number of texts on the subject of castles and other fortifications of the period stated but few, if any, modern texts to my knowledge which specifically explain the terminology used to describe them."
Definitions of various biological terms broken up into separate sections for phylogenetics, geology, biochemistry, cell biology, ecology, life history, zoology, and botany.
"The nomenclature of bookbinding, its offshoots and more recent progeny, has not, at least insofar as the present writers have been able to determine, been presented in a comprehensive dictionary, although various aspects of the book and its production have been explored in dictionary form, sometimes superlatively, as in the American Paper and Pulp Association's `Dictionary of Paper' and John Carter's `A B C for Book Collectors'. The authors of this volume hope that it will help fill a considerable gap in the literature of conservation, one that has for some time been all too evident."
"ODLIS is designed to be a hypertext reference resource for library and information science professionals, university students and faculty, and users of all types of libraries. The primary criterion for including a new term is whether a librarian or other information professional might reasonably be expected to encounter it at some point in his (or her) career, or be required to know its meaning in the course of executing his or her responsibilities as a librarian. The vocabulary of publishing, printing, book history, literature, and computer science has been included when, in the author's judgment, a definition might prove helpful, not only to library and information professionals, but also to laypersons."
"This glossary of terms associated with the typesetting and printing industries was put together as a series of articles in a newsletter called "Desktop Publisher" written, edited, and published by Henry Budgett (henry.budgett@usa.net) between 1986 and 1989."
"The following pages are an alphabetical compilation of terms commonly used in the graphic arts field, with emphasis on book manufacturing terminology."
"This glossary contains the technical and business terms from the fields of publishing, photography, computers, graphic design and printing."
"Welcome to the Rainwater Press Publishing Primer, which features more than 1,000 terms related to the digital publishing, graphic arts, and printing industries."
"The Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing is a searchable and browsable list of acronyms, jargon, programming languages, tools, architecture, operating systems, networking, theory, conventions, standards, mathematics, telecoms, electronics, institutions, companies, projects, products, history, anything else to do with computing."
"Includes more than 2,000 English language terms and definitions for Sun software, hardware and terminology."
"Language is ever-changing. This is particularly true in prisons, where there is the motion of people coming and going, a culture based on a unique set of circumstances, and the need to speak in words that often carry depths of meaning. There are forms of expression that can never be fully understood by the outside world. There are also words that vary from race to race, prison to prison -- as well as slang that find its way into prisons from the outside."
"A collection of historic words and phrases from the Barbary Coast, the French Quarter, New York, Chicago and other havens of the sinful and depraved."
"This is the language spoken by Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade, Mike Hammer and the Continental Op. When Cagney, Bogart, Robinson and Raft got in a turf war, this is how they talked."
"The terms and phrases here deal with investigative science and folklore, personal and corporate privacy, protection and security, legal, judicial and police matters."
"This is vocabulary that only lower (mostly much lower) class characters would conprehend, let alone use. Not to be employed in New Europa's better salons or when trying to pass one's self off as a flash toff."
"This dictionary is intended ultimately to be a fairly comprehensive guide to words, terms, and phrases related to recreational drug use. It contains slang, lingo, and technical terms."
"The ability to understand current drug-related street terms is an invaluable tool for law enforcement, public health, and other criminal justice professionals who work with the public. The Street Terms database contains over 2,000 street terms that refer to specific drug types or drug activity."
"The Indiana Prevention Resource Center on-line dictionary contains more than 3,800 street drug slang terms from the Indiana Prevention Resource Center files, with more than 1,200 additions from the National Drug and Crime Clearinghouse slang term list."
Commonly used environmental terms appearing in EPA publications, news releases, and other agency documents.
"The Encyclopedia of Law and Economics is an ambitious reference
work that attempts to survey the whole law and economics literature
in nearly 5,000 pages. Most entries contain two elements: a review
of the literature, written by an authority in the field, and a quasi
complete bibliography (not just a selection)."
All 172 chapters are
freely downloadable in PDF format, and
the bibliographical database is
searchable.
An extensive database of economic terms and concepts. This database currently contains over 1,100 terms."
"This glossary will eventually attempt to cover all of the terms and concepts from international economics, including both international trade and international finance, at least at the introductory level."
"Certain types of errors crop up over and over in television shows and movies. Because of this, nitpickers have begun to adopt a specialized vocabulary. I thought it was time to begin formalizing these buzz words in one location."
"The Cook's Thesaurus is a cooking encyclopedia that covers thousands of ingredients and kitchen tools. Entries include pictures, descriptions, synonyms, pronunciations, and suggested substitutions."
Food glossary in German.
Equivalent food terms in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.
Ingredients and their equivalents in Hindi, English, Tamil, Kannada and Telugu.
Section lasted updated: 5/25/04
"The glossary is meant as a growing resource for students, re-enactors, and anyone interested in knighthood, chivalry, or the medieval tournament."
"The glossary is meant as a growing resource for students, re-enactors, and anyone interested in knighthood, chivalry, or the medieval tournament."
"Over 1400 terms covering all aspects of medieval life and spanning the medieval world."
Includes terms for ceramics, fiber, glass, leather, metal and wood.
"Like all collectibles, the rare coin market has its own terms and slang. The following is a brief definition and explanation of the most frequently used coin collecting terms."
Terms relating to dissolute youth culture in Central Virginia.
Darmok is a language spoken by the Darmok race in an episode of "Star Trek: The New Generation". The language is based on allusional rather than literal meanings. This is a list of the phrases in the episode along with their more literal translations.
"Certain types of errors crop up over and over in television shows and movies. Because of this, nitpickers have begun to adopt a specialized vocabulary. I thought it was time to begin formalizing these buzz words in one location."
A searchable index of over 680,000 words in 134 dictionaries located on the Web.
Over 90,000 entries feature 10,000 new words and senses, 70,000 audio word pronunciations, 900 full-page color illustrations, language notes and word-root appendixes.
A multilingual dictionary with more than 5 million words and various search features.
An experimental collaborative net project to put together slang dictionaries for several dozen languages.
"Everybody knows about pahking cahs in Hahvihd Yahd, but there's a lot more to Boston English than that, despite what Hollywood would have you believe. We have our own way of pronouncing other words, our own vocabulary, even a unique grammatical construct."
Excerpts from a book of the same title about idioms used by the Pennsylvania Dutch.
"Philadelphia is a city of proud and distinct neighborhoods, and the people who grew up in these neighborhoods often speak in a proud and unique manner. It's more than an accent, it's an attitude, or as we pronounce it, addytood."
"We hope you enjoy this list of words, phrases, locations, and colloquialisms commonly used in the Coal Region of Eastern Pennsylvania."
"A brief lesson in the art of speaking Rhode Islandese."
"The Seattle area, like most other locales, has its own shorthand notations for referencing different places and locations. The following lexicon is intended as an interpretive guide for non-Northwesterners who want to get the inside line on the local lingo."
"The English language contains a rich array of slang words and phrases. This can be particularly seen when examining the day to day language of the average Londoner. A great many London slang terms derive from the Cockney tradition and fall into the bracket of 'rhyming slang'. Other terms have been introduced by the influx of other cultures into the capital. The resulting mishmash has created what academics sometimes call 'Estuary English' (after the area of the Thames Estuary), although this term is used more to describe the accent used in the area."
"This is vocabulary that only lower (mostly much lower) class characters would conprehend, let alone use. Not to be employed in New Europa's better salons or when trying to pass one's self off as a flash toff."
"A dictionary of Geordie words and other words used in the North East of England."
"Here's Eton talk, mainly school terms that Harry and William would use."
"The some two thousand usages on these pages were gathered over the last several years from books, correspondence, speakers, and movies connected with the Merseyside area of Liverpool, England. I wanted to praise and demonstrate the wit and originality of a speech community which has, in my opinion, too often been dismissed or caricatured as being other than standard and therefore less than human."
Translations of the Yorkshire dialect into the "King's English."
"We wish to cooperate in compiling a database of all the known recordings of Cumbrian dialects and their whereabouts."
Excerpts from a book of the same title about the Lancashire dialect.
"Coronation Street is a British television programme that has been in continuous production since December, 1960. On Coronation Street they speak the Lancashire dialect. This page describes their words and expressions and is intended for the non-specialist."
A translation from Gaelic to English of the Gaelic dialect spoken on the Isle of Man.
"The Welsh-English and English-Welsh sections currently have 22192 (647 phrases, 919 cross-references, and 41 words considered obsolete in the modern language) and 15034 (1452 phrases) unique entries, respectively. Only 15239 of the words on the Welsh-English side have definitions or cross-references so far."
This appendix contains an alphabetical listing of all the things you might want to try if you fail to find an item in a Welsh-English dictionary."
Slang used by those involved in bicycle road racing.
"This is the language spoken by Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade, Mike Hammer and the Continental Op. When Cagney, Bogart, Robinson and Raft got in a turf war, this is how they talked."
"Yes, military pilots really do talk this way! This is not an all-inclusivexi list of military acronyms, just the type of lingo you're apt to hear in the Ready-Room, on the flightline, or in the aircraft."
A slang dictionary for the year 2050 as inspired by the fiction of William Gibson and other cyberpunk authors.
"This dictionary is home to words known as `Playground Slang'. It began simply as a collection of `slang' children used in school to describe their world. Over time however, the collection has grown beyond it's original boundaries and now holds other forms of slang, old games, words to odd songs, and much more."
"Webster Random's New Antiquated English Collegiate Dictionary of the Terminology, Vernacular, Idiom and Verbosity of the Modern Percussionist, 1998 Revised Edition."
"The Encyclopedia of Law and Economics is an ambitious reference
work that attempts to survey the whole law and economics literature
in nearly 5,000 pages. Most entries contain two elements: a review
of the literature, written by an authority in the field, and a quasi
complete bibliography (not just a selection)."
All 172 chapters are
freely downloadable in PDF format, and
the bibliographical database is
searchable.
"Explanations for 1000s of law related words, terms and phrases in the net's most extensive legal dictionary."
"Definitions of words and phrases used in private and public international law with linked cross-references to related words and phrases. Descriptions of international organizations with links (if they exist) to their on-line home pages and to other important materials describing the organizations. Acronyms of international organizations with links to the definitions for those organizations."
As yet nothing more than a gleam in someone's eye.
"Researched, written in plain language and provided free of charge by lawyer Lloyd Duhaime."
"Here is another attempt to make legal jargon decipherable to the average perplexed reader - and one that succeeds."
"In order to understand past and present Law, you must first understand the British and American definitions of words used and based in common law prior to 1900. One of the most accurate sources is the `Dictionary of Law consisting of Judicial Definitions and Explanations of Words, Phrases and Maxims'. The original work was compiled and written by William C. Anderson and published by T. H. Flood and Company in Chicago, 1893."
Legal words defined "in plain language" by the World Wide Legal Information Association.
A not unbitter look at certain Orwellian aspects of legal definitions.
"This is a glossary of terms used in the morphological, syntactic, and pragmatic analysis of text. It does not necessarily include terms specific to particular theoretical models (e.g. tagmeme)."
"Terms used in the discussions of spelling and orthographic reform."
"Some terms used in linguistics, language studies, language teaching and SLA research."
"This glossary provides an explanation to many of the terms frequently used in connection with translation and interpreting. Whether you need to communicate effectively with translators or translation companies, or just want to know what Unicode or translation memory are all about, you'll find the answers here."
Words that first made their appearance in books, plays, poems, comics strips and mythology.
"This is as yet a rather small glossary of colloquialisms used in Rushdie's books."
"Hyperlinked definitions and discussions of many cryptographic, mathematic, logic, statistics, and electronics terms used in cipher construction and analysis."
"This glossary is limited to basic set theory, basic recursive function theory, two branches of logic (truth-functional propositional logic and first-order predicate logic) and their metatheory."
"Interactive Real Analysis is an online, interactive textbook for Real Analysis or Advanced Calculus in one real variable. It deals with sets, sequences, series, continuity, differentiability, integrability (Riemann and Lebesgue), topology, and more."
Multilingual glossary of technical and popular medical terms in nine European languages.
"If accounts of what life was like in the trenches during the Great War are studied, it becomes evident that the Tommies (and, indeed, the Fritzes on the opposing side) used and developed a unique slang of their own. In the British case, the argot of the Western Front seems to be largely derived from a legacy of Indian and Arabic dialect words picked up and passed on from the previous campaigns in India and Egypt, coupled with the Tommies' rather awkward pronunciation of some of the commoner French words and phrases."
"Yes, military pilots really do talk this way! This is not an all-inclusivexi list of military acronyms, just the type of lingo you're apt to hear in the Ready-Room, on the flightline, or in the aircraft."
"The glossary is meant as a growing resource for students, re-enactors, and anyone interested in knighthood, chivalry, or the medieval tournament."
"In this dictionary I have attempted to provide a text which explains many of terms associated with fortifications which were used between the Iron Age and the 18th century. There are a great number of texts on the subject of castles and other fortifications of the period stated but few, if any, modern texts to my knowledge which specifically explain the terminology used to describe them."
"All of the musical terms in the glossary have AIFF files associated with them."
"Data about 502 composers, 1434 operas in 3636 recordings, 1235 arias in 3240 recordings, and more than 5500 artists."
"Dover Publications has graciously allowed to use 170 terms from the `Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet'."
"This database chronicles the history of 1,200 Canadian contemporary music artists from the 1950s to the present. Every entry includes an extensive artists and/or band biography as well as a comprehensive discography."
"A collection of terms related to folk music, plus some mini-biographies, musicology terms, trivia, and miscellaneous facts and figures."
"A Web site that lets you experience a sampling of instruments, complete with images and music samples."
In Russian.
"A multi-format ethnographic field collection documenting religious and secular music of Spanish-speaking residents of rural Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado."
"This glossary defines many terms you'll encounter in your songwriting and musical performing career."
"The National Association of Recording Merchandisers is pleased to present this glossary containing generic definitions for basic terms related to the specialized field of distribution and sale of downloadable music."
This section last updated: 5/25/04
This section last updated: 5/24/04
"The Department of Theology On-Line Glossary Project is a glossary of several hundred terms (and growing) for the beginning study of the Christian and Hebrew Scriptures, and other theological matters."
A glossary of the gods, monsters and other entities of the SubGenius mythos.
More than 2500 Bible and Bible-related proper names and their meanings from "Hitchcock's New and Complete Analysis of the Holy Bible", a book published in the late 1800s.
"The following lists a variety of dieties and religious terms used in the varieties of Indian religions."
"The following pages are intended to be a simplistic glossary of terms used in Tantrik and other Sanskrit manuscripts."
Created by a Christian group jealous of the competition.
Last updated: 5/23/04
So I present this site in the hope that it will inspire as much as it informs or entertains. I think people are all too frequently blind to the ways in which our lives are so very messed up by our culture, and the extent to which we each help to maintain this blindness and this painful absurdity. Sniggling, whether or not it is performed with any such awareness, helps to poke holes in the veil we spend so much time helping each other to construct.
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This section was last updated on Nov. 30, 1999.
This section was last updated on May 21, 2004.
Last checked or updated: Nov. 30, 1999
S. Baum
Dept. of Oceanography
Texas A&M University
baum@astra.tamu.edu