Robert Hartwell Fiske's Dictionary of Disagreeable English

Are you a publisher or an editor? Robert Hartwell Fiske's Dictionary of Disagreeable English is newly available.

Writer's Digest published my Dictionary of Disagreeable English (paperback version) in 2005. More than 15,000 copies were sold. In 2006, WD decided that publishing a hardcover version was a good idea, so the Deluxe version of the book was born. The rights to the book will revert to me in July.

Here are a few comments about the WD edition of The Dictionary of Disagreeable English:

However curmudgeonly, Mr. Fiske betrays a bluff humanitarian spirit. ... [Fiske] wants to save [the English language]. And he knows that he can count on little help. Dictionaries "have virtually no standards, offer scant guidance, and advance only misunderstanding." His own flogging of Merriam-Webster's is one of the many pleasures of this lovely, sour, virtuous book. — Wall Street Journal

(For) people who get a delicious kick out of getting incensed at loosey-goosey usage. — William Safire, New York Times

I recently purchased your Dictionary of Disagreeable English, a delightful little book with a somewhat depressing, big message. I find myself chuckling from page to page. Thanks for the entertainment! — Teresa Jones

We will continue to look to you for guidance and help in preserving the elegance of the English language. — Christel Marin

Please accept my congratulations on a wonderful and very useful book. — Frank Boccia

I'm enjoying the heck out of Disagreeable English. — Ron Harris

As a technical writer, I consult your Dictionary of Disagreeable English often, to "insure" that my documents don't fall "pray" to lazy language. — Tristan MacAvery

The Dictionary of Disagreeable English was one of my favorite Christmas presents this season. — Ralph Shelton

As Fiske illustrates in his book, dictionaries are not what they used to be. Prominent dictionaries, including the vaunted Merriam Webster, have increasingly resorted to including nonstandard English, i.e. improper English, in their texts, all in the name of recording English as it is used, rather than how it should be used. Fiske attacks this concept of "descriptivist" as inexcusable. Although I admit that English does evolve, I am firmly in Fiske's camp — dictionaries should champion proper English, not popular English. After reading this book, you may find yourself taking up arms in Fiske's war as well. ... In The Dictionary of Disagreeable English, Fiske has compiled a rogue's gallery of painfully incorrect English. If you love acerbic sarcasm, you're in for a treat. Fiske's acidic commentary is frequently laugh out loud funny, as are the truly hideous examples of murdered grammar which Fiske has culled from journalists, celebrities, and politicians. As much fun as this book is to read, The Dictionary of Disagreeable English is also a handy, informative guide to avoiding the most common grammatical pitfalls. Fiske lists frequent misspellings, misuses (my favorite being "grisly" for "grizzly"), mispronunciations, and nonexistent words which are used with alarming frequency. ... If you are a fellow grammar geek/word nerd, you will adore this book. You will laugh at Fiske's biting wit and you will cry at some of the most foul atrocities that were committed against the English language in the examples provided. The Dictionary of Disagreeable English is the perfect way to both amuse and educate yourself. — Zella Kate Solomon

I am making several changes to the WD edition.

1. The new book, called Robert Hartwell Fiske's Dictionary of Disagreeable English (RHFDDE), will have many more entries than the old Writer's Digest Dictionary of Disagreeable English (WDDDE). Many of the entries in WDDDE, as well as in RHFDDE, are not found in other usage books, which may mean only that I pay more attention to how language is used than some of the other writers do.

2. RHFDDE will also include more commentary and more examples than are in WDDDE. The tone of my commentary is biting or funny or witty. Again, no other book on usage uses this device.

3. I may very well want to include some of the "Mock Merriam" essays that I have written in The Vocabula Review. A dozen or more of them as an Epilogue should be entertaining. I also will include a new essay (published in the June issue of The Vocabula Review, "Language Craven: A Definition").

Robert Hartwell Fiske's Dictionary of Disagreeable English is a continuing project to compile a dictionary of misused, misspelled, and mispronounced words and phrases.

Today's popular dictionaries often fail to define words correctly or to distinguish between them; some dictionaries even maintain that one word means the same as another simply because people who do not know the correct meanings of the words confuse them. Robert Hartwell Fiske's Dictionary of Disagreeable English — a supplement to whatever dictionary you own or use — is an attempt to combat this nonsense, to return meaning and distinction to the words we use.

In WDDDE, I spend some time criticizing dictionary makers for their descriptive bent. I will continue to do this in RHFDDE. No other author of a book on usage that I am aware of has been so bold (or impudent).

Promotion should emphasize that RHFDDE is "a supplement to whatever dictionary you own or use" – that is, everyone who owns a dictionary should also own RHFDDE.

As good as Garner's Modern American Usage is, it is not the sort of book that many thousands of people will buy. It is too big, too expensive, too "scholarly" for the general book-buying public. RHFDDE will appeal to all those people that Bryan Garner's book has failed to attract. What's more, RHFDDE will appeal to the readers of a half dozen other usage writers who invariably talk-down to their readers.

Robert Hartwell Fiske's Dictionary of Disagreeable English is a continuing project to compile a dictionary of misused, misspelled, and mispronounced words and phrases. Today's popular dictionaries often fail to define these words correctly or to distinguish between them; some dictionaries even maintain that one word means the same as another simply because people who do not know the correct meanings of the words confuse them. Robert Hartwell Fiske's Dictionary of Disagreeable English — a supplement to whatever dictionary you own or use — is an attempt to combat this nonsense, to return meaning and distinction to the words we use.

Email Robert Hartwell Fiske if you have questions or would like to see the manuscript.