Quintessential Dictionary

by I. Moyer Hunsberger

Book Overview

Here is a dictionary that cuts through the common, everyday words we all know and goes straight to the heart of today's social, political, and cultural language. Using clear, concise definitions of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446324434
• ISBN13: 9780446324434
• Release Date: January 1984
• Publisher: Warner Books (NY)
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.

Customer Reviews

All You Need To Read Buckley

Learn the thousand words and you can read all of Wm. F. Buckley without looking anything up. I recommend making flashcards.

A good reference

A good book for those who seek a distillation of a thorough dictionary. Can be read for pleasure.

a word lovers fantasy come true

I found this book years ago, even then in a used bookstore. I'd moved beyond all those dull "How to Improve Your Vocabulary Books", but picked it up anyway... and was so delighted. It makes for wonderful reading, even though it's a dictionary. The words in it are vibrant and complex and utilizable. A definition is provided of a given word, say, "saturnine", or "quiescent", and then examples of how the word appears in various texts are listed beneath. My one quarrel with the book is that too many of the examples seem to have been taken from the same sources; I wish Hunsberger had cast his reading net a bit wider. Nevertheless, the examples are wonderfully readable and truly do educate you about the various shadings of the words lucky enough to appear here.