''A Dictionary of American English on Historical Principles'' (''DAE'') is a dictionary of terms appearing in English in the United States that was published in four volumes from 1938 to 1944 by the

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', ...

. Intended to pick up where the ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...

'' left off, it covers

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances i ...

words and phrases in use from the first English settlements up to the start of the 20th century.

History

The work was begun in 1925 by William A. Craigie. The first volume appeared in 1936 under the editorship of Craigie and James R. Hulbert, a professor of English at the University of Chicago. The four volume edition was completed with the help of George Watson and

Allen Walker Read Allen Walker Read (June 2, 1906 – October 16, 2002) was an American etymologist and lexicographer. Born in Minnesota, he spent much of his career as a professor at Columbia University in New York. Read's work ''Classic American Graffiti'' is w ...

. The group referenced early literature depicting American regional accents, including three novels from the 1820s and 1830s by John Neal. The work was one of the sources for the '' Dictionary of Americanisms'', c. 1952, prepared under the direction of Mitford Mathews. A similar, but unrelated modern work, the '' Dictionary of American Regional English,'' has been compiled to show dialect variation.

Volumes

:I. A – Corn patch. :II. Corn pit – Honk. :III. Honk – Record. :IV. Recorder – Zu-zu, Bibliography (p. 2529-2552)

Notes

English dictionaries American literature Works about American English 1938 non-fiction books University of Chicago Press books {{US-book-stub