Shallow Water Dictionary [Hardcover]

John Stilgoe (Author), John R. Stilgoe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 18, 2003

Shallow Water Dictionary is both a celebration of the richness of our vernacular language and a lament on its passing and with it, the passing of the words we need to understand our shallow water regions, once the primary landscape of America and now facing extinction, both physical and linguistic.
This small book is an intriguing and valuable addition to our knowledge of a changing landscape. Literary, etymological, historical, and vernacular investigations of such varied terms as guzzle, creek, and chartreuse, Stilgoes definitions are lyric explanations of words whose original meanings have been eroded by time.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John R. Stilgoe is the Robert and Lois Orchard Professor in the History of Landscape at Harvard University. He lives in Norwell, Massachusetts.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press; 5th edition (December 18, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568984081
• ISBN-13: 978-1568984087
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 4.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #755,975 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #27 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Geography

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Estuary English is Fascinating, September 13, 2004

By 

Seachranaiche (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Shallow Water Dictionary (Hardcover)

What a gem of a book! Who would have know that a topic as esoteric as the 19th century English of eastern American coastal marshes could be so interesting, and that such a small book could deliver so much information? One learns the correct usage of the word "creek", the difference between a "gutter" and a "guzzle", the etymology of "schooner", and a detailed description of the elusive "gundalow". John Stilgoe provides some great comparisons of the unabridged dictionaries of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, as well.

"Shallow Water Dictionary" is written as a narrative, a lament for the loss of words from dictionary English, arrived at while the author pilots his rowboat, "Essay" (A pretty enough boat, then, with lines more gentle than a skiff...), through the saltwater marshes of Massachusetts.

Don't be put off by its small size; lovers of the English language will find this book to be a good reference that is also enjoyable to read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An "essay" into language..., November 27, 2005

By 

Brian Mahoney (Buffalo, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shallow Water Dictionary (Hardcover)

John Stilgoe's "Shallow Water Dictionary" is a fascinating essay on the "lost" landscape of salt marshes and the language needed to describe them. He tracks down the sources of words such as "skiff" and explores the vagueness of definition found in words such as "creek", "brook", and "flotsam and jetsam". His references to historical dictionaries plot the changing importance of these words over time as society's attention wandered elsewhere.

Anyone who spends time in a small boat or who loves the language of the sea will find this book immensely satisfying.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a treasure of a book, August 31, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Shallow-Water Dictionary (Paperback)

This book is one of my absolute favorites books of the past several years - a tiny jewel of a book. While it contains lots of interesting facts for boaters and word-lovers, it is also lyrically poetic (Stilgoe's MOST poetic work, quite unlike his other books), evoking the images, rhythms and sounds of an oft-neglected but major aspect of coastal New England - and makes you really want to see for yourself what it's like to paddle through - the coastal marshlands. For anyone who loves the ocean, secret places, history, nature-lovers, book-lovers, this book will slowly unwind it's magic on you.