ISBN10: 0674205111, ISBN13: 9780674205116, [publisher: Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.] Hardcover Hardcover. How do Americans really talk-what are their hometown, everyday expressions in the many regions and sections of this huge country? The Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE), twenty years in preparation, answers these questions. It gives visible proof of the diversity-and the vitality-of American folk language, past and present.DARE includes thousands of words and phrases not found in conventional dictionaries, and out-of-the-way meanings for common terms. Here are local names for familiar objects, from old cars to frying pans to dust-balls under the bed (176 names for these); for plants, animals, and critters real and imaginary; for rainstorms and heat waves; for foods, clothing, children's games and adults' pastimes; for illnesses and traditional remedies. Here are terms-salty, sarcastic, humorous-by which people describe each other, their physical appearance, characters, emotions, states of mind. Here are metaphors and similes galore.In Wisconsin a man whose motives are suspect "has beans up his nose." In Georgia a conceited person is "biggity"; someone important or self-important in the Northwest is "bull of the woods." A close friend may be "bobbasheely" (Mississippi) or an "ace boon coon" (New York City). West of the Appalachians the old saw "I wouldn't know him from ...