The Complete Idiot's Guide to a Smart Vocabulary Table of Contents Part 1—The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, and More: People Words Chapter 1—It Takes All Kinds: Types of People A Few Good Men (and Women) Boors, Tyrants, and Other Nasty Folk Confidants and Cronies: Words for Friends Adversaries and Antagonists: Words for Enemies Big Shots: Words for Important People Small Frys: Words for Unimportant People Chapter 2—More People Types Ideologues and Apostates: Believers and Non-Believers A Few Fan Words Curmudgeons and Other Grumpy People Cadres and Cliques: Groups of People Chapter 3—How People Behave, Part 1 I, Me, Mine: Selfish Behavior Party Types and Talkers: Adjectives for Outgoing People Homebodies: Adjectives for Shy and Quiet People Words for People We Like Words for People We Don't Like Chapter 4—How People Behave, Part 2 Following the Wind: Words for Changeable People Immovable Objects: Words for Stubborn People Fightin' Words: A Hostility Lexicon Living La Vida Lazy: Adjectives for the Inactive Some Tricky Behavior Words Chapter 5—How People Think A Thinking Person's Guide to Thought The Search for Knowledge Words to the Wise: Terms for Intelligence A Fool and His Words: Terms for Stupidity The Mind Field: Terms from Psychology Chapter 6—How People Look Hale, Hearty, and Hunky: Attractiveness Soft, Scruffy, and Unsightly: Unattractiveness It's a Small Word After All: Terms for the Tiny A Lexicon for the Large Some Informal and Slang Terms for Various Body Parts Part 2—And Now, Some Words From Our Culture Chapter 7—A Few Food Words to Chew On A Cornucopia of Food Words Verbs for Eating Verbs for Cooking Fine Word Dining: Restaurant Terms Chapter 8—Drink Words on Tap Taking a Swig: Verbs for Drinking A Draft of Beer Words The Message on the Bottle: Wine Words Mixed Drinks: Miscellaneous Liquid Refreshments Chapter 9—Screen Gems: Television Words Words You Should Know If You're Buying a TV The Ratings Game: TV Programming Words Docudramas, Infomercials, and Other TV Programs Kickers and Stand-Ups: Television News Terms From Boob Tube to Couch Potato: TV Slang Chapter 10—The Book Nook: Book and Publishing Terms From Bluestockings to Bookworms: Book Folk From Manuscript to Galley: Book Editing The Book Look: Book Parts and Pages The Business of Publishing Chapter 11—The Lexical Enquirer: Newspaper Words Newspaper Odds and Ends Editors and Their Departments Newspaper Journalism and Journalists Thumbsuckers and Tick-Tocks: Words for News Stories The Anatomy of a News Story Part 3—Lexiconomics: Words from the Economy Chapter 12—Words at Work: Job Titles and Professions General Job Jargon Gaffers, Grips, and Best Boys: Movie Workers The Corporate Ladder: Some Top Business Titles Smiths, Wrights, and Other Tradespeople Medicine Men and Women Chapter 13—The Commercial Word: Terms from Business and Economics Supply-Siders and Keynesians: Words and Phrases from Economics The Business of Business Business Finances: From Balance Sheet to Cash Flow New Words from the New Economy Chapter 14—Business Buzzword Buster Buzzwords I: "24/7" to "Buy In" Buzzwords II: "Core Competencies" to "Exit Strategy" Buzzwords III: "Going Forward" to "Litmus Test" Buzzwords IV: "Low-Hanging Fruit" to "Paradigm Shift" Buzzwords V: "Solution Provider" to "Win-Win" Chapter 15—Bulls, Bears, and Blue Chips: Stock Market Words Stock Talk: Some General Stock Words What Goes Up, Etc.: Words for Stock Market Movements Buy Low, Sell High, Talk Funny: Buying and Selling Terms Part 4—The System: Words for How the World Works Chapter 16—Legal Lingo "I'll See You in Court": Lawsuits and Charges "All Rise": Judge and Jury Words "Order in the Court": Trial Terms "We Find the Defendant[el]": Verdicts and Judgments Chapter 17—Weasel Words from Politics and Government Stump to Stalking Horse: Election Words Government Words of the People, by the People, for the People When Good Politicians Go Bad: Corruption Words Some Political "Isms" Government By, Well, Whoever You Want Chapter 18—War and Peace: Military, Spying, and Diplomatic Terms A War of Words An Aside on the Suffix "-cide" U.S. Military Ranks U.S. Military Units Spies, Spooks, and Sleepers: Espionage Words The Art of the Deal: Some Words from Diplomacy Part 5—Technolinguistics: Computer and Internet Terms Chapter 19—A Glossary for Computer Buyers It's What's Inside that Counts: The Microprocessor Getting Through the Memory Maze The Dope on Disk Drives Graphics Cards, Monitors, and Other Video Jargon Sound Cards, Modems, and More Chapter 20—More Computer Words "Bit to WYSIWYG": General Computer Terms "Program" to "Virus": Software Terms "Bus" to "Printer": Hardware Terms Chapter 21—Internetese: The Internet and its Jargon Wired Words: Getting On the Internet A World Wide Web of Words Can I Get Here From There? Internet Address Terms More Net Words You Should Know From Newbie to Netizen: Internet People Chapter 22—Talking the "Talk" Talk: Email, Chat, and More "Have Your People Email My People" Real-Time Talk: Words from Chat and Instant Messaging Usenet Lingo for Newsgroupies The Incendiary Internet: Playing the Flame Game An Initial Look at Internet Abbreviations Internet Hieroglyphics: Smileys Part 6—Vocabucopia: An Abundance of Miscellaneous Word Treats Chapter 23—Speaking in Tongues: Words from Foreign Languages Ad Hoc to Sine Qua Non: Latin Words Au Contraire to Nouveau Riche: French Words Autobahn to Zeitgest: German Words Casa to Kvetch: Words from Other Languages Chapter 24—Names of Things You Didn’t Know Had Names Names for Body Parts Names for Sleep Things Names for Traffic Things Miscellaneous Names Chapter 25—Brave New Words Ad Creep to Casualization Chad to Day Trading Entreprenerd to Learning a Living Lexus Liberal to Screenager Soccer Mom to Zine Chapter 26—Making Word Whoopee: Fun Words Akimbo to Flibbertigibbet Galoot to Hullaballoo Kibosh to Nincompoop Razzmatazz to Thingamajig Tomfoolery to Zilch Part 9—Sharpening Your Skills: More Words You Should Know Chapter 27—100 Nouns You Should Know Acclaim to Catalyst Catch-22 to Embargo Enigma to Juxtaposition Labyrinth to Recourse Repertoire to Zenith Chapter 28—100 Verbs You Should Know Abstain to Censure Circumvent to Ensue Ensure to Jeopardize Jettison to Purport Raze to Yearn Chapter 29—100 Adjectives You Should Know Abrasive to Concerted Conducive to Esoteric Ethical to Innocuous Insidious to Procrustean Prodigious to Wry Part 8—Appendixes Appendix A—Answers to End-of-Chapter 30—Prefixes and Suffixes Return to The Complete Idiot's Guide to a Smart Vocabulary home page Copyright © 1995-2008 Paul McFedries and Logophilia Limited