The Dictionary Of Diseased English
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
Language, at its worst, is a weapon of obfuscation — and Kenneth Hudson's The Dictionary of Diseased English wages a brilliant, acerbic war against the epidemic of jargon, euphemism, and bureaucratic doublespeak that has infected the English language. Hudson presents an incisive, alphabetically arranged compendium of linguistic abuses, cataloguing the hollow phrases, pompous terminology, and weasel words that infest modern communication across politics, business, medicine, and public life. Each entry dissects a particular ailment of expression with surgical precision, exposing how language is routinely deployed not to illuminate meaning, but to obscure, impress, or deceive. Written with the wit of a seasoned satirist and the rigour of a dedicated philologist, the volume is both a practical reference and a sharp piece of cultural criticism. Hudson argues, with considerable force, that diseased English is not merely an aesthetic failing but a symptom of deeper social and intellectual dishonesty. His style is dry, authoritative, and frequently entertaining — a rare combination that makes the critique of linguistic decay genuinely compelling reading. Rooted in the tradition of Fowler's A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, yet distinctly more combative in its tone, this work stands as a landmark in the literature of plain English advocacy. For anyone who has ever winced at a memo riddled with going forward or a politician's answer that says nothing at all, Hudson's diagnosis will feel startlingly, uncomfortably familiar.
Author: Kenneth Hudson
Format: Paperback
Genre: Dictionaries
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
Language, at its worst, is a weapon of obfuscation — and Kenneth Hudson's The Dictionary of Diseased English wages a brilliant, acerbic war against the epidemic of jargon, euphemism, and bureaucratic doublespeak that has infected the English language. Hudson presents an incisive, alphabetically arranged compendium of linguistic abuses, cataloguing the hollow phrases, pompous terminology, and weasel words that infest modern communication across politics, business, medicine, and public life. Each entry dissects a particular ailment of expression with surgical precision, exposing how language is routinely deployed not to illuminate meaning, but to obscure, impress, or deceive. Written with the wit of a seasoned satirist and the rigour of a dedicated philologist, the volume is both a practical reference and a sharp piece of cultural criticism. Hudson argues, with considerable force, that diseased English is not merely an aesthetic failing but a symptom of deeper social and intellectual dishonesty. His style is dry, authoritative, and frequently entertaining — a rare combination that makes the critique of linguistic decay genuinely compelling reading. Rooted in the tradition of Fowler's A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, yet distinctly more combative in its tone, this work stands as a landmark in the literature of plain English advocacy. For anyone who has ever winced at a memo riddled with going forward or a politician's answer that says nothing at all, Hudson's diagnosis will feel startlingly, uncomfortably familiar.