ALLIED ENGLISH
SIR,—Mary Paton is too unimaginative (surely civet, in the context she quotes, is a vivid new metaphor) or too limited in her choice of dictionaries: every one of the American words which puzzle her is in the Oxford Dictionary or in the excellent 3s. Everyman's Dictionary, or both. Horrendous is a perfectly good English word, which OED traces back to 1659 ; in any case, its meaning is obvious.
The book she seeks does, however, exist: A Dictionary of Modern American Usage. It is by no means complete, since the American branch of the English language is far more vigorously prolific of new words and phrases than our own. Some are ephemeral, some stick ; Time magazine in particular is constantly experimenting. The experiments are uncouth, but now and then shatteringly successful.
I would also recommend Mencken's comprehensive work, The American
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