Dictionary of Idiomatic English Phrases. By James Main Dixon. (Nelson.)—The
author of this work is Professor of English Litera- ture in the Imperial University of Japan, and the materials for it were originally collated in that country to assist his students in their English studies. The book ought to be not less valuable here than in Japan, for it gives, with meanings and illustrations, those slang phrases which have crept into ordinary use, and are under- stood, even if they are not all used, by educated people. They aro divided, according to "a descending scale of dignity," into four sets,—prose, conversation, familiar, and slang. The prose phrases are such as may well be used by anybody, seeing that they are such "as Macaulay or Matthew Arnold might use in their serious writings." Phrases belonging to the other three classes, speakers and writers would do well to exorcise more caution in using ; slang words they would probably be well advised to boycott altogether. Mr. Dixon has done his work very thoroughly, although he seems inclined occasionally to include among idiomatic phrases, what are, after all, ordinary English expressions, such as "take the veil." Occasionally, too, he seems to stand too much upon literary Iignity; thus, he places "wrinkle," in the sense of a valuable hint, among slang words, whereas it might well be classed nowa- days as "familiar." But if we must err in a matter of this kind, it is well that we should err on the safe side ; and this, at all events, Mr. Dixon has done. Ho has produced a book which all authors and public writers ought to keep beside them, more especially as, when he is illustrating the phrases he gives, he draws upon modern writers as much as possible.
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