The Dimwit's Dictionary: 5,000 Overused Words and Phrases and Alternatives to Them

by Robert Hartwell Fiske, Joseph Epstein (Foreword)

This compilation of overused words and phrases is the ultimate tool for the writer who seeks to weed out common, tired language and replace it with concise writing.

Genres: Reference, Writing, Nonfiction

400 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2002

Reviews

[GoldGato · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I have discovered how to tell if ChatGPT has written an essay: use this book to determine if AI is overusing the words and phrases which have led to the deterioration of the English language. There. Gold star for moi.

Soon, it is clear, we will be a society unable to distinguish one word from another, sense from nonsense, truth from falsehood, good from evil.

Indeed, Robert Hartwell Fiske is very specific about the way writing has become full of empty jargon. He is fairly passionate about this (which I really like) and he breaks the offenders into the following brackets:

FOREIGN PHRASES
Ad nauseum, par excellence, mea culpa…you know the wearisome offenders.
GRAMMATICAL GIMMICKS
These are what the babblers use, including and this and that, and stuff like that. Basically, the GOP.
INEFFECTUAL PHRASES
People use these to make others weary, such as the thing about it is, what happened (is). Don’t be ineffectual!
INESCAPABLE PAIRS
You will see the word allied used with the word closely. Maybe those words don’t want to be paired. Maybe they want to live their own lives. Think on that.
INFANTILE PHRASES
It’s a free country. It takes one to know one. Mission accomplished. Personally, I am inclined to admire such phrases because they speak of the playground and the taunts now all over social media.
MORIBUND METAPHORS
These, apparently, disfigure sentences. Everything but the kitchen sink, light at the end of the tunnel, window of opportunity…these are the basics in the business world. I may very well be a disfigurer.

There are many more. I simply enjoyed reading this from start to finish and finding the author’s tipping points.
…”you made my day”…Often a response to being complimented, “you made my day” appeals to the mass of people who rely on others for their opinion of themselves. And if they embrace others’ approval, so they bow to their criticism.

…”common courtesy”…The worsening of our speech accompanies the withering of our souls.

There were many phrases that were new to me. I had never heard of “like carrying coals to Newcastle”, but it displeased the author so I will never carry such coals. This book was a joy to read because I quickly realized my use of the English language isn’t as wonderful as I thought it was which means Artificial Intelligence can not be much better.
I finish this review with one of his rants:

…”make a difference”…Many of us speak of making a difference, some of us strive to make a difference, and few of us succeed in making a difference.

Book Season = Year Round (crisp, crisper, crispest)

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a library copy but will buy this book for my personal library. I plan on using a few entries from Fiske's book for my first-year college composition students because this author offers, to my satisfaction, how to choose the best way of expressing meaning. For example, he explains why and how to use"well" instead of "good." His entry on "very" offers examples of why "very" could be banned from the English language without any negative consequences. I have student writers focus on eliminating the words "it" and "this" at the beginning of sentences and ask them to replace these words with a noun or the topic of the sentence. I also ask them to replace pronouns with the name of the person they are writing about. The benefit to students is that they can add up to one extra page if they perform a simple "Find and Replace" function in a Word document.

I am grateful for any book that helps me become a more effective writing instructor and coach.

[booklady]

My friend, Goldgato, gave this a most humorous review. I don't think I would enjoy reading this so much, but I sense the need to read it all the more. 😟 I know I am guilty of using almost all of the overused phrases! 😭

[Skallagrimsen]

An indispensable volume in every writer's reference library--but man, is it full of cliches!

[Ron Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a writer, I try to avoid time-worn phrases and trite words and it's much easier now that I have Fiske's book in my reference library. Learn to identify "wretched redundancies" and "moribund metaphors" and much more as Fiske's addresses how we butcher the English language and how we can correct our misguided course. Hats off to you, sir!

[Cary Neeper · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good reminder of which phrases have been overused, with some good, some questionable, suggestions for alternates. I was surprised to find few missing. A few were so specific the could still be useful.

[Wendy H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book and I wanted to give it a detailed review. I have done this on my blog so take a look and find out why I rate it so highly
http://tinyurl.com/oy7kkbf

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I should buy a copy and break free from my reuse of cliche phrases.

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hey, I know, let's all become the pompous vocabulary police and take all the personality out of our writing! Tedious to read and filled with unimaginative alternatives to what the authors believe are overused phrases (but are pretty much every phrase you've ever heard - hackneyed or not), this book is helpful only if you want to write like this (taken from a passage where one of the authors defends his use of acerbic commentary in the book):

"This pedagogy may strike some as unworkable, and perhaps its efficacy is suspect, but we surely know that other methods of tutelage are largely unsuccessful."

Sheesh! Look, I understand that clichés are overused, but suggesting I replace "raining cats and dogs" with "raining" doesn't improve the writing, it just makes it more boring.

[Pia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nowadays, this kind of thing would end up as an ongoing blog rant, or a mildly amusing Twitter account. I picked it up for reference, to help avoid cliche phrasing in my writing, but this wasn't helpful in that regard and I hesitate to leave it on my writing-reference bookshelf.

May be useful as entertainment, or for someone looking to write a farce of tired metaphors and eye roll inducing similes.