Words from the White House: Words and Phrases Coined or Popularized by America's Presidents

by Paul Dickson

The founding fathers (a term created by Warren G. Harding for his "front porch campaign" of 1920) felt that coining words and creating new uses for old ones was part of their role in creating a new American culture and language, distinct from the proscriptive King's English. Noah Webster called the creation of such Americanisms "acts of defiance," along with such radical ideas as universal literacy and public libraries. Ever since, American presidents have enriched our vocabulary with words, phrases, and concepts that weve put to general use. Acclaimed lexicographer Paul Dickson has compiled the first collection of new words and lexical curiosities originating on Pennsylvania Avenue. Organized chronologically, each entry contains the definition, etymology, and a brief essay placing the word or phrase in its cultural context. From Washington ( tin can ) and Jefferson (who alone gets credit for some one hundred coinages, including belittle and the expression holding the bag ), to Lincoln ( relocate ) and Teddy Roosevelt ( bully pulpit ), to Ike ( mulligan ) and Obama ( Snowmageddon ), they collectively provide an illuminating tour of more than two centuries of our history. Bloviate ... lunatic fringe ... iffy ... military industrial complex ... Anglophobia ... kitchen cabinet ... public relations ... ottoman ... pedicure ... point well taken ... personal shopper ... normalcy

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Politics, Language

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 8, 2013

About the author

Paul Dickson is the author of more than 45 nonfiction books and hundreds of magazine articles. Although he has written on a variety of subjects from ice cream to kite flying to electronic warfare, he now concentrates on writing about the American language, baseball and 20th century history.

Dickson, born in Yonkers, NY, graduated from Wesleyan University in 1961 and was honored as a Distinguished Alumnae of that institution in 2001. After graduation, he served in the U.S. Navy and later worked as a reporter for McGraw-Hill Publications.
Since 1968, he has been a full-time freelance writer contributing articles to various magazines and newspapers, including Smithsonian, Esquire, The Nation, Town & Country, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post and writing numerous books on a wide range of subjects.

He received a University Fellowship for reporters from the American Political Science Association to do his first book, Think Tanks (1971). For his book, The Electronic Battlefield (1976), about the impact automatic weapons systems have had on modern warfare, he received a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism to support his efforts to get certain Pentagon files declassified.

His book The Bonus Army: An American Epic, written with Thomas B. Allen, was published by Walker and Co. on February 1, 2005. It tells the dramatic but largely forgotten story of the approximately 45,000 World War I veterans who marched on Washington in the summer of 1932, at the height of the Great Depression, to demand early payment of a bonus promised them for their wartime service and of how that march eventually changed the course of American history and led to passage of the GI Bill—the lasting legacy of the Bonus Army. A documentary based on the book aired on PBS stations in May 2006 and an option for a feature film based on the book has been sold.

Dickson's most recent baseball book, The Hidden Language of Baseball: How Signs and Sign Stealing Have Influenced the Course of our National Pastime, also by Walker and Co, was first published in May, 2003 and came out in paperback in June, 2005. It follows other works of baseball reference including The Joy of Keeping Score, Baseballs Greatest Quotations, Baseball the Presidents Game and The New Dickson Baseball Dictionary, now in it's second edition. A third edition is currently in the works. The original Dickson Baseball Dictionary was awarded the 1989 Macmillan-SABR Award for Baseball Research.

Sputnik: The Shock of the Century, another Walker book, came out in October, 2001 and was subsequently issued in paperback by Berkeley Books. Like his first book, Think Tanks (1971), and his latest, Sputnik, was born of his first love: investigative journalism. Dickson is working on a feature documentary about Sputnik with acclaimed documentarians David Hoffmanand Kirk Wolfinger.

Two of his older language books, Slang and Label For Locals came out in the fall of 2006 in new and expanded versions.

Dickson is a founding member and former president of Washington Independent Writers and a member of the National Press Club. He is a contributing editor at Washingtonian magazine and a consulting editor at Merriam-Webster, Inc. and is represented by Premier Speakers Bureau, Inc. and the Jonathan Dolger Literary agency.

He currently lives in Garrett Park, Maryland with his wife Nancy who works with him as his first line editor, and financial manager.

Reviews

[Raymond · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dickson has a compiled a dictionary of words that presidents or other people in their administration have made famous. I was surprised that "founding fathers" was popularized by Harding I thought it was around much earlier. I also did not know that "sugar coated" was first said by Lincoln. You will definitely learned something new from reading this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dover Publications for the free ARC copy in exchange for a honest review.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are a word nerd who loves presidential trivia, this book is going to be a delight for you. It begins with a little history followed by a list of presidential "firsts" that should whet your appetite. After that, it goes into an A to Z presidential lexicon of words, phrases and slogans. I read this cover to cover so that I could give a full review, but that may not be the way it is best utilized. The layout is alphabetical, so it's natural to come across a nugget that is especially interesting (for me, usually associated with Theodore Roosevelt), followed by a few other entries that may be less appealing or too self-evident to really keep the reader turning pages.

My ideal use of this book would be to have it on a shelf and flip through it casually. I found the real standout wordsmiths to be Theodore Roosevelt and Harry S Truman. I appreciated reading about their neologisms, and it makes me more interested in pursuing more in-depth biographies for them.

The original publication of the book was during the Obama administration, so there is a forward in the Dover edition published in 2020 that explains this and mentions a couple of Trump terms (I think "covfefe" is a real elephant-in-the-room, so to speak, for a book released in 2020 about presidents creating new words), but other than the preface to the Dover edition there are no words beyond the first Obama administration that appear in the A-Z entries.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for providing me with a copy for review.

[OjoAusana · Rating 5 out of 5]

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* Pretty interesting little book lol learned a lot of things I didn't know about both words and just little facts, I know my dad would love this lol

[Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is one for the combination word nerds and historians. I learned quite a few interesting facts to whip out during the right conversations. I had no idea where some of our most used phrases came from!

This unbiased review is based on a complimentary copy provided by the publisher.

[Philip · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book sounded pretty interesting based on last month's review in the Washington Post, and it started off with a strong introduction (the strongest part of the book). However, after the intro, it went into an alphabetized list of words and phrases "coined or popularized by America's Presidents" (as the title says) which was written in a very dry, clinical style, (whereas I'd originally thought I'd be able to include this on my "humor" shelf). And while it was interesting to discover the occasional nugget of interest -- such as various presidents (usually Washington, Jefferson or the Roosevelts) being the first to use words like "tin can," "pedicure," "indoors," "counterproductive" and "iffy;" or such phrases as "gulf stream" and "loose cannon" -- the vast majority of the entries were no surprise, but were the expected phrases like "New Deal," "moral equivalent of war," "compassionate conservatism," etc.

So overall I'd been expecting more, but it did make for a quick and mildly informative read. What was most best about the whole book, however, was learning that Abraham Lincoln was the first person on record using the word "cool" as we use it today. (Second best was the long list of nicknames for Teddy Roosevelt, including among others "The Great White Chief," "The Happy Warrior," "The Old Lion," "The Driving Force," and "Four Eyes.")

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish it was more or less an "essay" than a dictionary, but still incredibly interesting to know where we get some of our greatest Americanisms. Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, Warren G. Harding, Harry S Truman, and George W. Bush (yes, George W.) have a rich linguistic imagination

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a logophile, so this kind of book appeals to me. I love etymology and often find myself looking up the histories of words and phrases. I guess I just didn't realize before how many words and phrases were actually coined by US Presidents. So this book also gives you some history lessons as well as the background of some of your favorite terms. It has been updated from the original version to allow for the foibles and new words coined by the current occupant of the White House, and I am guessing to correct any previous errors.

It isn't necessarily the kind of book you are going to sit down and read from cover to cover in an evening. Instead, you'll digest parts of it here and there, making it a great book to have on the coffee table (or yes, even bathroom reading). I found myself hoping to memorize some of the stories in the event they pop up in a trivia game or something like that. I did actually recognize a couple of facts from recent trivia nights.

Being a lover of words and history, I think I would have enjoyed this book even as a kid. I think it can appeal to all ages.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me a review copy. I was not obligated to leave a positive review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Bill Patton · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like politics and if you enjoy learning about where American political words come from, then this slim little book is up your alley. I saw Dickson on 'morning joe' on msnbc and I determined to get the book. Got it from Amazon and I read it in a day or two. Excellent read. Quick, informative, and easy to read. One to keep on your reference shelf at home...that's where mine will be. Loved the book.

[Aloysius · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the words, like "Founding Fathers", came from unexpected presidencies. Some, like "Anglophobia", came from predictable presidencies. And some, like "decider", are from presidential origins already known to me.

In any case, it's nice to know that the president can serve not only as head of state, commander of the armed forces, and chief executive, but also as chief neologist. Now THAT'S POWER!

[Jake Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

You've gotta remember that this reads like a dictionary, but this book is chock full of really incredible information from some of the most quotable human beings in history.
I especially enjoyed all of the quotes attributed to Theodore Roosevelt, and the fact that a lot of George W. Bush's quotes were actually not malopropisms, but rather references to words from the 16th century. Whether Bush intended to do that or not is still up for debate.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read - who knew that commonly used words like cheerleader, mulligan and loose cannon originated with our "founding fathers"? (Warren Harding gets credit for coining this phrase). It's thought that Thomas Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt were our Neologists in Chief, those who gave us the greatest number of new words/phrases.

[Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who loves words and is also intrigued by the crazy world of politics, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I read it from cover to cover, but readers can easily pick and choose the parts they want to read. I was surprised by many of the word origins in this book.

[Myk Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read full of interesting anecdotes.

[Christa Van · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great slice of history. Very attractive to "wordies".

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting to find out how much of our common language originated with U.S. presidents. It was an enlightening book and fun to read. Try it out.

[David Carlson]

I'm not ready to bloviate on this from my bully pulpit just yet.