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Schott's Significa: A Miscellany of Secret Languages
From the author of the international bestseller Schott's Original Miscellany comes a fascinating, visually rich, and obsessive look at the systems of language and signs all around us, breaking down the jargon and graphic cues found in dozens of fascinating professions, events, subcultures, and more.
From Ben Schott, bestselling author of Schott’s Original Miscellany, here is an obsessive and fascinating look at the systems of language and knowledge all around us. In this newest masterpiece, Schott breaks down the lingo, slang, and jargon found in dozens of fascinating professions, events, and subcultures—from the insider language used in casino gambling to the NYC diamond district and professional sommeliers to London cabbies. For those who love language and to gain access to rarified worlds, this book is an elegant and smart look at so much hiding in plain sight around us. With its gorgeously erudite and detailed design, full-color photos throughout, and its thoroughly researched survey of lingo and culture, Schott’s Significa will change how you see the world.
From Ben Schott, bestselling author of Schott’s Original Miscellany, here is an obsessive and fascinating look at the systems of language and knowledge all around us. In this newest masterpiece, Schott breaks down the lingo, slang, and jargon found in dozens of fascinating professions, events, and subcultures—from the insider language used in casino gambling to the NYC diamond district and professional sommeliers to London cabbies. For those who love language and to gain access to rarified worlds, this book is an elegant and smart look at so much hiding in plain sight around us. With its gorgeously erudite and detailed design, full-color photos throughout, and its thoroughly researched survey of lingo and culture, Schott’s Significa will change how you see the world.
- GenresNonfiction
304 pages, Hardcover
First published October 7, 2025
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213 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 8, 2025
A wonderful book to scratch the itch of every linguistics fan (who happens to love the world).
I found myself in love with each little bit of information regarding the topics that the author deemed worth exploring. The lingo of restaurants, dog walkers, Santa Clause for hire – it's all there.
Would recommend for both language enthusiasts and as a gift that could become a conversation starter.
I found myself in love with each little bit of information regarding the topics that the author deemed worth exploring. The lingo of restaurants, dog walkers, Santa Clause for hire – it's all there.
Would recommend for both language enthusiasts and as a gift that could become a conversation starter.
October 28, 2025
Ben Schott has made a career of curating interesting stuff. He published "Schott's Original Miscellany" in 2022 and then added several follow ups. He published "Schott's Almanac" from 2005 to 2010. They were all filled with almost important information, appealing esoteric facts and a love for strange words and phrases. All of his book were beautiful designed and typeset. He took pride in both the contents and presentation.
This is his best book yet. He defines "Significa" as "that which is overlooked, yet essential; marginal, yet meaningful; ephemeral yet enduring."
This is really a guide to secret languages. He focuses on professions, like waiters, spies or Saville Row tailors or on small marginal groups like graffiti artist, English fox hunters or church ushers. He gives us a lexicon of each of these groups secret language.
A "Churchill" is what London cabbies call a meal break because Winston passed the regulation saying they were entitled to them.
"Chipmunking" is a competitive eater's technique of filling their mouth just as the final bell rings.
"Feeding the reindeers" is the bathroom excuse of store Santa Clauses.
A pitapotamus" is what dog walkers call a fat lazy pit bull.
There is a huge amount of stuff how about how things work in this book. He explains the basics of the New York Diamond trade. He has a long section on Hollywood stunt doubles. He uses their language to explain how they work. Paparazzies, bartenders, auctions, journalist, Venetian gondoliers, printers, casinos and on and on, all have a secret code they using talking to each other. His explanation of those codes is also an explanation of how they work.
Schott designed the typeface, layout, illustrations and design of this book. This is a beautiful book. A huge amount of stuff is clearly organized and presented. Appropriately, his section on typography is the best short introduction to it that I have ever seen.
Some sections go on a bit too long for me. I didn't need that much on spy jargon or U. S. politics. I did enjoy the pictures illustrating the hand signals including waiters in a busy restaurant, church ushers and insulting Italian hand gestures.
The entries are deliberately not in any discernable order. He eschews alphabetical order. There is no table of contents or index. This is a book for browsing. Browse and enjoy.
This is his best book yet. He defines "Significa" as "that which is overlooked, yet essential; marginal, yet meaningful; ephemeral yet enduring."
This is really a guide to secret languages. He focuses on professions, like waiters, spies or Saville Row tailors or on small marginal groups like graffiti artist, English fox hunters or church ushers. He gives us a lexicon of each of these groups secret language.
A "Churchill" is what London cabbies call a meal break because Winston passed the regulation saying they were entitled to them.
"Chipmunking" is a competitive eater's technique of filling their mouth just as the final bell rings.
"Feeding the reindeers" is the bathroom excuse of store Santa Clauses.
A pitapotamus" is what dog walkers call a fat lazy pit bull.
There is a huge amount of stuff how about how things work in this book. He explains the basics of the New York Diamond trade. He has a long section on Hollywood stunt doubles. He uses their language to explain how they work. Paparazzies, bartenders, auctions, journalist, Venetian gondoliers, printers, casinos and on and on, all have a secret code they using talking to each other. His explanation of those codes is also an explanation of how they work.
Schott designed the typeface, layout, illustrations and design of this book. This is a beautiful book. A huge amount of stuff is clearly organized and presented. Appropriately, his section on typography is the best short introduction to it that I have ever seen.
Some sections go on a bit too long for me. I didn't need that much on spy jargon or U. S. politics. I did enjoy the pictures illustrating the hand signals including waiters in a busy restaurant, church ushers and insulting Italian hand gestures.
The entries are deliberately not in any discernable order. He eschews alphabetical order. There is no table of contents or index. This is a book for browsing. Browse and enjoy.
January 17, 2026
What a great compendium of oddly specific jargon and language from all corners of the world. I found the below particularly enlightening:
Gymspiration at the glorious house of gainz - the lore and language of the gym
As far as the arm can reach - A glossary of graffiti writing
The manosphere's dread game
Gymspiration at the glorious house of gainz - the lore and language of the gym
As far as the arm can reach - A glossary of graffiti writing
The manosphere's dread game
November 29, 2025
"If you know, you know" is one of the online world's more unlikeable phrases, but this book takes you to see how little you do know. We start in Venice, with the specific words and city slang involved with the industry of the gondolier. Next is the union-raddled block of credits at the foot of a standard movie poster and what the positioning and order tells you – at least one famous actor was quite ebullient about getting the "and". The variety continues, with not only the discrete hand signals of waiters at a certain venue, but also the ins (and ins and ins) and outs of competitive eating.
OK, some of this is completely unedifying – the world of trainer collecting, Taylor Swift. The 'fan' chapter later on is hard on the eyes, with both its terminology and existence alike definitely on the unappealing side. But some of this can raise unanswered questions – the creator of the CND logo saying it references a figure in a Goya painting, within which there is no figure in the stance he alleges.
But all of this is high-end trivia – chapters on one subject going into a topic at fairly great length, and all about things you'd not woken up expecting to be reading about. Vegas casino staff protocol (and coded signals about the better tippers) meets the semiotics of one of their own perhaps with a chapter about Dr No, and politics and journalism clash with the crafted world of the dog-walker's own patois.
To me this represented a welcome return to seeing Schott books, having not been aware of any new ones for a mighty long time. Here it's easier to just dump chapters you have no interest in (graffiti, perhaps) as opposed to the gallimaufry of many trivia bits we're used to, which actually might make this even more user-friendly. It certainly allows you to have a good level of fun from these pages, as usual.
OK, some of this is completely unedifying – the world of trainer collecting, Taylor Swift. The 'fan' chapter later on is hard on the eyes, with both its terminology and existence alike definitely on the unappealing side. But some of this can raise unanswered questions – the creator of the CND logo saying it references a figure in a Goya painting, within which there is no figure in the stance he alleges.
But all of this is high-end trivia – chapters on one subject going into a topic at fairly great length, and all about things you'd not woken up expecting to be reading about. Vegas casino staff protocol (and coded signals about the better tippers) meets the semiotics of one of their own perhaps with a chapter about Dr No, and politics and journalism clash with the crafted world of the dog-walker's own patois.
To me this represented a welcome return to seeing Schott books, having not been aware of any new ones for a mighty long time. Here it's easier to just dump chapters you have no interest in (graffiti, perhaps) as opposed to the gallimaufry of many trivia bits we're used to, which actually might make this even more user-friendly. It certainly allows you to have a good level of fun from these pages, as usual.
October 12, 2025
Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.
Schott's Significa is a nonfiction monograph by Ben Schott on jargon, language, and usage and how it intersects and is defined by subcultures. Released 7th Oct 2025 by Hachette on their Workman Publishing imprint, it's 304 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats.
Arranged as a collection of 53 glossaries/primers, the author turns his observations on the parlance and vocabulary of such disparate groups as Gondoliere, Taylor Swift fans, and Medical professionals. Each has specific and common language and Mr. Schott examines how the language is influenced and shifts over time.
It's fairly dry; it's a catalogue of words, arranged alphabetically, but fans of the author's work will find this a solid reference. It's not annotated, though there are chapter notes and references included in abbreviated form at the end of the book.
Four stars. It would be a good choice for public or school library acquisition, as well as a nice reference for die-hard word nerds.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes
Schott's Significa is a nonfiction monograph by Ben Schott on jargon, language, and usage and how it intersects and is defined by subcultures. Released 7th Oct 2025 by Hachette on their Workman Publishing imprint, it's 304 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats.
Arranged as a collection of 53 glossaries/primers, the author turns his observations on the parlance and vocabulary of such disparate groups as Gondoliere, Taylor Swift fans, and Medical professionals. Each has specific and common language and Mr. Schott examines how the language is influenced and shifts over time.
It's fairly dry; it's a catalogue of words, arranged alphabetically, but fans of the author's work will find this a solid reference. It's not annotated, though there are chapter notes and references included in abbreviated form at the end of the book.
Four stars. It would be a good choice for public or school library acquisition, as well as a nice reference for die-hard word nerds.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes
December 31, 2025
It's a beautiful book to read and peruse. Some of the subjects are perhaps more interesting to any individual reader than others, but overall it's a really wonderful celebration of insider languages.
October 23, 2025
This is a book to read and reread, casually pull down from the shelf before a specific activity. The world is filled with communities of baristas, medical professionals, dogwalkers, clothiers-every occupation and interest under the sun; and all have a secret language or code. Ben Schott reveals the specific brand of chatter with wit and visual entries so we all can be word buffs and armchair sociologists. (While reading about the signs and signals of restaurateurs, I paid more attention while dining).
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews