Success! (Re: Good slang/idiom dictionary?)

[Rebecca Merck <Rebecca -dot- Merck -at- ONESOFT -dot- COM>]

A thousand thanks to Ann Howell, who found the following information on
"neck of the woods":

Q. I'm curious as to how one's locality became associated with a neck of the
woods. Does the neck in this phrase indicate a specific geographical
condition, or has it always just meant a non-specific locality? And if the
first is true, how did we come to use the latter? Thanks for such a fun and
well-run page, by the way.

A. This is an American phrase which originally referred to a forest
settlement. It appears in print as early as 1850. Exactly why a forest
settlement was thought of as a neck is not clear, although it may be that
such a settlement  was considered an extension of another settlement. It is
not difficult to see how the change from 'forest settlement' to 'particular
region or neighborhood' occurred over time.

http://bay1.bjt.net/~melanie/et_n-p.html#neckof

I will compile a list of slang/jargon dictionaries and sources that I
received from everyone, though, and post them back to the list.

Thank you again to EVERYONE for your suggetions!

-Rebecca


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