Deconstructing the American language

Paul Dickson, a native of Yonkers, N.Y., has written more than 45 nonfiction books, including the recent “Labels for Locals: What to Call People from Abilene to Zimbabwe” and “Slang: The Topical Dictionary of Americanisms.”

In recent years, he has been concentrating on writing about baseball, 20th-century history and the American language. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University and has worked for McGraw-Hill Publications. He has been a freelance writer since 1968 and is a consulting editor at Merriam-Webster. He lives in Garrett Park with his wife Nancy.