"Win Blevins has long since won his place among the West's very best." - Tony Hillerman For the first time, The 'Dictionary of the American West' includes all the voices of America's richly woven history of the West: Women, Mormons, Hispanics, Blacks, French-Canadians, mountain men, half-bloods, immigrants, cowboys, and missionaries--to show how western speech is actually a riotous mix of cultures and languages. Included are Spanish, Indian Pidgin English, and Chinook trade jargon. That's why words like 'tortilla', 'simpatico', 'bourgeois' and 'muckamuck' have become as much a part of American parlance as dogie, salty dog, smart-aleck, and grub. Among the thousands of carefully researched definitions, the reader will find the meaning of 'buck nun' & to 'ride circle;' as well as American Indian words such as 'sun dance', 'kachina' & 'medicine pipe'. This book is essential for anyone with an interest in the American West, in its history, facts & fables, idioms & mores. Highly informative and endlessly entertaining, and accompanied by black-and-white illustrations, the Dictionary of the American West explains more than 5,000 terms and expressions in passages that pack a crossbuck saddle's worth of American frontier history and wit. Win Blevins is an American author of historical fiction, narrative non-fiction, historical fantasy, and non-fiction books, as well as short stories, novellas, articles, reviews, and screenplays. He has written many books about the western mountain trappers, and is known for his "mastery of western lore." His notable works include Stone Song, So Wild a Dream, and Dictionary of the American West. According to WorldCat, the Dictionary of the American West is held in 728 libraries. Blevins has won numerous awards, including being named winner of the Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Achievement in writing literature of the West, being selected for the Western Writers Hall of Fame, being twice named 'Writer of the Year' by Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers, and winning two Spur Awards for Best Novel of the West.