Editing Allen Walker Read (section)

== Career ==
He became a professor at the University of Chicago beginning in 1931, working on [[William Craigie]]'s ''Dictionary of American English''.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" /> Read's 1934 article in ''American Speech'', titled "An Obscenity Symbol", is a study of the word "fuck" from a sociological perspective. In 2014, [[Jesse Sheidlower]], the president of the [[American Dialect Society]], called it "the most important article" written about the term, noting that ironically, Read's 14-page essay avoided using the word directly, referring to it euphemistically instead.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Sheidlower |first=Jesse |date=2014-03-30 |title=Opinion {{!}} The Case for Profanity in Print |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/31/opinion/the-case-for-profanity-in-print.html |access-date=2022-03-08 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=2022-03-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220308003551/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/31/opinion/the-case-for-profanity-in-print.html |url-status=live }}</ref> 

=== ''Classic American Graffiti'' ===
Read's first extended work, ''Lexical Evidence from Folk Epigraphy in Western North America: A Glossarial Study of the Low Element in the English Vocabulary'', describes and collates examples of [[Latrinalia|bathroom graffiti]] observed by Reade on a road trip throughout the Western United States in 1928''.'' The book was privately published at his own expense in Paris in 1935, since its extensive inclusion of vulgarity was considered too obscene by American publishers.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Major |first=Clarence |date=1979 |title=Classic American Graffiti: Lexical Evidence from Folk Epigraphy in Western North America, A Glossarial Study of the Low Element in the English Vocabulary (review) |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/456054 |journal=Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=148–150 |doi=10.1353/dic.1979.0016 |s2cid=162293035 |issn=2160-5076 |access-date=2022-02-27 |archive-date=2018-06-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180601194829/http://muse.jhu.edu/article/456054 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Read |first=Allen Walker |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/3523105 |title=Classic American graffiti : lexical evidence from folk epigraphy in western North America : a glossarial study of the low element in the English vocabulary |publisher=Maledicta |year=1977 |isbn=0-916500-06-3 |location=Waukesha, Wis. |pages=28 |chapter=Bibliographical Note |oclc=3523105 |access-date=2022-02-27 |archive-date=2022-02-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220227223007/https://www.worldcat.org/title/classic-american-graffiti-lexical-evidence-from-folk-epigraphy-in-western-north-america-a-glossarial-study-of-the-low-element-in-the-english-vocabulary/oclc/3523105 |url-status=live }}</ref> Even then, the printing was limited to 75 copies and contained a disclaimer that it should be "restricted to students of linguistics, folk-lore... and allied branches of social science."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kulick |first=Don |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/53366822 |title=The handbook of language and gender |date=2003 |isbn=1-4051-2320-6 |editor-last=Holmes |editor-first=Janet |location=Malden, MA |pages=120 |chapter=Language and Desire |oclc=53366822 |editor-last2=Meyerhoff |editor-first2=Miriam |access-date=2022-02-27 |archive-date=2022-02-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220227223007/https://www.worldcat.org/title/handbook-of-language-and-gender/oclc/53366822 |url-status=live }}</ref> Read wrote in a foreword:<ref name=":4" /><blockquote>Judged merely as reading matter, the following work (apart from the Introduction) is abominably, incredibly obscene, and the compiler begs that any one will lay this book down who is not prepared to look at all social phenomenon with the dispassionate eye of the anthropologist and the student of abnormal psychology.</blockquote>It was eventually published in the United States in 1977, under the title ''Classic American Graffiti'', {{ISBN|0-916500-06-3}}, by [[Reinhold Aman|Reinhold Aman's]] Maledicta Press.<ref>{{Citation |last=Allan |first=Keith |title=The Semantics and Pragmatics of Three Potential Slurring Terms |date=2020 |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-981-32-9983-2_9 |work=Studies in Ethnopragmatics, Cultural Semantics, and Intercultural Communication |pages=163–183 |editor-last=Mullan |editor-first=Kerry |place=Singapore |publisher=Springer Singapore |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-981-32-9983-2_9 |isbn=978-981-329-982-5 |s2cid=210439517 |access-date=2022-02-27 |editor2-last=Peeters |editor2-first=Bert |editor3-last=Sadow |editor3-first=Lauren |archive-date=2022-02-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220227223009/https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-32-9983-2_9 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> The work was described as a prototypical "model study" of [[latrinalia]] that "deserves the attention of any serious student of American language" in a 1979 review, which noted that even then it remained hard to access and "excessively rare."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brunvand |first=Jan Harold |date=1979 |title=Classic American Graffiti by Allen Walker Read (review) |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/459038 |journal=Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature |volume=33 |issue=4 |pages=217 |issn=1948-2833}}</ref> It contains some of the earliest documentation in English of words used by the homosexual community, although Read never recorded the word "gay", implying that the term was not used to mean homosexual during this time period.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kulick |first=Don |date=2000-10-21 |title=Gay and Lesbian Language |url=https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev.anthro.29.1.243 |journal=Annual Review of Anthropology |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=243–285 |doi=10.1146/annurev.anthro.29.1.243 |issn=0084-6570 |access-date=2022-02-27 |archive-date=2021-07-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210715013416/https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev.anthro.29.1.243 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/20490067 |title=Displacing homophobia : gay male perspectives in literature and culture |date=1989 |others=Ronald R. Butters, John M. Clum, Michael Moon |isbn=0-8223-0970-X |location=Durham, N.C. |oclc=20490067 |access-date=2022-02-27 |archive-date=2022-02-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220227223010/https://www.worldcat.org/title/displacing-homophobia-gay-male-perspectives-in-literature-and-culture/oclc/20490067 |url-status=live }}</ref> The work also contained Read's concept of the ''inverted taboo'', in which some people delight in vulgarity because of its illicit nature.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dynel |first=Marta |date=2012-05-29 |title=Swearing methodologically : the (im)politeness of expletives in anonymous commentaries on Youtube |url=https://publicaciones.unirioja.es/ojs/index.php/jes/article/view/179 |journal=Journal of English Studies |language=en |volume=10 |pages=25–50 |doi=10.18172/jes.179 |issn=1695-4300 |access-date=2022-02-27 |archive-date=2022-02-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220223163610/https://publicaciones.unirioja.es/ojs/index.php/jes/article/view/179 |url-status=live |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hurlbut |first=Marilyn |date=1976 |title=Verbal Taboo in Shampoo |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20687332 |journal=Journal of the University Film Association |volume=28 |issue=3 |pages=35–38 |jstor=20687332 |issn=0041-9311  |access-date=2022-02-27 |archive-date=2022-02-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220227223011/https://www.jstor.org/stable/20687332 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Andrews |first=Edna |date=1996 |title=Cultural Sensitivity and Political Correctness: The Linguistic Problem of Naming |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/455713 |journal=American Speech |volume=71 |issue=4 |pages=389–404 |doi=10.2307/455713 |jstor=455713 |issn=0003-1283 |access-date=2022-02-27 |archive-date=2022-02-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220211124849/https://www.jstor.org/stable/455713 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

=== Other work ===
From 1938 onwards, he worked intermittently on a dictionary of [[British English|Britishisms]], but was never able to complete it during his life.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|last=Martin|first=Douglas|date=2002-10-18|title=Allen Read, 96, the 'O.K.' Expert, Is Dead |language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/18/nyregion/allen-read-96-the-ok-expert-is-dead.html|access-date=2020-11-26|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=2020-11-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201106161349/https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/18/nyregion/allen-read-96-the-ok-expert-is-dead.html|url-status=live}}</ref> During [[World War II]], he did his service with the [[Military Intelligence Division (United States)|Military Intelligence Division]], working on the ''American Military Definition Dictionary'' and ''Military Phrase Books.''<ref name=":1" /> He was a chaired professor at [[Columbia University]] in New York City from 1945 until 1974.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> In 1948, H.L. Mencken wrote that Read <nowiki>''probably knows more about early Americanisms than anyone else on earth.''</nowiki><ref name=":0" />

The origin of "OK", one of the most common English words, had been considered one of English's biggest etymological mysteries, with a number of competing theories.<ref name=":2" /> Read unveiled the actual origin of the word in a series of articles published in ''American Speech'' between 1963 and 1964.<ref>{{Cite web |title=October 24, 2002 – Allen Walker Read / 'O.K.' – 2002-10-23 |url=https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/a-23-a-2002-10-23-3-1-83111172/117929.html |access-date=2020-11-26 |website=VOA |date=23 October 2002 |language=en |archive-date=2020-11-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201123171634/https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/a-23-a-2002-10-23-3-1-83111172/117929.html |url-status=live }}</ref> This achievement was described as "the pinnacle of his career" to "envious fellow etymologists" by ''The Economist'', but Read considered it just "an agreeable diversion from his main work."<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |date=2002-10-24 |title=Allen Read |newspaper=The Economist |url=https://www.economist.com/obituary/2002/10/24/allen-read |access-date=2022-02-27 |issn=0013-0613 |archive-date=2018-02-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180221100050/http://www.economist.com/node/1403400 |url-status=live }}</ref> 

Read also successfully traced the origins of the words "dixie" and "podunk", and managed to attribute the first use of "the almighty dollar" to [[Washington Irving]]. He wrote the entry for "dictionary" in the [[Encyclopædia Britannica|''Encyclopaedia Britannica'']].<ref name=":0" /> Read's career included studies of euphemisms, [[graffiti]], [[slang]], [[pig Latin]], [[Doublespeak|doubletalk]], and [[Baby talk|adult baby talk]].<ref name=":0" /> He also had a professional interest in folklore and place names; he was a founder of the American Names Society and served as its president in 1969.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" /> 

Read served as the head of the [[International Linguistic Association]], and also as the President of the [[Semiotic Society of America]] in 1980.<ref name=":0" /> In 1987, Read turned over his work on Britishisms, consisting of more than 100,000 citations, to [[John Algeo]] for completion.<ref name=":3" /> At an advanced age, Read finally completed his doctorate at Oxford, receiving a D.Litt in 1988.<ref name=":3" />