Safire's Political Dictionary

Safire's Political Dictionary is a lexicon of political terms and their origins. Many terms used in non-political contexts today have a surprising political etymology, as documented in this book. Containing nearly 1,800 terms within 1,400 entries, this book is a fascinating read, and an valuable reference manual.

This book is weak on social terms, however, while laden with terms of bureaucracy and those used by political officials. Terms like the "cufflinks gang" (early supporters of FDR) are featured in the book but not commonly used today. Terms that are frequently used today like "RINO" and "vaccine police" are missing from this book. Political terminology does change quickly, through no fault of this book's gifted author William Safire.

Some key terms are oddly missing from this book, such as "red diaper baby" (child of American communists, typically born between 1940 and 1970).

Safire was apparently fond of Shakespeare, referring to him 26 times and even linking some modern political terms (such as the pocket veto) to similar wording by Shakespeare.

This book was improved through five editions, its latest in 2008.

See also

• Essay:Best New Conservative Words
• Shakespeare