Author(s): Henry Beard

Languages and Reference

Spinglish - the devious dialect of English used by professional spin doctors - is all around us. And the fact is, until you've mastered it, politicians and corporations (not to mention your colleagues and friends) will continue putting things over on you, and generally getting the better of you, every minute of every day, without your even knowing it.

However, once you perfect the art of terminological inexactitude, you'll be the one manipulating and one-upping everyone else! And here's the beauty part: Henry Beard and Christopher Cerf, authors of the New York Times semi-best-seller The Official Politically Correct Dictionary and Handbook, have compiled this handy yet astonishingly comprehensive lexicon and translation guide - a fictionary, if you will - to help you do just that. If you want to succeed in business, or politics, sports, the arts, or life in general, without really lying, this is the book for you! (Your results may vary.)

Spinglish includes these nifty bits of spurious verbiage and over a thousand more:

Aesthetic procedure.
Face-lift.
Enhanced interrogation techniques.
Torture.
Hands-on mentoring. Sexual relations with a junior employee.
rightsizing.
Firing people.
Dairy nutrients.
Cow manure.
For your convenience.
For our convenience.
Incomplete success.
Failure.
Zero-tasking.
Doing nothing.

With each and every entry sourced from some of the greatest real-life language benders in the world today, you're virtually guaranteed to have the perfectly chosen tried-and-untrue term right at the tip of your forked tongue. Wish you could nimbly sidestep a question without batting an eye? Not sure how to apologize while also . . . not apologizing? Spinglish has you covered. Simply consult this convenient, shoot-from-the-lip glossary, and before you know it, you'll be telling it like it isn't, it wasn't, and it couldn't ever have been.

The experts agree . . .

'A definitive (and often hilarious) guide to affect-transformative truth-obfuscatory locutions (that is, euphemisms and other deceptive language).' Steven Pinker author of The Language Instinct and The Sense of Style

'This statement is one hundred percent free of spin: Spinglish proves, once again, that Henry Beard and Christopher Cerf are two of the funniest people in the world.' Andy Borowitz

'I never thought I'd say that a dictionary is a must-read, but Spinglish is a must-read. There, I've said it. It's also brilliant, funny, sophisticated, and subtle (although it made me laugh out loud).' Victor S. Navasky

'I only wish I had lived to read this incomparable book.' George Orwell