Webster’s New World Dictionary of Media and Communications, by Richard Weiner. Macmillan, NY , 678 pp. $27.95. [Click here to order]

It’s not just that the effort of compiling so comprehensive a work is itself monumental, it’s that the result is in every way so superb.

Richard Weiner is himself a rare individual (mine own mentor, I must disclose). One of the earliest members of the international public relations firm, Ruder & Finn, during its founding days in the 1950s, he is undoubtedly one of the all too few original thinkers in the business. There are not many things done today in the field – things we take for granted – that Dick didn’t invent, both at Ruder & Finn and then later at his own successful public relations firm. And not just stunts – but structures for publicity that had value in their own right. For a pen manufacturer, he invented the Handwriting Institute, to foster improving handwriting. For a fine paper manufacturer, he invented the Letter Writing Institute, to foster greater correspondence between friends and family. Common today perhaps, but when Dick did it, it was first, and unique, and successful. The word "legendary," used so easily about anybody who has survived a decade or two, genuinely applies to him – the legends about his public relations exploits and successes are awesome. It was he, for example, who turned the Cabbage Patch Doll into a phenomenal success. And perhaps most significantly, he was and is a great and generous (if demanding) teacher, as legions of us will happily attest.

No surprise, then, that he should have produced so meticulous, comprehensive, and accurate a book. There are (the press release reports) technical and slang terms in 28 fields, including advertising, computer, film, journalism, marketing, printing, public relations, radio, telecommunications, television, and theater.

There are 35,000 entries, with a global orientation that includes hundreds of British, Canadian, French, German, and Japanese words. There are abbreviations, acronyms, associations, awards, biographical dates, and several hundred major companies in the media and communications fields. There’s jargon, nicknames, and slang, and historical stuff, including 19^th century printing and publishing terms that are still in use.

The awesome statistics aside, the entries themselves are not only accurate and fulsome, but a joy to read. Witness – leg man, a reporter who gathers news and relays it to the writing and editing staff; also called a legman, legger, or leg person (less common, though nonsexist). The term is also used to describe a public relations practitioner, researcher, or anyone else -- including, of course, a woman – who assists in operations or functions on the job; leg refers to running "on the street" or in the field.

And so on. The problem is that you have to allow time to look a word up, simply because you get caught up in so many other intriguing definitions. Lemma (a term in a glossary, a proposition, or assumption. Did you know that?) Lede (the correct, original spelling [though it is rarely used] for lead, as used in journalism…). And that’s just a random sample from two facing pages.

The language of a subject isn’t of course, the subject itself, and knowing the jargon of a profession won’t make you a professional. But when your marketing director refers to a production add-on or an ADI, it’s nice to be able to go back to your office and figure out what he or she is talking about.

And if you just want to be ten percent smarter about marketing than you are now, sit down in a quiet corner and enjoy reading the Dictionary for the good book it is.