SCHOTT'S SIGNIFICA

A sprightly assortment of insider lingo and esoterica drawn from a host of subcultures.

With his 2002 book Schott’s Original Miscellany, Schott launched a peculiar cottage industry by sharing obscure details and terminology from a variety of sources, from martinis to the military. This hefty and colorful ersatz encyclopedia is filled with deep dives on communities from Swifties to reality-TV producers to crypto bros and more. Though it doesn’t announce itself as such, the book is largely a kind of passkey into the world of luxe living: Schott reveals the inside chatter of sommeliers (a big spender on wine is “dropping the hammer”), fine art auctioneers (a “white glove sale” means every lot has sold), and Savile Row tailors (“W.F.B.” cloth is fit for weddings, funerals, and bar mitzvahs). But he recognizes every in-group has its own brand of chatter, including graffiti artists, Starbucks baristas, sneaker collectors, and dog walkers. Best of all is when Schott can merge high and low communities: A virtuosic chapter explores the terminology of fox hunters as well as “sabs,” the animal-liberation saboteurs who covertly undermine the hunts. (Hunter language is printed in black, sab language in red.) Throughout, Schott cultivates a wry, bemused tone, with a finely tuned ear for terms that are thick in irony (among stuntpersons, a well-performed fall is a “wreck”) and occupational gallows humor (doctors and nurses call gonorrhea, aka the clap, a “round of applause”). There are also well-done visual entries explaining the gestures of trading-floor workers, restaurateurs, and protesters. The glossaries don’t always engage the casual reader—only a gondolier would care to know so much about the profession—but the book is largely inspiring, suggesting the world is filled to bursting with communities with their own secret codes.

An engrossing compendium for word nerds and armchair sociologists alike.