Readers of this listserv may be interested to know about Paul Dickson's A Dictionary of the Space Age.  This newest book published by Johns Hopkins University Press' New Series in NASA History is an unusually compelling, useful, and readable reference work.  A greatly updated and expanded version of The Origins of NASA Names (NASA SP-4402, 1976), this new volume by an experienced lexicographer employs an Oxford English Dictionary-style approach to explain the etymology and first usage of both familiar and esoteric aerospace terms of the last half-century.  More details, including ordering information, are at http://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/ecom/MasterServlet/GetItemDetailsHandler?iN=9780801891151&qty=1&viewMode=3&loggedIN=false&JavaScript=y online. 
 
Stephen Garber
NASA History Division
Mail Suite CO72, Room 2Q25
NASA Headquarters
Washington, DC 20546
202-358-0385
202-358-2866 fax
http://history.nasa.gov