MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin project that shows regional differences in how Americans use the English language is running low on money.

The Dictionary of American Regional English, known by the acronym DARE, was founded at the University of Wisconsin-Madison more than a half-century ago. The dictionary pulls together regional words from 1,002 communities across the country, drawn from newspapers, maps, diaries and obituaries as well as from Americans who fill out a survey.

The dictionary has survived previous financial crises. But this time, the project will begin the fiscal year in July with a little under $100,000, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. That’s not even 20 percent of its usual annual budget.

Chief editor Joan Houston Hall, who has devoted almost 40 years to the project, recently sent layoff and nonrenewal notices to all five staffers, including herself.

“I believe in this project. It has been an important gift to the nation and there is still work to be done,” Hall added.

Planned in 1963 by its first editor Frederic Gomes Cassidy, the project stretched far beyond its first deadline of 1976, and even beyond Cassidy’s death in 2000.

Discovering such words and preserving them has practical applications.

Dr. Douglas Kelling, an internist in Concord, N.C., said he became convinced of the value of DARE from hearing unusual expressions used by his patients.

A couple of months ago, Kelling was examining an 80-year-old woman when the patient turned to him and said: “Doc, how’s my ticklebox?”

The doctor asked what she meant by “ticklebox.”

“Well, my heart, course,” the woman answered.

In almost 40 years of practice, the doctor has heard patients use the terms “Smiling Mighty Jesus,” for spinal meningitis, “fireballs of the uterus” for fibroids of the uterus and “old-timer’s disease” for Alzheimer’s disease.

“And that’s just a small sample of the phrases I’ve run into,” Kelling said.