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Language-in its communicative and playful functions, its literary formations and its shifting meanings-is a perennially fascinating topic. C. S. Lewis's Studies in Words explores this fascination by taking a series of words and teasing out their connotations using examples from a vast range of English literature, recovering lost meanings and analyzing their functions. It doubles as an absorbing and entertaining study of verbal communication, its pleasures...
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THEREBY HANGS A TALE Stories of Curious Word Origins Charles Earle Funk, Litt. D. PERENNIAL LIBRARY Harper Row, Publishers New York, Cambridge, Philadelphia, San Francisco London, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Sydney To B. M. F. Who patiently and often has listened to many of these tales, this book is lovingly dedicated. PREFACE THIS book Is the outcome of a collection of material that has been slowly accumulating over the past thirty years or...
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Description
Do you know why...a mortgage is literally a death pledge? ...why guns have girls' names? ...why salt is related to soldier? You're about to find out... The Etymologicon (e-t?-'mä-lä-ji-kän) is :Witty (wi-te\): Full of clever humor; Erudite (er-?-dit): Showing knowledge; Ribald (ri-b?ld): Crude, offensive. The Etymologicon is a completely unauthorized guide to the strange underpinnings of the English language. It explains: how you get from "gruntled"...
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Where do our everyday words come from? The bagel you eat for breakfast, the bumf you have to wade through at the office, and the bus that takes you home again: we use these words without thinking about their origins or how their meanings have changed over time. Simon Horobin takes the reader on a journey through a typical day, showing how the words we use to describe routine activities - getting up, going to work, eating meals - have surprisingly...
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To untangle the knot of interlocking meanings of these painted words, logophile and mythologist Phil Cousineau begins each fascinating word entry with his own brief definition. He then fills it in with a tint of etymology and a smattering of quotes that show how the word is used, ending with a list of companion words. The words themselves range from commonplace - like biscuit, a twice-baked cake for Roman soldiers - to loanwords including chaparral,...
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Words are essential to our everyday lives. An average person spends his or her day enveloped in conversations, e-mails, phone calls, text messages, directions, headlines, and more. But how often do we stop to think about the origins of the words we use? Have you ever thought about which words in English have been borrowed from Arabic, Dutch, or Portuguese? Try admiral, landscape, and marmalade, just for starters.
The Secret Life of Words is a wide-ranging...
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The world's foremost expert on the English language takes us on an entertaining and eye-opening tour of the history of our vernacular through the ages.
In The Story of English in 100 Words, an entertaining history of the world's most ubiquitous language, David Crystal draws on one hundred words that best illustrate the huge variety of sources, influences and events that have helped to shape our vernacular since the first definitively English word-'roe'-was...
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" Do you wake up feeling rough? Then you're philogrobolized. Find yourself pretending to work? That's fudgelling. And this could lead to rizzling, if you feel sleepy after lunch. Though you are sure to become a sparkling deipnosopbist by dinner. Just don't get too vinomadefied; a drunk dinner companion is never appreciated. The Horologicon (or book of hours) contains the most extraordinary words in the English language, arranged according to what...
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This A-to-Z etymology guide reveals the people and characters whose names have evolved into common English words.
Have you ever wondered about the origins of words like "Bowdlerize"? In 1818 Thomas Bowdler published and abridged set of Shakespeare's plays which "omitted those passages which might offend family propriety"-thereby making his name literally synonymous with the practice of distorting someone's words. In Word Origins, Cecil Hunt provides...
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Series
Word travelers volume 2
Description
Eddie and MJ use their awesome enchanted book to journey to Mexico, discover how Mexican culture has influences the English language, learn about local customs, and solve an exciting mystery.
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Series
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Why do we describe something as "A-1", "a lame duck", or "straight from the horse's mouth"? Why is someone's behaviour said to be "beyond the pale"? What is the original meaning of the word "treacle"? This book explores the intriguing origins and development of about 800 words and expressions in English.
The story of the development of English provides an endless source of fascination not only for native speakers but also for students of English as...
Author
Publication Date
2023.
Physical Desc
292 pages ; 22 cm.
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Description
"So many of the words that we use to chronicle women's lives feel awkward or alien. Medical terms are scrupulously accurate but antiseptic. Slang and obscenities have shock value, yet they perpetuate taboos. Where are the plain, honest words for women's daily lives? Mother Tongue is a historical investigation of feminist language and thought, from the dawn of Old English to the present day. Dr. Jenni Nuttall guides readers through the evolution of...
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Anglo-Saxon Keywords presents a series of entries that reveal the links between modern ideas and scholarship and the central concepts of Anglo-Saxon literature, language, and material culture.
• Reveals important links between central concepts of the Anglo-Saxon period and issues we think about today
• Reveals how material culture-the history of labor, medicine, technology, identity, masculinity, sex, food, land use-is as important as the history...
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Series
Word travelers volume 1
Description
Eddie and MJ are suddenly transported to India where they must use their word knowledge to solve a mystery and help their new friend Dev save his school.
20) Why do we say that?: 101 idioms, phrases, sayings & facts! A brief history on where they come from!
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Description
Collects 101 popular idioms and sayings and explains their origins and how their usage has changed over time.
"Like many people, you've probably used idioms or phrases like these without giving them a second thought. But if you were to take a moment to step back and learn about them you'll be pleasantly surprised to discover the mesmerizing and sometimes outright bizarre origins to these fun sayings! In Why Do We Say That, we have curated 101 of...




