Phraseology: Thousands of Bizarre Origins, Unexpected Connections, and Fascinating Facts about English's Best Expressions

by Barbara Kipfer PhD

Overview

The Amazing Secrets of the Phrases We Use Everyday

Phraseology is the ultimate collection of everything you never knew about the wonderful phrases found in the English language. It contains information about phrase history and etymology; unusual, lost, or uncommon phrases; how phrases are formed; and more than 7,000 facts about common English phrases.

Practical enough to be used as a reference book but so fun that every book lover will want to read it straight through, Phraseology contains such engrossing tidbits as:

• ACROSS THE BOARD is an allusion to the board displaying the odds in a horse race
• ARTESIAN WELL gets its name from Artois, where such wells were first made
• BEST MAN originated in Scotland, where the groom kidnapped his bride with the aid of friends, including the toughest and bravest - the best man.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781402247927
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	10/01/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	864 KB

About the Author

Barbara Ann Kipfer, PhD is the author of many list and reference books. Barbara has an MPhil and PhD in Linguistics from University of Exeter, a PhD in Archaeology, an MA in Buddhist Studies from Greenwich University, and a BS in Physical Education from Valparaiso University. A lexicographer and part-time archaeologist, Barbara is the managing editor of Lexico LLC.

Dr. Barbara Ann Kipfer is the author of more than 30 books, including the bestselling 14,000 Things to Be Happy About and several Roget’s Thesaurus’. She is the managing editor/chief lexicographer for Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com and has worked for such companies as Answers.com, Ask Jeeves, idealab, Mindmaker and Knowledge adventure. She lives in Ivoryton, Connecticut.

Editorial Reviews

Kipfer (Instant Karma) collects trivia and fascinating facts about commonly used or currently obsolete English words and expressions. Organized alphabetically, the entries run in length between a single sentence to an entire paragraph and boast an accounting of 7000 facts. Occasionally, eccentric trivia takes precedence over concrete definitions. Although favoring casual readers seeking enlightened entertainment, the book is still practical for etymological researchers. A perfect complement to Anu Garg's The Hidden Lives and Strange Origins of Common and Not-So-Common Words(Plume, 2007). Recommended for English and etymology collections.

—Savannah Schroll Guz

Library Journal