Word Play: A cornucopia of puns, anagrams and other contortions and curiosities of the English language

Word Play: A cornucopia of puns, anagrams and other contortions and curiosities of the English language

by Gyles Brandreth
Word Play: A cornucopia of puns, anagrams and other contortions and curiosities of the English language

Word Play: A cornucopia of puns, anagrams and other contortions and curiosities of the English language

by Gyles Brandreth

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Overview

'No matter how eloquently a dog may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were poor but honest.'
Only words can do that. Words are magic. Words are fun.

Join Gyles Brandreth - wit and word-meister, Just A Minute regular, One Show reporter, denizen of Countdown's Dictionary Corner, founder of the National Scrabble Championships, patron of The Queen's English Society, QI, Room 101,Have I Got News For You and Pointless survivor - on an uproarious and unexpected magic carpet ride around the awesome world of words and wordplay.

Puns, palindromes, pangrams, Malaprops, euphemisms, mnemonics, acronyms, anagrams, alphabeticals, Tweets, verbiage, verbarrhea - if you can name it, you should find it here, along with the longest, shortest, wittiest, wildest, oldest, latest, oddest, most interesting and most memorable words in the English language - the richest, most remarkable language ever known.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781473620292
Publisher: Hodder
Publication date: 10/25/2016
Pages: 400
Product dimensions: 5.10(w) x 7.70(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Gyles Brandreth is a word fanatic. Founder of the National Scrabble Championships and President of the Association of British Scrabble Players, Gyles has appeared on every word-based radio and TV game show and is a regular visitor to 'Dictionary Corner'.

He is a former MP and is now well known for being a regular reporter on BBC1's The One Show and a regualar on Radio 4's Just A Minute. He also appears on panel programmes such as QI and Have I Got News for You.

Table of Contents

xiii

A is for Alphabet Soup 18

B is for Brave New Words 26

C is for Collecting Collectives 40

D is for Double Bubble 43

E is for Elliptical Kiss 49

F is for Franglais Spoken Here 56

G is for Goldwynisms 65

H is for Heritage 75

I is for Incomprehensible Problem In Chinese 80

J is for Jumbo 87

K is for Knapsack Strap 97

L is for Lipograms 104

M is for Mix Me a Metaphor 111

N is for Nostalgia (And Novelty) 115

O is for Oll Korrect, Ok? 125

P is for Portmanteaus & Telescopes 127

Q is for Q Without U and I Before E 131

R is for Rejection 136

S is for Seven Words of Wisdom 145

T is for Texts & Telegrams 149

U is for Unmentionables 163

V is for Verbarrhea 168

W is for What's in a Name? 173

X is for Xeme 184

Y is for Your Very Good Health 192

Z is for Zap! 196

Y is for You Go Uruguay and I'll Go Mine 198

X is for X Marks the Spot 205

W is for the World Wide Web 210

V is for Victorian Amusements 216

U is for Uppers and Downers and U and Non-U 231

T is for Typos and Howlers 235

S is for Saippuakauppias 243

R is for Rules of the Game 249

Q is for Queue in Line 256

P is for Potted Poetry 261

O is for Oscar Hocks and Porridge 272

N is for Never Say Die 280

M is for Mnemonics, Don't Forget 283

L is for Letters Play 287

K is for Kummerspeck 295

J is for Jargon 301

I is for Instant Sunshine 308

H is for Hear Ear'ere Here! 312

G is for Geography Lesson 319

F is for Food, Glorious Food 326

E is for Enigma Variations 333

D is for Dorothy And Friends 340

C is for Crosswords 348

B is for Brevity 353

A is for All's Well That Ends Well 355

364

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