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The creation of the Oxford English Dictionary began in 1857, took seventy years to complete, drew from tens of thousands of brilliant minds, and organized the sprawling language into 414,825 precise definitions. But hidden within the rituals of its creation is a fascinating and mysterious story - a story of two remarkable men whose strange twenty-year relationship lies at the core of this historic undertaking. Professor James Murray, an astonishingly...
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Littlefield Adams quality paperbacks volume 121
Language
English
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This extensive reference volume presents the etymological history of thousands of English words.
The story of how words come to be is the story of how humans think, and how we fashion our civilizations. Words can be the product of long and intertwining histories, migrations from other languages, or new coinages of science or slang. This diversity of origins is part of what gives the English language its beauty and power.
In Dictionary of Word Origins,...
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Language
English
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Mountweazel n. the phenomenon of false entries within dictionaries and works of reference. Often used as a safeguard against copyright infringement. Peter Winceworth is a lexicographer in Victorian-era London, toiling away at the letter 'S' for a multi-volume Encyclopaedic Dictionary. Secretly, he begins to insert unauthorized fictitious entries into the dictionary in an attempt to assert some artistic freedom. In the present day, Mallory is a young...
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Word travelers volume 1
Language
English
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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.
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Language
English
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In day-to-day speech, we use words and phrases without a passing thought as to why we use them or where they come from. Max Cryer changes all that by showing how fascinating the English language really is. Did you know that the former host of Today, Jane Pauley, claims to have coined the term "bad hair day," or that a CBS engineer named Charley Douglass invented the name and use of "canned laughter" for television, or that "cold turkey" as a term...
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Language
English
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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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English
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Springing from writer and journalist Mark Forsyth's hugely popular blog The Inky Fool and including word-connection parlour games perfect for any word-lovers get-together, The Etymologicon is a brilliant map of the secret labyrinth that lurks beneath the English language.There's always a connection. Sometimes, it's obvious: an actor's role was once written on a roll of parchment, and cappuccinos are the same colour as the robes of a Capuchin monk....
Author
Language
English
Description
In this unique new history of the world's most ubiquitous language, linguistics expert David Crystal draws on 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 was written down in the fifth century ("roe," in case you are wondering). Featuring Latinate and Celtic words, weasel words and nonce-words, ancient words ("loaf") to cutting-edge...
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Word travelers volume 2
Language
English
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Eddie and MJ use ther 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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Language
English
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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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Series
Word travelers volume 3
Language
English
Description
"Are you ready for adventure? The third book in a new action-packed series from bestselling author Raj Haldar follows two best friends as they race to different parts of the world to solve mysteries and uncover lost treasures! They've signed the permission slips, the bus has finally arrived, and everyone has their imaginary imagination caps...but this year they'll also magically travel to France and find themselves at a famous modern art museum in...
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English
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Some 600 words and phrases from the world of sports that are now part of the vernacular. Terms from baseball, boxing, football, basketball, hockey, cricket and rugby pepper the English language, whether the subject is war (a maneuver in the Gulf War was called a "hail Mary play") to love (she's on the rebound). Baseball has given us southpaw, go to bat, coming out of left field, playing hardball. Boxers had to go the distance unless they were saved...
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English
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From apian (like a bee) to zodiac (little-animals circle), a word book that spots the animal origins of words and names
There are mice in your muscles, and blackbirds in your merlot. Behind adulation is a dog's wagging tail. Peculiar houses a herd of cattle. Grubby is crawling with bugs. Wordhound Martha Barnette collects more than 300 common (and a few not-so-common) words that have surprising animal roots. Tracing word origins back to ancient...
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Language
English
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1,000 food-related terms and expressions, ranging from old chestnut to red herring to fruitcake to couch potato. What has "ham" to do with overacting? Why does "nut" stand for a man's head and his gonads? Why do we say "Holy mackerel?" Quotations abound, from 4000 B.C. to the present. This book is addressed to foodies and word lovers.
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Language
English
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Description
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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Language
English
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"In Around the World in 80 Words, Jones tells the story of eighty English-language words that are specially related to a place. He tells us, for example, where the name for the Canary Islands came from, the relationship between the town of Jachymov in the Czech Republic and the word "dollar," and he dispels the myth that the term "limerick" comes from the last name of Edward Lear. Throughout this engaging journey, the reader gains valuable insights...
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