The Secret Lives of WordsHarcourt, 2000 - 296 páginas We are often unaware of the unique and intriguing stories of the words we love. Thousands of our words have been so twisted, tangled, misused, and muddled over the centuries that their original meaning has been obscured. You'll be surprised to learn that table napkins were once made of and referred to as asbestos, that atom means uncuttable, that a cloud was once a hill, and that a companion is one who eats bread with you. Compiled over the years in his handwritten notebooks, acclaimed prose stylist Paul West offers us an album of treasures. The Secret Lives of Words is an "Antiques Road Show" of language, in which West chronicles the centuries-long travels of words across continents and through cultures. For word enthusiasts, speakers, writers, thinkers, and all readers, this volume recounting the intimate ancestry of language will enrich our understanding of and appreciation for the words we use every day. |
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Página 44
... heard drunks in remote Derbyshire pubs howling , " I'll bloody well bloody you , you bloody lot , you bloody buggering bloodies . " The fourth word is a timely and appropriate verb , little that this inarticulate fellow knew it . Highly ...
... heard drunks in remote Derbyshire pubs howling , " I'll bloody well bloody you , you bloody lot , you bloody buggering bloodies . " The fourth word is a timely and appropriate verb , little that this inarticulate fellow knew it . Highly ...
Página 65
... heard someone wondering why a spider's web was called a cobweb , then snootily put down by someone else who said it just possibly might have something to do with the Middle English word for spider's being cop . This unusual word has ...
... heard someone wondering why a spider's web was called a cobweb , then snootily put down by someone else who said it just possibly might have something to do with the Middle English word for spider's being cop . This unusual word has ...
Página 126
... and mafioso , having suffered , it seems , from decades of ade- noids and postnasal drip , almost on its way to gumbo ( indeed , one version heard is gumbah ) . PAUL WEST GOSSAMER The etymology of gossamer seems incongruous : a good 126.
... and mafioso , having suffered , it seems , from decades of ade- noids and postnasal drip , almost on its way to gumbo ( indeed , one version heard is gumbah ) . PAUL WEST GOSSAMER The etymology of gossamer seems incongruous : a good 126.
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Términos y frases comunes
actually akin American ancient Anglo-Saxon Arabic ball became become blurb bread British called Cockney rhyming slang coined comes course cricket denote deriving dialect Diane Ackerman dictionaries diminutive doubt Dutch etymology famous fiction gluons Greek haps heard human idea idiom Indo-European indri invented Italian Janet language late Latin LIVES OF WORDS look meaning meant metaphor Middle English military mind modern Nazi never nineteenth century noun novel nowadays oddly Old English Old French Old Norse once origin PAUL WEST perhaps person phrase piropo plural poet prehistoric Germanic pudding quarks reference Rhesus rhyming Romans SCREW THE POOCH SCUZZ SECRET LIVES seems sense seventeenth century sixteenth century slang someone sometimes sound speech spin sure Syphilis teenth century term thing thought tion toast trying verb verbal Vulgar Latin whereas woman wonder word's write
Referencias a este libro
Dubious Doublets: A Delightful Compendium of Unlikely Word Pairs of Common ... Stewart Edelstein Vista de fragmentos - 2003 |