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Devious Derivations: Popular Misconceptions--and More than 1,000 True Origins of Common Words and Phrases - Softcover
Synopsis
In this marvelously entertaining book, word maven Hugh Rawson rounds up 1,000 words and phrases whose origins are not what you might expect. Some wiseacre (the word has nothing to do with land measure) may have told you that a tip is given to a waiter "to insure promptness," or that S.O.S. stands for "Save Our Ship," or that hooker is a tribute to the character of Joseph Hooker, the Civil War general. Like hundreds of popular etymologies, these oft-repeated accounts are just too good to be true. Now Mr. Rawson punctures the myths, gives the real derivations, and along the way provides many insights into how language works.
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From the Back Cover
"There is no more avid, intrepid, and skilled word hunter at work today than Hugh Rawson. In Devious Derivations, he cuts through the tangle of confusing word origins and helps us discover who we are and whence we came."
-- Richard Lederer, "Looking at Language"
"This volume should take a place alongside that old favorite, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable -- close to the dining room table where they both can be turned to whenever mealtimes dissolve into etymological arguments." -- Washington Post Book World
"Hugh Rawson made a lot of literary friends with his previous Wicked Words (if you missed it, find a copy quick) and his newest foray into the English language is an absolute delight, the fruits of a learned man who has a gleam in his eye." -- Coast Book Review Service
About the Author
Hugh Rawson is the author of Wicked Words and A Dictionary of Euphemisms and Other Doubletalk. He is a member of The Authors Guild, and is Director of Penguin Reference Books.
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- PublisherThree Rivers Press
- Publication date1994
- ISBN 10 0517881284
- ISBN 13 9780517881286
- BindingPaperback
- LanguageEnglish
- Number of pages256
- Rating
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Devious Derivations: Popular Misconceptions--And More Than 1,000 True Origins of Common Words and Phrases
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Three Rivers Press (CA), 1994
ISBN 10: 0517881284
ISBN 13: 9780517881286
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Devious Derivations: Popular Misconceptions--and More than 1,000 True Origins of Common Words and Phrases
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