A Browser's Dictionary A Compendium of Curious Expressions and Intriguing Facts

Ciardi, John:

ISBN 10: 0060107669 / ISBN 13: 9780060107666

Published by HarperCollins 01.08.1980., 1980

About this Item

430 Seiten Fresh and clean hardcover copy in good condition with original dustjacket. Frisches und sauberes Hardcover-Exemplar in gutem Zustand mit Original-Schutzumschlag. "This book, the author writes, is for browsers, for those who will be pleased to ramble beyond the standard dictionaries to a more intimate conversation with words and phrases and their origins and shifting histories. It is not possibleI will not live long enoughto treat all the words and idioms in American-English use. By limiting the number of entries, I have tried to discuss more fully those terms that are most interesting, and I have been flatly subjective in my choices. A term is interesting if it interests me, for only out of my own interest can I make these word histories interesting to a readerand informative, and readable. This dictionary is meant for readingnot necessarily in sequence, and not at a gulp, but browsingly, to pick up, to sample, to put down, and then, I hope, to pick up again, and maybe even again. Now and then I have had to correct some of our standard dictionaries, but never in rancor. The reader who cares to check for himself the method of my disagreement with the master tomes may browse such specimen entries (and disagreements) as cheapskate, galley west, ghetto, honeymoon, kangaroo court, lead pipe cinch, nincompoop, posh, sycophant, and Yankee." - Backflap ISBN 9780060107666 Sprache: Englisch Gewicht in Gramm: 833.

Seller Inventory # 1196864

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Browser's Dictionary A Compendium of Curious Expressions and Intriguing Facts
• Publisher: HarperCollins 01.08.1980.
• Publication Date: 1980
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060107669
• ISBN 13: 9780060107666
• Binding: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Condition: Sehr gut
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Weight: 833 grams
• Seller catalogs:
  • Varia

About this title

Synopsis

The noted American poet shares hundreds of intriguing stories, legends, facts, and fallacies about the origins and histories of words and phrases in the English language

From the Publisher

Esteemed poet, translator, critic, and author of children's books, John Ciardi devoted a good part of his later literary career to the "word rambles" that, collected in his Browser's Dictionaries, take us on a wonderfully winding path through the landscape of language. His three compendiums of curious expressions and intriguing facts are enlivened by a reader's inquisitiveness and a writer's ingenuity. In these pages you'll discover the bitter herb at the root of sardonic, the Biblical fly in the ointment, what provides the pleasure in happy as a clam, and hundreds of other insights into our linguistic heritage. Also available in Common Reader Editions: A Second Browser's Dictionary and A Third Browser's Dictionary.