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Product Description
Good Book Guide, June 05
Written by the experts, this is choc-a-bloc with fun.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
What is an idiom? Among other things, it is an expression whose words do not mean what they say. Someone spilling the beans all over the table may make a mess, but spilling the beans all over town would mean something else entirely. Idioms are also inflexible - you can't hit about the bush or beat about the shrub, or say that the bush was beaten about. The English language contains a vast store of idioms that can be used in creative and forceful ways. This totally revised and greatly expanded edition examines over 500 such phrases, tracing each one's source and history through a rich supply of examples. New entries include playing fast and loose (from a 16th-century fairground game), head over heels (a totally illogical variation on the more sensible 'heels over head') and knee-high to a grasshopper (which won out over knee-high to a mosquito and knee-high to a toad). Mini-essays scattered through the book enable the authors to expand on such broader themes as: What is an idiom? National Rivalries, and The Old Curiosity Shop of Linguistics. While maintaining scholarly accuracy, Linda and Roger Flavell convey their great love of the curious in language in a way that will be irresistible to anyone who delights in words.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I am always wodering where idioms come from and now I have the answer. I am always dipping into this book.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
There's some awfully twaddle books on idioms about so finding this was delightful. It's readable, interesting and (so far as I can tell) accurate. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
For someone with a foreign in-law 'Dictionary of Idioms' is a must!
It's bad enough trying to explain simple English, but a 'lost cause' trying to explain our idiomatic speech-without the help of such a book. When 'the penny drops' on the quaint meanings behind idiomatic speech, much laughter as well as knowledge is generated.
B. Hewson
It's bad enough trying to explain simple English, but a 'lost cause' trying to explain our idiomatic speech-without the help of such a book. When 'the penny drops' on the quaint meanings behind idiomatic speech, much laughter as well as knowledge is generated.
B. Hewson
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Idiomaticly Speaking
This book is chocka full of Idioms,if like me your obsessed with the history of words and their meanings & phrases of everyday use then this book is for you. Read more
Published 7 months ago by B
Idioms
Amazing Book, Its interesting to find out where such sayings as " A Flash in the pan", and " Between the devil and the deep blue sea"to find out where the originate from. Read more
Published 14 months ago by chubley
Dictionary of idioms
The book arrived as expected. no surprises, very satisfied by the condition of the book.
As far as the book itself, I propose it, it is a good book, with a lot of idioms and... Read more
As far as the book itself, I propose it, it is a good book, with a lot of idioms and... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Kate
A truly fascinating book about language expression.
This fascinating book dares you not to pick it back up once you have put it down. If you weren't curious about idioms and there origins before you started to read this book, you... Read more
Published on 2 Jan 2001
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