- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (Nov 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0060513314
- ISBN-13: 978-0060513313
- Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 13.6 x 1.5 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 727,098 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Synopsis
Explains how more than 400 colourful and original expressions originated and developed.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Everyone has seen the way a cat acts with a mouse that she has caught. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Everyone has seen the way a cat acts with a mouse that she has caught. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
9 reviews
60 of 65 people found the following review helpful
Too many sayings for which the author didnt know the origin!
6 May 1999
Format:Paperback
While many of the entries were interesting, too many were included for which the author admitted he could only guess, or had no idea at all of the origin. Even the title phrase, "Heavens to Betsy" was a complete mystery to the author. Why pique our interest and then disappoint us? I think the author had a good thing going with his first books and just tried to "ride the gravy train" a little too long.
32 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Basically a dictionary....
13 July 2001
Format:Paperback
I wanted to find out why we, as a society, say such things as "knock on wood" or "in one ear and out the other". Where does that come from? Who started it? I was extremely excited to purchase this book, thinking it would not only answer my questions, but be entertaining. It was a major disappointment. I found the reading very dull. The sayings were obviously well researched, giving origins, dates, and analizations of each words meaning; yet it was more like a dictionary than a story of how the sayings came about.
This book has been sitting in my bookcase since the day I bought it waiting for a rummage sale.
21 of 23 people found the following review helpful
horrible format
18 Oct 2003
Format:Paperback
*
the format of this book is the worst i could ever imagine.
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the sayings aren't in alphabetical order, and in no subject category or chapters.
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the title of the book's quotation (heaven's to betsy) couldn't be answered in regard to origination, after pages of writing and writing.
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the table of the contents is not useful. for example, "three sheets in the wind" shows page 81, so on page 81 you had to look all over the page to find it listed under a totally different listing. and then it STILL didn't even mention "3S2DW"'s origination.
*
another example, the first slogan is "to play cat and mouse with one" -- why in the world would that slogan be first?
*
maybe others aren't as particular as i am, but i would pass on this book. pass it on to an incinerator, that is.
the format of this book is the worst i could ever imagine.
*
the sayings aren't in alphabetical order, and in no subject category or chapters.
*
the title of the book's quotation (heaven's to betsy) couldn't be answered in regard to origination, after pages of writing and writing.
*
the table of the contents is not useful. for example, "three sheets in the wind" shows page 81, so on page 81 you had to look all over the page to find it listed under a totally different listing. and then it STILL didn't even mention "3S2DW"'s origination.
*
another example, the first slogan is "to play cat and mouse with one" -- why in the world would that slogan be first?
*
maybe others aren't as particular as i am, but i would pass on this book. pass it on to an incinerator, that is.
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