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Quinion Michael: Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins

Скачать книгу (размер 1 421 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 280) Аннотация: The cat's pajamas, the bee's knees, and the whole nine yards rolled into one, this true feast for wordlovers delightfully skewers commonly accepted word origin myths and etymological folk tales. The real story of a world or phrase's origin and evolution is often much stranger — and much more humorous — than the commonly accepted one; the many entries will certainly leave you happy as a clam.…

Quinion Michael: Port It, Starboard Home

Скачать книгу (размер 1 544 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 304) Аннотация: Can it really be true that 'golf' stands for 'Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden'? Or that 'rule of thumb' comes from an archaic legal principle that a man may chastise his wife, but only with a rod no thicker than his thumb? These and hundreds of other stories are commonly told and retold whenever people meet. They grow up in part because expressions are often genuinely mysterious. Why, for…