The Cabinet of Linguistic Curiosities A Yearbook of Forgotten Words
On the day on which flirting was banned in New York City, for instance, you'll discover why to "sheep's-eye" someone once meant to look at them amorously. On the day on which a disillusioned San Franciscan declared himself Emperor of the United States, you'll find the word "mamamouchi," a term for people who consider themselves more important than they truly are. And on the day on which George Frideric Handel completed his 259-page Messiah after twenty-four days of frenzied work, you'll see why a French loanword, literally meaning "a small wooden barrow," is used to refer to an intense period of work undertaken to meet a deadline. The English language is vast enough to supply us with a word for every occasion--and this linguistic "wunderkammer" is here to prove precisely that. So whatever date this book has found its way into your hands, there's an entire year's worth of linguistic curiosities waiting to be found.
Publisher Name | University of Chicago Press |
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Author Name | Hagendorf, Col |
Format | Audio |
Bisac Subject Major | REF |
Language | NG |
Isbn 10 | 022664670X |
Isbn 13 | 9780226646701 |
Target Age Group | min:NA, max:NA |
Dimensions | 00.86" H x 00.05" L x 80.00" W |
Page Count | 384 |
Paul Anthony Jones is a writer, etymologist, and language blogger. He is the author of several books on language, including, most recently, The Accidental Dictionary. He shares his linguistic discoveries via the Twitter account @HaggardHawks, which was named one of Twitter's best language accounts by Mental Floss. He lives in Newcastle upon Tyne.