Phraseology: Thousands of Bizarre Origins, Unexpected Connections, and Fascinating Facts about English's Best Expressions | 
 enlarge | Author: Barbara Ann Kipfer
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $9.57
You Save: $5.38 (36%)
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Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 660401
Media: Paperback
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.1
ISBN: 1402212879
Dewey Decimal Number: 428
EAN: 9781402212871
ASIN: 1402212879
Publication Date: October 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
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Product Description
pbThe Amazing Secrets of the Phrases We Use Everyday/b/p pPhraseology is the ultimate collection of everything you never knew about the wonderful phrases found in the English language. It contains information about phrase history and etymology; unusual, lost, or uncommon phrases; how phrases are formed; and more than 7,000 facts about common English phrases./p pPractical enough to be used as a reference book but so fun that every book lover will want to read it straight through, Phraseology contains such engrossing tidbits as:/p ul liACROSS THE BOARD is an allusion to the board displaying the odds in a horse race/li liARTESIAN WELL gets its name from Artois, where such wells were first made/li liBEST MAN originated in Scotland, where the groom kidnapped his bride with the aid of friends, including the toughest and bravest - the best man./li /ul
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| Customer Reviews:
 Didn't quite live up to the subtitle December 2, 2008
Luanne Ollivier
Oh, Phraseology is a trivia buff's dream. Or anyone who loves words and language. My son is of the first persuasion. He loves books like this and promptly snagged it. br /Phraseology is one of those books you want to share. I had just as much fun listening to him quiz me on phrases as he did reading it. Some I knew, but some were complete surprises. br / br /Here's a few to whet your appetite - br / br /"To skin a cat" - comes from removing the tough skin from a catfish prior to cooking. br / br /"Fit to be tied" - refers to being insane and bound, as in a straight jacket tied to the body. br / br /This is a great book to leave on the coffee table - it can be picked up and read at whim. br / br /I enjoyed the origin phrases, such as those listed above, the most. Some entries read more like dictionary entries that most people would already know, such as lie detector and celery seed. Some of the facts I found a bit uninspiring - "Asian elephants are smaller than African elephants". Based on the subtitle, I was looking for entries that were more 'bizarre', 'unexpected' and 'fascinating'. Still, this is a fun book to have around the house. br /
Vast amounts of words; lacking information November 23, 2008
Kaeli Vandertulip (Irving, TX USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Phraseology is a dictionary of phrases, defining evrything from dermagraphism (a hickey) to wild card. Often, the definition is assumed to be known (as in Waldorff salad), and so the basic origin of the word is given. More often, though, a brief definition is given without giving any information as to its etmology. Whereas books such as Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins will give a very detailed history of a few words, this book gives a cursory explanation for thousands of words (more than 7000 according to the back of the book). There were a number of aggrivating features to this book. First, I can get more information about word origins and even meanings from the OED. Second, the order of the words seems random. Sometimes the word is listed right where it ought to be (Waldorff salad is in the Ws) and other times, you have to guess (Quahog is under Hard Shelled Clam); there is little authority control. Finally, it's just not interesting to dip into. Most etymology books are either entertaining and brief or are very detailed. This, unfortunatly, is neither. It seems the author bit off more than she could chew. Rather than finding an index card worth of information on the words, she barely found a post-it note.
 Possibly one of the worst books ever November 18, 2008
John R. Schweitzer (Clayton, NC, USA)
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
My expectations of this book were that it would be an informative explanation of the origins of common phrases or, at least, a useful reference book. It turned out to be a disjointed pile of data with little or no information. It consists of a randomly selected group of words and phrases, each accompanied by a short, usually meaningless, note. Some notes are a partial definition, many are a somewhat pedantic lecture on proper grammatical usage, some are merely a date when the phrase (allegedly) first apeared. Many of the attempts to explain the meaning and/or origin of phrases are, in my opinion and experience, patently incorrect. In the spirit of fairness, the book may improve in later sections; I only read to the "C" entries before I threw the book across the room in frustration. The book was very effective at scaring the cat.
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