Why do people "take 40 winks" and not 50...or 60, or 70? Did someone literally "let the cat out of the bag" at one point in time? Has anyone actually "gone on a wild goose chase"? Find out the answers to these questions and many more in this enormous collection, comprised of four bestselling titles: A Hog on Ice, Thereby Hangs a Tale, Heavens to Betsy! and Horsefeathers and Other Curious Words. Dr. Funk, editor-in-chief of the Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary Series, reveals the sometimes surprising, often amusing, and always fascinating roots of more than 2,000 vernacular words and expressions. From "kangaroo court" to "one-horse town", from "face the music" to "hocus-pocus," it's an entertaining linguistic journey.
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57 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Let The Cat Out of The Bag!,
This review is from: 2107 Curious Word Origins, Sayings and Expressions from White Elephants to a Song & Dance (Hardcover)
Oh Horsefeathers! Get the word out! This book is over 900 pages of entertaining trivia of cliches, word origins, historic events, classical literature, and even frontier humor plus MORE! Author, Charles Earie Funk, (yes of Funk & Wagnalls fame) has included four previous bestselling titles, "A Hog On Ice", "Thereby Hangs", "A Tale", "Heavens To Betsy", and "Horsefeathers". I always enjoy referring back to this fun book. It also makes for a good ice-breaker at a party or even a family gathering. Want to distract pinch-cheeking Auntie Rose? Let her have a gander at "2107 Curious Word Origins, Sayings and Expressions". Warning--once you start thumbing through this, you'll be speaking in cliches for days! Superb educational fun for all ages. -CDS-
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not the Best Hard to follow,
By GixxxerKim (Long Island, NY USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: 2107 Curious Word Origins, Sayings and Expressions from White Elephants to a Song & Dance (Hardcover)
You know those books that use too many of these. . . 1888 (ci) [belg.] having to do with or related to: (types of) {relative to}. . . Kinda hard to follow with all that jargon. Simple phrases aren't in there. Index doesn't really organize the words or phrases well. It is almost written like a dictionary but not in alphabetical order. The book didn't focus on phrases as much as it did single words like "cannibal" and "catacomb" and so on.
Not what I expected (very big and bulky book). I reccomend Heavens To Betsy & Other Curious Sayings but since the republishing of it (2002) it seems it has changed. Oh well
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not What I Was Expecting,
By Viper (NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 2107 Curious Word Origins, Sayings and Expressions from White Elephants to a Song & Dance (Hardcover)
While this book is interesting, it was not what I was expecting. I was looking for a book that was more about expressions in the form of phrases. While there are some within, the majority were just explanations of single words. Not exactly what I was looking for.
Another thing, this book is very thick, which is something that I wasn't expecting either. No big deal, but something to keep in mind for others like myself who don't have a lot of storage space for such things. Don't get me wrong, the book is good for what it is, as long as you know what you're getting. I apparently didn't.
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