"Another day, another dollar," "There's no such thing as a free lunch," "Better to live one day as a tiger than a thousand years as a sheep," "There is more than one way to skin a cat"--readers will discover a wealth of pithy proverbs in this entertaining and informative collection. This unique dictionary contains more than 1,100 of the most widely used proverbs in English, based on research from the Oxford English Corpus, the world's largest language databank. This edition has been revised and fully updated and includes many new entries. With expanded coverage of foreign language proverbs currently in use in English and an emphasis on examples of actual usage, including the earliest evidence of each phrase, this dictionary is both wide-ranging and thorough. Arranged in A-Z format but with a valuable thematic index, this book is ideal for browsing and perfectly suited for quick reference. Find your old favorites or learn vivid and concrete new expressions to sum up thoughts, pass on advice, or to make a point.
A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)
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Editorial Reviews
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`Review from previous edition brilliantly arranged . . . I recommend it without hesitation to all students of the English language and lovers of literature, as well as to pedants, crossword fanatics and those who like to prove people wrong in argument.' Auberon Waugh, Sunday Telegraph
`much pleasure, earthy or erudite, and sometimes both, lies here in store' Richard Holmes, The Times
`much pleasure, earthy or erudite, and sometimes both, lies here in store' Richard Holmes, The Times
About the Author
Jennifer Speake is a freelance writer. She is the editor of the Oxford Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases (1997) and of the Oxford Dictionary of Idioms (1999). She lives in the UK.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not the beset for my purposes,
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This review is from: A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference) (Paperback)
This may be a good book for other types of writing or literary research. I bought it for possible inspirations for songwriting and found the content to be dated and unoriginal; many were too eclectic to be of any use - no one would have a clue what I'd be saying! But then I guess that what's proverbs are - old sayings that have been around forever. If you are interested in how and where sayings/proverbs originated, you'd give this book 5 stars. It just didn't work for my purposes.
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Inside This Book
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
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water babies, born loser, lions produce their own historian, sweep his own doorstep, cannot run with the hare, devil good morrow, foot upon twelve daisies, reed before the wind lives, clever hawk hides, dog than choking, bride that the sun shines, sharper the storm, ill bird that fouls, wanton kittens, measure seven times, calendar lore, kid excites, stey brae, kindness for three years, good horse cannot, mill cannot grind, grist that comes, cat than choking, cheap sitting, cherry year Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Washington Times, Washington Post, Scottish Proverbs, English Proverbs, Dialogue of Proverbs, Outlandish Proverbs, Poor Richard's Almanack, Don Quixote, Polite Conversation, Lark Rise, New York Times, National Review, Tom Fool, Daily Telegraph, Times Literary Supplement, New Scientist, Country Life, Italian Proverbs, Church Hist, Manchester Man, Piers Plowman, Hand-Book of Proverbs, Second Fruits, Garden of Pleasure, Dialogues of Dead Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
water babies, born loser, lions produce their own historian, sweep his own doorstep, cannot run with the hare, devil good morrow, foot upon twelve daisies, reed before the wind lives, clever hawk hides, dog than choking, bride that the sun shines, sharper the storm, ill bird that fouls, wanton kittens, measure seven times, calendar lore, kid excites, stey brae, kindness for three years, good horse cannot, mill cannot grind, grist that comes, cat than choking, cheap sitting, cherry year Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Washington Times, Washington Post, Scottish Proverbs, English Proverbs, Dialogue of Proverbs, Outlandish Proverbs, Poor Richard's Almanack, Don Quixote, Polite Conversation, Lark Rise, New York Times, National Review, Tom Fool, Daily Telegraph, Times Literary Supplement, New Scientist, Country Life, Italian Proverbs, Church Hist, Manchester Man, Piers Plowman, Hand-Book of Proverbs, Second Fruits, Garden of Pleasure, Dialogues of Dead Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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