Customer Reviews

The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, Second Edition (Facts on File Writer's Library)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I got this book based on some of the reviews I read and there are indeed many good entries. But there are so many more missing entries that are far more common than what it is listed.

Some of the entries I have looked for and NOT found:

Tomfoolery
can't have your cake and eat it too
can't see the forest for the trees
dog and pony show
in the doghouse
with bells on
hard-nosed
slowpoke
wisecrack

Or in the case of "high noon" it has an entry but just says that it is not from the movie, it was first recorded in 14th-century England. No further explaination of how or why. In fact many of the entries that are listed don't have that answer. A large percentage of the entries have some form of uncertainty.
"... is probably dated back to..."
"It is unknown how..."
"... may have it's origins in..."

The defintions of some of the phrases are confusing and don't even touch on origin. All I can do it list an entry on this one (NOTE: this is the complete entry):

beg to advise. The much-used phrase beg to advise, so often read in business letters, may be dated but isn't incorrect by any means. Here "advise" doesn't mean "to give advice" but "to give information," information being one of the meanings of advice. This is seen in another common business expression: "We would appreciate the benefit of your advice."

The index is also poor, it seems only to list the people who said the phrases not the actually phrases.

I recommend the Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins it has all of the phrases I couldn't find here. The index is great, it also list the root word of the phrase. So if I want "can't have your cake and eat it too" I could lookup the actual phrase or under "cake" it has a list of the phrases with cake in them.

Keep in mind this book has a lot of words and phrases that one doesn't, and that one has a lot this one doesn't, but that one has more of what you (or at least I) want.

Whether you are a died-in-the-wool word nut, or just a reader intrigued by a colorful expression, this is a work of endless fascination
Over 9,000 words and phrases are covered, from A to Zzz, of slang, proverbs, animal and plant names, nicknames of people, places, and things, historical and political expressions, foreign-language terms, literary allusions, and perhaps best of all, many references to Classical figures and usages of our common Western heritage.
Hendrickson regards this as a work-in-progress, and indeed, there are omissions (smarmy, paddy wagon, all hat and no cattle), and errors. (There certainly was a marijuana variety called Acapulco Gold, "antsy" was in use by the early 1960's, and this reviewer can demonstrate conclusively that armadillos can survive nicely north of Texas.) These are quibbles, however, and do not detract seriously from the merit and sheer usefulness of Hendrickson's work.
Recommended for the permanent bookshelf of lovers of the language and students of the culture.
(The numerical rating above is a default setting within Amazon's format. This reviewer does not employ numerical ratings.)

I don't think that a better description of this volume of English Language source material than the one in "Library Journal" can be found. Their reviewers called it witty and insightful and "useful to the general reader, and especially to the historian and student of language." To this I would add that it is also a great source of trivia to trip up one's spouse or drinking buddies.

I can't think of a better way to describe its contents than to give a few examples out of the 7,500 or so entries that I found interesting, or amusing, or both.

Being an American, I had never quite understood the difference between a solicitor and a barrister or exactly how these British attorneys related to their American counterparts. Now I do. A solicitor is a type of legal practitioner who does general legal work while a barrister is one who does trial work.

Now, for American Baseball fans: Do you know why "K" is the symbol for a strikeout? I didn't either, but now I do. Way back in the dark ages of baseball, when a batter struck out, it was said that he had "struck." Letters were used for scoring then just as they are now, but the letter "S" was already being used for sacrifice, so they assigned "K," the last letter of the word struck, to stand for "a player who missed the ball in three swings."

Here's one for our British cousins: "'S - - t' said the Queen." The following has never been proved but it makes a great story. Mark Twain and his good friend, Rudyard Kipling, had a contest to see who could make up the bawdiest and most offensive story, An effort of Kipling's which began with "'S - - t!' said the Queen" was brought to Queen Victoria's attention. She was not amused. This may explain why Kipling was never knighted and never became Poet Laureate.

There are at least two names in this encyclopedia for what I'm being in this review; "Smart Aleck" and "Wiseacre." I'm going to risk "getting your dander up" and be a real smart aleck by telling you that you'll have to find your own copy and look these up for yourselves if you want to know more about them. You'll probably have a lot of fun if you do.

Now in an updated and expanded fourth edition, The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins is a massive reference jam-packed with definitions and origins of more than 15,000 words and expressions. From "all gussied up" to "zoot suit", each entry offers plain, no-nonsense information about the history and usage of each phrase (or the best known theories of the phrase's origin). Highly recommended especially for public library reference collections. "Zombie was originally the snake god worshiped in West Indian voodoo ceremonies based upon the worship of the python god in West Africa. Since dead people were said to be brought to life in these ceremonies, such imagined corpses shuffling along half dead and half alive were called zombies. By the 1920s this word naturally became applied to any oafish 'dummy' without much intelligence or spirit. It is also the name of a cocktail that makes one feel like a zombie."

One of the only reference books that can be read from cover to cover for pure reading pleasure. A fine read.

I enjoy reading the entries in this book. It is perhaps my favorite etymological source, and far more interesting reading than the O.E.D.. The difficulty I have is that despite the other excellent works by the author, this one seems merely a work in progress, a bit removed from the vernacular. I have sought many confusing common-place expressions without discovering their origin in this book. A good system should be set forth for inquiries, which will enhance the book in the future. The simple site is burdensome to use, and suggests no means to contact the author directly.

Only one example of omission comes to mind at present (I haven't been keeping a list): After viewing a History Channel production of "Secret Passages" I was told that the tavern-lore term, "86", originated in the '20's speak-easy, Chumley's, at 86 Bedford Street in New York City. Initially, while the police raided the bar through the back door, regular customers were encouraged to "Go 86," which meant to flee through the front door. After repeated raids, hidden doors and passages allowed the favored customers to escape through other exits, leaving the tourists as bait for law enforcement. I looked up "eighty-six" in Hendrickson's book, but found no reference.

This is a much needed book, but it cannot yet be perceived as authoritative.

The intrigue arises because I cannot pick up this book without getting caught up in something on every page. It's truly fascinating and I'm reading about things that I never even knew I was interested in!

I have found his book to be very entertaining and informative. So much so thatI've given it three times as gifts to friends.

I bought this book for my husband as we are always trying to figure out the origins of words and phrases. This book is VERY in depth, we enjoy using it all the time.

This is a fun and educational book. It contains almost any phrase you can think of and where it originated.