Loose Cannons, Red Herrings, and Other Lost Metaphors [Paperback]

Robert Claiborne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2001

A colorful compendium of everyday words and phrases and where they originated.

The English language is a treasury of splendid mysteries, among them the many words and phrases whose origins we no longer know. Often the original meaning was literal, pertaining to forgotten objects or activities—such as "aftermath," which once meant the grass that sprang up after a farmer had mowed a field. With the informal scholarship and good-humored wit that are his trademarks, Robert Claiborne reveals the wonders buried in our speech, vivid images of people and customs of the past. As the reader soon discovers, they are "a sort of hidden poetry that can heighten the colors and sharpen the meanings of words and phrases that we read or write daily."

Editorial Reviews

Review

As surprising and endearing a collection of metaphors as you are likely to come across. -- Willard R. Espy, author of An Almanac of Words at Play

About the Author

The late Robert Claiborne was a longtime editor and writer and the author of a number of books on words and language.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (July 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039332186X
• ISBN-13: 978-0393321869
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #948,919 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars More lite! Less Filling!, August 6, 2004

By 

Jean E. Pouliot (Newburyport, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Loose Cannons, Red Herrings, and Other Lost Metaphors (Paperback)

For all of its snide tone and shortish explanations, "Loose Cannons, Red Herrings and Other Lost Metaphors" is enjoyable enough. The book relates the history of familiar phrases whose origins, due to changes in habits and technology, are lost to modern English speakers. Expressions like "it's raining cats and dogs," "taken aback," "minding one's Ps and Qs" (not to mention the expression about the brass monkey) are all included, along with short entries about their origins and sometimes original meanings. Who knew that a "rake" was short for "rakehell" -- a person so depraved that one would have to "rake through the coals of hell" to find his like?

Entertaining as it is, the book has drawbacks. First, some of its entries are not terribly convincing. Claiborne sometimes spends more time taking potshots at explanations he disagrees with than in advancing his own. Also, Claiborne's tongue is sometimes planted so firmly in his cheek, and his style is so snide and acerbic, that his point is obscured. Claiborne's politics and religious preferences (or lack thereof) also come out from time to time, with no benefit to the reader.

As an entertaining (if not always elucidatatory) work, "Loose Cannons" probably beats a dry, scholarly work on the origin of phrases, but reading it leaves me hungry for meatier fare.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A reference for the hidden poetry of our language, June 12, 2006

By 

A. Ryan "Merribelle" (Westminster, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Loose Cannons, Red Herrings, and Other Lost Metaphors (Paperback)

A metaphor is "A word or phrase used figuratively." That's fine for expressions such as "dyed in the wool" or "on the blink" but what about some single words - "disaster", "absurd", "salary" -how does Robert Claiborne figure those as metaphors? Loose Cannons, Red Herrings, and Other Lost Metaphors explains it all.

Surprisingly, a large portion of the words in our everyday usage are metaphors, whether we think of them that way or not. Sometimes these metaphors have origins in other languages; witness "fiasco", Italian for flask or bottle, connoting a mess in English due to its obscure theatrical slang. My favorite is the word "astonish", from the Latin *extonare*, meaning to strike with a thunderbolt. You can see how people would infer being, ahem, shocked from a word that literally meant "thunderstruck". By such associative methods do we owe much of our English vocabulary.

Of course, Loose Cannons also has a large helping of full phrased metaphors, as the title implies. It's not the most complete listing of its type that I've ever found, but they are all lost in the sense that a sizeable minority of people don't know, or probably couldn't guess, their origins. The stories behind them are colorful as well, the author admittedly preferring the more colorful etymologies where there was a choice.

I can respect that Mr. Claiborne concedes openly that many explanations are often merely educated guesses, and that his preferred versions may be incorrect. He invites readers to challenge his conclusions, provided they can do so from facts and not heresay or personal opinion. But he does cite very credible sources, primarily the Oxford English Dictionary and the Dictionary of American English on Historical Principles.

This is a fun book, written with an eye toward storytelling as much as historical trivia. A nice reference to have handy.
-Andrea, aka merribelle

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Charming and Educational, December 21, 2009

By 

Mike Robinson "Mike A Robinson: Apologetic An... (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Loose Cannons, Red Herrings, and Other Lost Metaphors (Paperback)

If you ever get stuck in slow traffic or at a long Red Light and AM Radio is cranking out 10 minute commercial breaks, and texting is outlawed while driving in your city, then do what I do. Keep this little volume on your passenger's seat to parouse forasmuch as it has short and delightful entries on Clichés and metaphors. "Loose Cannons and Red Herrings" dishes out history and linguistic and cultural background to innumerable notable phrases.

One can read two or three definitions as one waits at a stop light, thus you don't waste your time and you actually look forward to the next red light!

Some of the phrases and words defined are:

- Manna
- Hidebound
- Hem and haw
- High muck-a-muck
- Greenhorn
- Fabian
- Face the music
- clean as a whistle
- and copious other entries.

Alluring, charming, informative, and fascinating.