Overview

'Why do we say... ' is the question that lies behind every entry in CASSELL'S DICTIONARY OF WORD AND PHRASE ORIGINS. Why do we say a person makes money 'hand over fist' or is the 'spitting image' of someone else Why do we say 'the full monty' or 'don't teach your grandmother to suck eggs' These are the sort of questions that conventional dictionaries rarely answer, and that more specialised books all too frequently deal with in a cavalier fashion. This book, by contrast, takes an informed and wide-ranging approach to problems of etymology, challenging a few cherished theories on the way, and coming up with some surprising conclusions.

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9780304362257

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Nigel Rees is the author of over 50 books, including the Cassell Dictionary of Humorous Quotations and the Cassell Companion to Quotations. He is the deviser and presenter of BBC Radio's Quote'Unquote, through which he has become an authority on the popular use of language in slogans, catchphrases, cliches, idioms and quotations.

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