A Dictionary of American Proverbs

A Dictionary of American Proverbs PDF Author: Wolfgang Mieder
Publisher: New York : Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195053990
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 1348

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Book Description
Americans have a gift for coining proverbs. "A picture is worth a thousand words" was not, as you might imagine, the product of ancient Chinese wisdom -- it was actually minted by advertising executive Fred Barnard in a 1921 advertisement for Printer's Ink magazine. After all, Americans are first and foremost a practical people and proverbs can be loosely defined as pithy statements that are generally accepted as true and useful. The next logical step would be to gather all of this wisdom together for a truly American celebration of shrewd advice.A Dictionary of American Proverbs is the first major collection of proverbs in the English language based on oral sources rather than written ones. Listed alphabetically according to their most significant key word, it features over 15,000 entries including uniquely American proverbs that have never before been recorded, as well as thousands of traditional proverbs that have found their way into American speech from classical, biblical, British, continental European, and American literature. Based on the fieldwork conducted over thirty years by the American Dialect Society, this volume is complete with historical references to the earliest written sources, and supplies variants and recorded geographical distribution after each proverb.Many surprised await the reader in this vast treasure trove of wit and wisdom. Collected here are nuggets of popular wisdom on all aspects of American life: weather, agriculture, travel, money, business, food, neighbors, friends, manners, government, politics, law, health, education, religion, music, song, and dance. And, to further enhance browsing pleasure, the editors have provided a detailed guide to the use of the work. While it's true that many of our best known proverbs have been supplied by the ever-present "Anonymous," many more can be attributed to some very famous Americans, like Ernest Hemingway, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain, J. Pierpont Morgan, Thomas Alva Edison, Abigail Adams, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, to name but a few offered in this fascinating collection.Who wouldn't want to know the origin of "the opera ain't over till the fat lady sings?" This uniquely American proverb and many more are gathered together in A Dictionary of American Proverbs. A great resource for students and scholars of literature, psychology, folklore, linguistics, anthropology, and cultural history, this endlessly intriguing volume is also a delightful companion for anyone with an interest in American culture.

A Dictionary of American Proverbs

A Dictionary of American Proverbs PDF Author: Wolfgang Mieder
Publisher: New York : Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195053990
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 1348

Get Book Here

Book Description
Americans have a gift for coining proverbs. "A picture is worth a thousand words" was not, as you might imagine, the product of ancient Chinese wisdom -- it was actually minted by advertising executive Fred Barnard in a 1921 advertisement for Printer's Ink magazine. After all, Americans are first and foremost a practical people and proverbs can be loosely defined as pithy statements that are generally accepted as true and useful. The next logical step would be to gather all of this wisdom together for a truly American celebration of shrewd advice.A Dictionary of American Proverbs is the first major collection of proverbs in the English language based on oral sources rather than written ones. Listed alphabetically according to their most significant key word, it features over 15,000 entries including uniquely American proverbs that have never before been recorded, as well as thousands of traditional proverbs that have found their way into American speech from classical, biblical, British, continental European, and American literature. Based on the fieldwork conducted over thirty years by the American Dialect Society, this volume is complete with historical references to the earliest written sources, and supplies variants and recorded geographical distribution after each proverb.Many surprised await the reader in this vast treasure trove of wit and wisdom. Collected here are nuggets of popular wisdom on all aspects of American life: weather, agriculture, travel, money, business, food, neighbors, friends, manners, government, politics, law, health, education, religion, music, song, and dance. And, to further enhance browsing pleasure, the editors have provided a detailed guide to the use of the work. While it's true that many of our best known proverbs have been supplied by the ever-present "Anonymous," many more can be attributed to some very famous Americans, like Ernest Hemingway, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain, J. Pierpont Morgan, Thomas Alva Edison, Abigail Adams, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, to name but a few offered in this fascinating collection.Who wouldn't want to know the origin of "the opera ain't over till the fat lady sings?" This uniquely American proverb and many more are gathered together in A Dictionary of American Proverbs. A great resource for students and scholars of literature, psychology, folklore, linguistics, anthropology, and cultural history, this endlessly intriguing volume is also a delightful companion for anyone with an interest in American culture.

Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs & Sayings

Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs & Sayings PDF Author: Gregory Titelman
Publisher: Random House Reference
ISBN:
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 490

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Book Description
An annotated reference of more than 1,500 proverbs and sayings of the American language.

The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs

The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs PDF Author:
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300136021
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
Collects more than 1,400 English-language proverbs that arose in the 20th and 21st centuries, organized alphabetically by key words and including information on date of origin, history and meaning.

Dictionary of Authentic American Proverbs

Dictionary of Authentic American Proverbs PDF Author: Wolfgang Mieder
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1800731310
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Dictionary of Authentic American Proverbs offers a comprehensive reference guide for distinctly American proverbs. Compiled by Wolfgang Mieder, a key figure in the field of proverb studies, this compendium features nearly 1,500 proverbs with American origins, spanning the 17th century to present day, including a scholarly introduction exploring the history of proverbs in America, the structure and variants of these proverbs, known authors and sources, and cultural values expressed in these proverbs. Along with a comprehensive bibliography of proverb collections and interpretive scholarship, this dictionary offers a glimpse into the history of American social and cultural attitudes through uniquely American language.

Early American Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases

Early American Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases PDF Author: Bartlett Jere Whiting
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674219816
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 626

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Book Description
p.B. J. Whiting savors proverbial expressions and has devoted much of his lifetime to studying and collecting them; no one knows more about British and American proverbs than he. The present volume, based upon writings in British North America from the earliest settlements to approximately 1820, complements his and Archer Taylor's Dictionary of American Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, 1820-1880. It differs from that work and from other standard collections, however, in that its sources are primarily not "literary" but instead workaday writings - letters, diaries, histories, travel books, political pamphlets, and the like. The authors represent a wide cross-section of the populace, from scholars and statesmen to farmers, shopkeepers, sailors, and hunters. Mr. Whiting has combed all the obvious sources and hundreds of out-of-the-way publications of local journals and historical societies. This body of material, "because it covers territory that has not been extracted and compiled in a scholarly way before, can justly be said to be the most valuable of all those that Whiting has brought together," according to Albert B. Friedman. "What makes the work important is Whiting's authority: a proverb or proverbial phrase is what BJW thinks is a proverb or proverbial phrase. There is no objective operative definition of any value, no divining rod; his tact, 'feel, ' experience, determine what's the real thing and what is spurious."

Little Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs

Little Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs PDF Author: Elizabeth Knowles
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191084247
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 469

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Book Description
Little Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs features over 2,000 proverbs and sayings from around the world, arranged across 250 subjects - from 'Books' and 'Borrowing' to 'Dreams' and 'Drink'. Each theme has a short introduction giving an overview of the proverbial treatment of the topic and each proverb is accompanied by information on its date, source, and meaning. Not only is this book a pleasure to browse but it is ideal for quick reference with its comprehensive index that makes it easy to find the exact phrase you're looking for. Beautifully produced and designed, it is the perfect gift for anyone who loves language. Drawing on Oxford's ongoing dictionary research and language monitoring, the second edition of this delightful book adds phrases that have come to prominence, or increased in popularity, since publication of the first edition, such as 'Never waste a good crisis' and 'Dress for the job you want, not for the job you have', which add a contemporary flavour to the selection of more traditional English proverbs, and the popular sayings used in the English-speaking world from Asia, Africa, Middle East, and many other cultures. Find phrases on all aspects of life in this fascinating little book.

Dictionary of European Proverbs

Dictionary of European Proverbs PDF Author: Emanuel Strauss
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134864604
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 641

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Book Description
This Dictionary contains over 50,000 proverbs, in some 70 European languages and dialects, arranged in 2,500 sets. It is the fruits of over 40 years of collection and research, the only collection of proverbs on anything like this scale ever to be published anywhere in the world. Emanuel Strauss has trawled through innumerable collections of proverbs in all languages, from early printed books and rare items to the latest theses and journals, and grouped together many thousands of proverbs in sets of equivalent meaning. Comprehensive indexes for each language provide access to any proverb by way of its key words. A critical bibliography musters some 500 items, from incunabula to the current decade.

The Politics of Proverbs

The Politics of Proverbs PDF Author: Wolfgang Mieder
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN: 9780299154547
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
Demonstrates how proverbs and to a lesser extent proverbial expressions, have played a significant role in political life during the 20th century. Takes as major examples the speeches and writings of Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill, and Harry Truman to show how proverbs can be brought into the service of most any ideology. Also traces the use of proverbs and their cartoon analogues during the five decades of Cold War propaganda, and proverbial slurs against Native Americans and Asian Americans. Paper edition (unseen), $19.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The Penguin Dictionary of Proverbs

The Penguin Dictionary of Proverbs PDF Author: Rosalind Fergusson
Publisher: Penguin Mass Market
ISBN:
Category : Proverbs
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
Compiles approximately 6,000 different proverbs organized by thematic headings such as beauty, love, or weather.

American Proverbs

American Proverbs PDF Author: Wolfgang Mieder
Publisher: Peter Lang Group Ag, International Academic Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 406

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Book Description
This study represents the first comprehensive treatise of American proverbs, each chapter including an interpretative essay, a special bibliography, and numerous texts in contexts. The fifteen chapters deal with the proverb in general, American proverbs in particular, proverbs of the immigrants, proverbs current in the various states, proverbs of the Native Americans, Afro-American proverbs, Benjamin Franklin's «proverbs», proverbs in prose literature, proverb poems, proverbs in popular songs, wellerisms, proverbs in comics and cartoons, proverbs in advertisements, and a special final chapter on the modern American proverb «Different strokes for different folks». A large bibliography, three indices, and forty illustrations are included.