Author: Thomas Preston
Publisher: Library of Alexandria
ISBN: 1465524827
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description

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 Based on the fieldwork conducted over thirty years by the American Dialect Society, this volume is complete with historical references to the earliest written sources, and supplies variants and recorded geographical distribution after each proverb.Many surprised await the reader in this vast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.

Author: John Simpson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English language
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description

Author: G.L. Apperson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 732

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Book Description

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.

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."

Author: Linda Flavell
Publisher: Kyle Cathie Limited
ISBN: 9781856265638
Category : English language
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This dictionary traces the origins and histories of over 400 proverbs, detailing the changes of meaning and usage that have occurred throughout each proverb's life and offering literary examples dating back over 2000 years.

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.

Author: George Latimer Apperson
Publisher: Wordsworth Editions
ISBN: 9781840223118
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 656

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Book Description
This dictionary aims to help users to find the most appropriate word to use on a wide range of occasions. It is designed in particular for students, those writing reports, letters and speeches, and crossword solvers, but is also useful as a general word reference. Special features include: an alphabetical A-Z listing; numbered senses for words with more than one meaning; British and American variants; and specially marked colloquial uses.

Author: Martin H. Manser
Publisher: Infobase Publishing
ISBN: 0816066736
Category : Proverbs, English
Languages : en
Pages : 513

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Book Description
Lists the meaning and origin of more than 1,700 traditional and contemporary English proverbs.