Balderdash & Piffle: One Sandwich Short of a Dog's Dinner

Balderdash & Piffle: One Sandwich Short of a Dog's Dinner PDF Author: Alex Games
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1446415082
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
Balderdash & Piffle: One Sandwich Short of a Dog's Dinner is a thrilling ride through the provocative, bewildering and often downright bizarre world of language and etymology. From the brash jargon of celebrity magazines to the delicacies and feints of the euphemism, author and word-sleuth Alex Games has uncovered the remarkable stories that lie behind some of our best-loved words and expressions. By grouping words into distinct themes - such as put downs and insults, the vocab of fashionistas and the lingo of dodgy dealings - Balderdash & Piffle looks at the English language in a fresh and revealing light. Who was the original Jack the Lad? What is the tragic story behind the expression Sweet F.A.? Balderdash & Piffle will show you where thugs come from, why 'barmy' once had more to do with your beer than your brain, and how a little bit of 'hanky-panky' could literally work magic. From the 'Cloud-cuckoo-land' of Aristophanes to the town of Balaclava, this is a funny but rigorously researched account of English words and their origins. Drawing together sources as diverse as William Shakespeare, David Cameron and the Burnham-on-Sea Gazette, Alex Games recalls the trends, innovations and scandals that have produced some of our most familiar but least explored words and phrases. Accompanying a brand new series of the hit BBC television programme Balderdash & Piffle - and containing all the results of the 'Wordhunt' from the first series -this entertaining book is a treasure trove for English-language lovers everywhere.

Balderdash & Piffle: One Sandwich Short of a Dog's Dinner

Balderdash & Piffle: One Sandwich Short of a Dog's Dinner PDF Author: Alex Games
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1446415082
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 244

Get Book Here

Book Description
Balderdash & Piffle: One Sandwich Short of a Dog's Dinner is a thrilling ride through the provocative, bewildering and often downright bizarre world of language and etymology. From the brash jargon of celebrity magazines to the delicacies and feints of the euphemism, author and word-sleuth Alex Games has uncovered the remarkable stories that lie behind some of our best-loved words and expressions. By grouping words into distinct themes - such as put downs and insults, the vocab of fashionistas and the lingo of dodgy dealings - Balderdash & Piffle looks at the English language in a fresh and revealing light. Who was the original Jack the Lad? What is the tragic story behind the expression Sweet F.A.? Balderdash & Piffle will show you where thugs come from, why 'barmy' once had more to do with your beer than your brain, and how a little bit of 'hanky-panky' could literally work magic. From the 'Cloud-cuckoo-land' of Aristophanes to the town of Balaclava, this is a funny but rigorously researched account of English words and their origins. Drawing together sources as diverse as William Shakespeare, David Cameron and the Burnham-on-Sea Gazette, Alex Games recalls the trends, innovations and scandals that have produced some of our most familiar but least explored words and phrases. Accompanying a brand new series of the hit BBC television programme Balderdash & Piffle - and containing all the results of the 'Wordhunt' from the first series -this entertaining book is a treasure trove for English-language lovers everywhere.

Balderdash & Piffle

Balderdash & Piffle PDF Author: Alex Games
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1446415058
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
Discover the fascinating stories behind the words and phrases we use every day. English is now the worlds most popular second language, understood by over 700 million people across the globe. Its use is amazingly broad: not only is it the language of Chaucer and Shakespeare, but also of hip-hop, international business and the internet (over 80% of home pages are in English). So where exactly do English words come from? They come from everywhere. English is a vast, rambling conglomeration of words and phrases from a huge variety of times and places, and every word has its own intriguing history. Balderdash & Piffle is a guidebook an entertaining look at what falls out of the chaotic family tree of English words when you uproot it and give it a damn good shake. Shaking the tree is writer, humourist and word-sleuth Alex Games. If youve ever wondered who first used cuppa in print, what language gave us shampoo, when we started saying window, where minging comes from, what Shakespeare had to say about geeks and why berk is really, really rude, youll find it all (and much more) inside. Youll also have the chance to do your own word-sleuthing, through the BBC Wordhunt appeal. Who knows if you have written evidence of a bouncy castle from before 1986, you could even re-write history

Balderdash & Piffle

Balderdash & Piffle PDF Author: Alexander Games
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1846072352
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
From the brash jargon of celebrity magazines to the delicacies and feints of the euphemism, this work uncovers the stories that lie behind some of our best-loved words and expressions. It show you where thugs come from, why 'barmy' once had more to do with your beer than your brain, and how a little bit of 'hanky-panky' could literally work magic.

Dictionary of the British English Spelling System

Dictionary of the British English Spelling System PDF Author: Greg Brooks
Publisher: Open Book Publishers
ISBN: 1783741074
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 524

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Book Description
This book will tell all you need to know about British English spelling. It's a reference work intended for anyone interested in the English language, especially those who teach it, whatever the age or mother tongue of their students. It will be particularly useful to those wishing to produce well-designed materials for teaching initial literacy via phonics, for teaching English as a foreign or second language, and for teacher training. English spelling is notoriously complicated and difficult to learn; it is correctly described as much less regular and predictable than any other alphabetic orthography. However, there is more regularity in the English spelling system than is generally appreciated. This book provides, for the first time, a thorough account of the whole complex system. It does so by describing how phonemes relate to graphemes and vice versa. It enables searches for particular words, so that one can easily find, not the meanings or pronunciations of words, but the other words with which those with unusual phoneme-grapheme/grapheme-phoneme correspondences keep company. Other unique features of this book include teacher-friendly lists of correspondences and various regularities not described by previous authorities, for example the strong tendency for the letter-name vowel phonemes (the names of the letters ) to be spelt with those single letters in non-final syllables.

The Life of Slang

The Life of Slang PDF Author: Julie Coleman
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191630721
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 468

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Book Description
This book traces the development of English slang from the earliest records to the latest tweet. It explores why and how slang is used, and traces the development of slang in English-speaking nations around the world. The records of the Old Bailey and machine-searchable newspaper collections provide a wealth of new information about historical slang, while blogs and tweets provide us with a completely new perspective on contemporary slang. Based on inside information from real live slang users as well as the best scholarly sources, this book is guaranteed to teach you some new words that you shouldn't use in polite company. Teachers, politicians, broadcasters, and parents characterize the language of teenagers as sloppy, repetitive, and unintelligent, but these complaints are nothing new. In 1906, an Australian journalist overheard some youths on a street-corner: Things will be bally slow till next pay-day. I've done in nearly all my spond. Here, now; cheese it, or I'll lob one in your lug. Lend us a cigarette. Lend it; oh, no, I don't part. Look out, here's a bobby going to tell us to shove along. What, he wondered, was the world coming to. For the 411, read on ...

Less Than Words Can Say

Less Than Words Can Say PDF Author: Richard Mitchell
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781888173673
Category : English language
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


Ploughman of the Moon

Ploughman of the Moon PDF Author: Robert William Service
Publisher: Good Press
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description
"Ploughman of the Moon" by Robert William Service. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

The Postmaster's Daughter

The Postmaster's Daughter PDF Author: Louis Tracy
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3387336519
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
Reproduction of the original. The publishing house Megali specialises in reproducing historical works in large print to make reading easier for people with impaired vision.

Martha's Vineyard

Martha's Vineyard PDF Author: Susan Branch
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780996044028
Category : Artists
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
"In the winter of 1982, long before she became the watercolor artist and author we know today, Susan Branch, 34-years-old and heartbroken from the sudden and unexpected end of her marriage in California, "ran away from home" to the Island of Martha's Vineyard hoping to gain perspective. It was meant to be temporary, a three-month time-out from the daily grind of being broken up and miserable, but within days of her arrival, alone and not quite in her right mind, Susan "accidentally" bought a tiny one-bedroom cottage in the woods - which is how she discovered she was moving 3,000 miles away from everyone and everything she had known and loved. Funny, observant, touching, and addictive (you are not going to want this book to end), based on the diaries she has kept all her life, Susan Branch relates her inspirational tale of lost love and self discovery, her search for roots, purpose, and destiny with laugh-out-loud honesty. A road map for overcoming loss, following your heart, and making dreams come true, charmingly hand-lettered and watercolored in Susan's inimitable style, there are diary excerpts, recipes, and hundreds of photographs."--Provided by Amazon.com.

New American Roget's College Thesaurus in Dictionary Form (Revised &Updated)

New American Roget's College Thesaurus in Dictionary Form (Revised &Updated) PDF Author: Philip D. Morehead
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101220082
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 913

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Book Description
The ultimate alphabetically arranged thesaurus that will help you find the right word every time—now bigger and better than ever before! This all-new edition of the classic reference work is the one thesaurus no home or office should be without. As easy to use as a dictionary—and just as important for you to own—this is a unique and indispensable treasury of words that will enable you to express your ideas clearly and effectively. With the synonyms and antonyms for each word listed alphabetically for quick, convenient use, this superior reference volume will help you build your vocabulary, improve your writing skills, and enrich your powers of expression. • Simple to use—no index required • More than 5,000 new words and phrases • 2,000 new synonym entry words for more efficient cross-referencing • 30 new categories • Easy-to-read double-column format • Latest colloquial and slang terms • Quotations and phrases that reveal the fascinating history of each word and the ideas it represents