The Story of English in 100 Words

The Story of English in 100 Words PDF Author: David Crystal
Publisher: Profile Books
ISBN: 1847654592
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 283

Get Book

Book Description
Featuring Latinate and Celtic words, weasel words and nonce-words, ancient words ('loaf') to cutting edge ('twittersphere') and spanning the indispensable words that shape our tongue ('and', 'what') to the more fanciful ('fopdoodle'), Crystal takes us along the winding byways of language via the rude, the obscure and the downright surprising. In this unique new history of the world's most ubiquitous language, linguistics expert David Crystal draws on words that best illustrate the huge variety of sources, influences and events that have helped to shape our vernacular since the first definitively English word was written down in the fifth century ('roe', in case you are wondering).

The Story of English in 100 Words

The Story of English in 100 Words PDF Author: David Crystal
Publisher: Profile Books
ISBN: 1847654592
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 283

Get Book

Book Description
Featuring Latinate and Celtic words, weasel words and nonce-words, ancient words ('loaf') to cutting edge ('twittersphere') and spanning the indispensable words that shape our tongue ('and', 'what') to the more fanciful ('fopdoodle'), Crystal takes us along the winding byways of language via the rude, the obscure and the downright surprising. In this unique new history of the world's most ubiquitous language, linguistics expert David Crystal draws on words that best illustrate the huge variety of sources, influences and events that have helped to shape our vernacular since the first definitively English word was written down in the fifth century ('roe', in case you are wondering).

Jolly Wicked, Actually

Jolly Wicked, Actually PDF Author: Tony Thorne
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 0748114785
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Get Book

Book Description
A JOLLY DECENT CUPPA ... is a wonderfully entertaining compendium of the hundred words and phrases that have over the last century become the cornerstones of modern spoken English, and have been used - sometimes deliberately, but often inadvertently - to stake out the common identity that unites the English, to define what makes us who we are, and thus different from those beastly foreigners who lurk just off our shores. Despite attempts by politicians and writers, despite lessons in citizenship enshrined in the national curriculum, we have famously never been able to define for posterity precisely what Englishness is. A JOLLY DECENT CUPPA ... takes certain well-loved and crucial expressions such as sorry, nice, fair play, shag, common, posh, cuppa, chippy or the full monty, explores their strange and wonderful origins, and demonstrates with wit and charm how they are emblems of an era or an attitude, of a heritage and of the traits and quirks essential to all our notions of Englishness.

100 Words to Make You Sound Smart

100 Words to Make You Sound Smart PDF Author: Editors of Editors of the American Heritage Di
Publisher: Collins Reference
ISBN: 9780544913646
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
A newly rejacketed edition of the best-selling title in the 100 Words series.

100 Words To Make You Sound Great

100 Words To Make You Sound Great PDF Author: Editors of the American Heritage Di
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0547350198
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 131

Get Book

Book Description
100 Words to Make You Sound Great showcases 100 words illustrated by quotations that are historic, moving, insightful, humorous, and fun to read. The Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries have carefully selected them as evidence that it pays to have a strong vocabulary. These 100 words have been put to great effect by some of our most important and beloved speakers and writers. Each sense of a word is shown in a separate quotation. Many quotes are from famous public speeches and award-winning books. A number were used in personal letters, showing that it is just as important to have a vibrant vocabulary in private communication as it is in public. The people quoted range across the spectrum of human endeavor. There are famous political leaders from the past (Mohandas K. Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Ronald Reagan), contemporary politicians (Benazir Bhutto and Barack Obama), scientists (Rachel Carson, Carl Sagan, Edward O.Wilson), economists (Alan Greenspan, John Maynard Keynes, Adam Smith), academics (Henry Louis Gates Jr., Ruth Simmons, Helen Vendler), figures of conscience (James Baldwin, Bono, Eleanor Roosevelt), and even humorists (Garrison Keillor, Groucho Marx, Sarah Vowell). They are all captivating communicators, and they all sound great. 100 Words to Make You Sound Great offers a fascinating way to improve and reinforce a versatile vocabulary. Anyone who is interested in the effective use of words will find it hard to put down. 26

The 100 Words that Make the English

The 100 Words that Make the English PDF Author: Tony Thorne
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
A wonderfully entertaining compendium of the hundred words and phrases that have over the last century become the cornerstones of modern spoken English, and have been used - sometimes deliberately, but often inadvertently - to stake out the common identity that unites the English, to define what makes us who we are.

Jolly Wicked, Actually

Jolly Wicked, Actually PDF Author: Tony Thorne
Publisher: Little Brown GBR
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 360

Get Book

Book Description
* A wonderfully informative and entertaining guide to our national language - and in particular those words which help define the British identity

100 Words Almost Everyone Mixes Up or Mangles

100 Words Almost Everyone Mixes Up or Mangles PDF Author: Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries
Publisher: HMH
ISBN: 0547506015
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 131

Get Book

Book Description
Eliminate mistakes and improve your vocabulary with this engaging guide to the world’s most misused words. Do you know your delegate from your relegate, your cachet from your cache? At one time or another we’ve all suffered the embarrassment of having our remarks corrected by a family member, colleague, or stranger. 100 Words Almost Everyone Mixes Up or Mangles presents fifty pairs of words that people have trouble getting right and keeping straight—words that tend to get corrected when we’re least expecting it. These words include near-synonyms—words with subtle but important distinctions in meaning—like baleful vs. baneful, and effectual vs. efficacious. Other pairings bring together notorious sound-alikes, like faze (bother) vs. phase (stage), pour (put in fluid) vs. pore (read closely), and waive (forgo) vs. wave (say hello). The book also addresses some classic spelling blunders and “nonwords,” like beyond the pail, full reign, injust, and inobstrusive. Each word has a definition and a pronunciation, and most have etymologies explaining the word’s origin. The mix-ups themselves are described in fun-to-read notes that provide clear solutions to help readers avoid making needless, uncomfortable gaffes. 100 Words Almost Everyone Mixes Up or Mangles gives readers the chance to improve their command of words that are often heard but just as often misused.

100 Common English Words That Have Different Meanings

100 Common English Words That Have Different Meanings PDF Author: Fraih Solaiman
Publisher: Blue Rose Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 121

Get Book

Book Description
This book is dealing with common English words that have different meanings. A certain word may have a certain meaning in a specific context,then the same word has a different meaning in another context.

The 100 Most Beautiful Words in English

The 100 Most Beautiful Words in English PDF Author: Robert Beard
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780984172306
Category : English language
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
This book explores what is beautiful in English words by looking closely at the 100 loveliest of them selected by Dr. Robert Beard, formerly Dr. Language at yourDictionary.com and currently Dr. Goodword at alphaDictionary.com. The book begins with an essay on what makes words beautiful and a background essay on the relationships between European and Indian languages. This is followed by essays that examine the pronunciation, meaning, usage, and history of words like cynosure, desultory, ephemeral, gambol, petrichor, serendipity, and Susquehanna. Each word is accompanied by creative examples featuring Beard's regular cast of characters, including Natalie Cladd, Maude Lynn Dresser, Gilda Lilly and the twins, Rita and Rhoda Book.

100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know

100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know PDF Author: Editors of the American Heritage Di
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0547350236
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 99

Get Book

Book Description
What should the vocabulary of a well-rounded high school graduate be like? These 100 words provide the starting point in answering that question. The list is representative of the words that serious students will encounter in their coursework and will come to use as adults, whether in conversation or while reading the daily newspaper. Each word is fully defined and shown in context with example sentences from well-known authors. 100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know is a must-have for every grad, perfect for building vocabulary, quizzing friends and family — and just having fun.