Offers insight into an autistic person's mind through classic figures of speech that contain confusing or contradictory wording, drawings that show what he believes the expressions mean, and their actual meanings.
Do you "know" that posh comes from an acronym meaning "port out, starboard home"? That "the whole nine yards" comes from (pick one) the length of a WWII gunner's belt; the amount of fabric needed to make a kilt; a sarcastic football expression? That Chicago is called "The Windy City" because of the bloviating habits of its politicians, and not the breeze off the lake? If so, you need this book. David Wilton debunks the most persistently wrong word histories, and gives, to the best of our actual knowledge, the real stories behind these perennially mis-etymologized words. In addition, he explains why these wrong stories are created, disseminated, and persist, even after being corrected time and time again. What makes us cling to these stories, when the truth behind these words and phrases is available, for the most part, at any library or on the Internet? Arranged by chapters, this book avoids a dry A-Z format. Chapters separate misetymologies by kind, including The Perils of Political Correctness (picnics have nothing to do with lynchings), Posh, Phat Pommies (the problems of bacronyming--the desire to make every word into an acronym), and CANOE (which stands for the Conspiracy to Attribute Nautical Origins to Everything). Word Myths corrects long-held and far-flung examples of wrong etymologies, without taking the fun out of etymology itself. It's the best of both worlds: not only do you learn the many wrong stories behind these words, you also learn why and how they are created--and what the real story is.
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."
Do you have an "eagle-eye" for a bargain? Have you ever been "hounded" by a "loan-shark" or hustled by a "pool-shark"? Have you been the victim of a "stool-pigeon" or a "rat", or the "scapegoat" for some "foxy" character's misdeeds? Expressions like these lend color and character to our everyday conversation. Many of them are so familiar that we rarely pause to wonder how or when they came into use in the language. But their origins are fascinating to discover and fun to share.
Have you ever heard an idiom and you took it literally? Idiom - as in that phrase - for example, "It's Raining Cats and Dogs!" Well, in this story a fifth grade student called Jade is just like some guys his age who can get into a "slippery" situation when he took an idiom literally. When his mom came home, she told him that it was "raining cats and dogs" so he had to do a "raincheck" on those dogs and cats from the heaven! Which got him into a "slippery" situation but not literally.
A big storm is on its way and this time it's bringing more than rain clouds and muddy puddles! In a furry downpour, armfuls of cats and dogs will be dropped on one lucky little girl's doorstep! Come along for an adventurous day full of kitty purrs and puppy kisses and leave with a heart full of love and friendship!