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These are only a few of the questions language lovers, linguists, and lay readers will be able to answer with the Dictionary of Languages--an easy-to-navigate, authoritative guide to the world's languages and language groups at...

Betty Kirkpatrick has complied and exhaustive dictionary--a must for writers, crossword puzzle buffs, and anyone who is intrigued by language.

Sample entries from Cliches

Let the cat out of the bag is an idiom cliche meaning to reveal a secret. In origin it refers allegedly to a fairground tick by which traders sold unwary buyers a cat in a bag, assuring them it was a pig. The buyers did not realize their mistake until they let the cat out of the back, by which time it was too late.

Bite the bullet is an idiom cliche meaning to steel oneself to accept...

How does a vicar differ from a rector? Is a marquis a lord? Where are the Home Counties? Is someone who is dead chuffed happy or angry? Americans reading British literature, come upon such unfamiliar terms and generally have to rely on contextual clues. For the legions of readers of Dickens and Trollope, of Agatha Christie, John LeCarre, and P.D. James, of Muriel Spark and Iris Murdoch, of Noel Coward and Tom Stoppard--to name a few--as well as viewers of British film and television imports, this helpful and entertaining guide defines the kinds of things that British authors thought needed...

Recent studies report that Japanese is the second most productive source of new loanwords to English. Such studies indicate that English-speaking countries are paying more attention to Japan than ever before. This dictionary lists and defines hundreds of terms borrowed from Japanese that are now used in English-language publications. Entries provide variant spellings, pronunciation, etymological information, definitions, and illustrative quotations. These quotations were collected from books, newspapers, magazines, novels, texts, advertisements, and databases published or distributed in...

No other nonhuman source has served as the basis for more metaphors than animals. Speaking of Animals is a dictionary of animal metaphors that are current in American English. It is comprehensive, historical, and metaphor-based. Each entry refers to the other dictionaries that catalog that same metaphor, and the dates of first appearance in writing are supplied, where possible, for both the metaphor and the name of the source. The main text is organized alphabetically by metaphor rather than by animal or animal behavior; all the metaphors are classified according to their animal...

Random House Webster's Dictionary is your one-stop reference book. Based on the...

An essential tool for writers, poets, punsters, lyricists, wits, and language lovers everywhere

THE NEW COMPREHENSIVE AMERICAN RHYMING DICTIONARY is, by far, the sassiest, most fun, complete andup-to-date book of its kind on the market. This remarkablecompendium contains over 65,000 words, phrases, andcolloquialisms--a gold mine of rhyme certain to aid anddelight everyone who works with language, from the amateurpoet to the professional wordsmith.

• Why rhyme "moon" with "June..".when you can use "Brigadoon," "Daniel Boone," or "picayune"...

We often hear about the richness of the English language, how many more words it contains than French or German. And yet modern desk dictionaries are the result of a paring away of that glory, so that merely standard, functional, current words remain. The price we pay for such convenience is the thousands of delightful words we never see or hear.

This book is an effort to save some of those words applicable to everyday life and countless word games from extinction. The resultant treasure trove of exotic verbal creatures is an indispensable resource for every lover of...