Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Word Drops: A Sprinkling of Linguistic Curiosities

Word Drops: A Sprinkling of Linguistic Curiosities

Jones, Paul Anthony

Paperback

LinguisticsWriting Instruction

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 0826356567
ISBN13: 9780826356567
Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
Published: Apr 1 2016
Pages: 216
Weight: 0.53
Height: 0.60 Width: 5.60 Depth: 8.40
Language: English

From aardvark to zenzizenzizenzic, Word Drops collects a thousand obscure words and language facts in one fascinating chain of word associations. Did you know, for example, that scandal derives from the Latin for stumbling block and originally described a trap for a wild animal? In nineteenth-century slang a wolf trap was a corrupt casino. Casino means little house in Italian. Roulette means little wheel in French. A wheeler is someone who attends auctions to bid on items merely to increase their sale price. Such links take readers on an unexpected journey through linguistic oddities. Inspired by the popular @HaggardHawks Twitter account, Word Drops also uses an intriguing series of annotations to add background and historical context on everything from Anglo-Saxon cures for insanity to Samuel Pepys's cure for a hangover. This unique book will delight anyone who loves language, etymology, and word games.

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