Fülszöveg
LANGUAGE LOVERS—RISE AND SHINEI
With 3,000 terms, this informative
and much-needed popular reference is
the very lost word on that most reviled
of verbal formulas, the cliché. Some
clichés are meaningless verbosity. For
instance, hove o nice doy is as dull os
dishwoter. But where would we be
without on eye for on eye to express
harsh retribution? And someone with
bots in his belfry sounds much more interestingly eccentric than the
garden-variety lunatic. So give the devil his due. Clichés provide us
with a useful, colorful conversational shorthand, and most of them
began life as phrases so picturesque and quotable that they were
' quoted:—over and over and over. What's more, a
considerable
number of them boast a distinguished parentage. Among the many
pleasures of this compendium of mini-essays is the exploration of
each term's origin and history, as well as its meaning and use. Per-
fect for students, writers, and speakers, this fascinating resource
shows just...
Tovább
Fülszöveg
LANGUAGE LOVERS—RISE AND SHINEI
With 3,000 terms, this informative
and much-needed popular reference is
the very lost word on that most reviled
of verbal formulas, the cliché. Some
clichés are meaningless verbosity. For
instance, hove o nice doy is as dull os
dishwoter. But where would we be
without on eye for on eye to express
harsh retribution? And someone with
bots in his belfry sounds much more interestingly eccentric than the
garden-variety lunatic. So give the devil his due. Clichés provide us
with a useful, colorful conversational shorthand, and most of them
began life as phrases so picturesque and quotable that they were
' quoted:—over and over and over. What's more, a
considerable
number of them boast a distinguished parentage. Among the many
pleasures of this compendium of mini-essays is the exploration of
each term's origin and history, as well as its meaning and use. Per-
fect for students, writers, and speakers, this fascinating resource
shows just how an evocative locution can become as old os the hills
or as inevitable as deoth ond faxes. It is an exciting new addition
to the bookshelf of everyone who deals with the spoken or written
word and should sit side by side with the dictionary and thesaurus
as an essential, easily accessed reference tool.
"TAKE IT FROM ME,
HAVE A NICE DAY—NO PROBLEM!. . .
IS HANDS DOWN THE GREATEST THING
SINCE SLICED BREAD/'
—Jon Winokur, author of The Portable Curmudgeon
Vissza 
