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      Loose Cannons, Red Herrings, and Other Lost Metaphors

      by Robert Claiborne
      Published
      Jul 2001
      Main Genre
      General Fiction General Fiction
      Pages
      256
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      About This Book

      A colorful compendium of everyday words and phrases and where they originated. The English language is a treasury of splendid mysteries, among them the many words and phrases whose origins we no longer know. Often the original meaning was literal, pertaining to forgotten objects or activities—such as "aftermath," which once meant the grass that sprang up after a farmer had mowed a field. With the informal scholarship and good-humored wit that are his trademarks, Robert Claiborne reveals the wonders buried in our speech, vivid images of people and customs of the past. As the reader soon discovers, they are "a sort of hidden poetry that can heighten the colors and sharpen the meanings of words and phrases that we read or write daily."

      Genres & Themes

      Genres

      General Fiction

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      First Edition Jul 2001 W.W. Norton & Company ISBN13 9780393321869 ISBN10 039332186X
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