 |
 |
| |
|
|
| In
The Word Museum,
I offer English expressions used since Shakespeare’s time
which have, for a
variety of reasons, faded or completely vanished. The often
surprising, quirky, and thought-provoking definitions are
drawn verbatim from their original sources offering the reader
a firsthand relationship to the early lexicographers and
wordsmiths who first cataloged these gems. The offerings include such
delights as egg-wife-trott (“an easy jog, such a speed as
farmers’ wives carry their eggs to the market”), cow-handed
(awkward), sandillions (“numbers like the sand on the
seashore”), inwit (“conscience, as distinguished from
outwit,
knowledge, ability”), cragsman (a Scotsman who gathered
seabirds’ eggs on hazardous cliffs), wonder-wench (a
sweetheart from Yorkshire), and illiack passion (“wind in the
small guts”). Included is a complete bibliography, along with
several dozen vintage line drawings.
In paperback from Simon and Schuster.
ISBN 0-684-85761-8. |
|
Order
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
