With nearly 6,000 quotations arranged historically and annotated extensively, you'll know not just who said what, but get the full story behind the quote. Follow any of the more than five hundred topics (from Abolition to Zeal) and you will get a nutshell history of what great (and not-so-great) Americans had to say about each one. Quotations are arranged chronologically in each topic, allowing the reader to trace patterns of thought over time. Fully indexed by author (including brief biographical sketches) and keyword, this is an essential reference for anyone interested in the great people and ideas of American history.

The Oxford Dictionary of American Quotations

Literature & Fiction

Rawson, Hugh

Miner, Margaret

United States

Oxford University Press

A dictionary of euphemisms and other doubletalk: Being a compilation of linguistic fig leaves and verbal flourishes for artful users of the English language

Reference

Dictionaries & Thesauruses

Macdonald

Dictionary of Euphemisms &amp; Other Doubletallk

A Dictionary of Euphemisms & Other Doubletalk

Crown

The author of Crown's A Dictionary of Euphemisms and Other Doubletalk has fun at the other end of the language spectrum in this witty, anecdote-filled guide to the many impolite, insulting, and just plain "bad" words with which the English language is blessed. Line drawings. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Wicked Words

In this marvelously entertaining book, word maven Hugh Rawson rounds up 1,000 words and phrases whose origins are not what you might expect. Some wiseacre (the word has nothing to do with land measure) may have told you that a tip is given to a waiter "to insure promptness," or that S.O.S. stands for "Save Our Ship," or that hooker is a tribute to the character of Joseph Hooker, the Civil War general. Like hundreds of popular etymologies, these oft-repeated accounts are just too good to be true. Now Mr. Rawson punctures the myths, gives the real derivations, and along the way provides many insights into how language works. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Devious Derivations: Popular Misconceptions -- And More Than 1,000 True Origins of Common Words and P hrases

Words, Language & Grammar

The author of Crown's A Dictionary of Euphemisms and Other Doubletalk has fun at the other end of the language spectrum in this witty, anecdote-filled guide to the many impolite, insulting, and just plain "bad" words with which the English language is blessed. Line drawings.

Wicked Words: A Treasury of Curses, Insults, Put-Downs, and Other Formerly Unprintable Terms from Anglo-Saxon Times to the Present

Three Rivers Press

CAPONE'S LAW. You can get a lot more done with a kind word and a gun than with a kind word alone. LANCE'S LAW. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. MILLER'S LAW. The quality of food in restaurants is in inverse proportion to the number of signed celebrity photographs on the wall. WALPOLE'S LAW. Every man has his price. Unwritten Laws is a wonderfully entertaining treasury of more than five hundred rules, strategies, and ironical insights, with many amendments and corollaries, all associated with particular individuals. Organized alphabetically, from Lady Astor ("All women marry beneath them.") to Zeno ("The goal of life is living in agreement with nature."), from Woody Allen ("Eighty percent of success is showing up.") to Oscar Wilde ("There are two tragedies in life. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it."), Unwritten Laws contains a generous sampling of the collective wisdom of humankind. Hugh Rawson not only gives sources and dates for the law's, but annotates them with fascinating details. For example, Alfred Lord Tennyson's widely accepted "In the spring a young man's fancy turns lightly to thoughts of love" turns out to be a mistake, recent research showing that male testosterone levels are actually higher in the fall! This delightful book is as wonderful for browsing as it is for providing guidance over the rocks and shoals of life. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Unwritten Laws: The Unofficial Rules of Life as Handed Down by Murphy and Other Sages

History & Criticism

Hugh Rawson's celebrated language book in a new edition updated with more than 600 new entries. "Rawson is no dry lexicographer but a brother-in-arms of Ambrose Bierce, Dr. Johnson, and H. L. Mencken, God rest their crusty souls."--Chicago Sun-Times.

Rawson's Dictionary Of Euphemisms and Other Doubletalk: - Revised Edition - Being a Compilation of Linguistic Fig Leaves and Verbal Flou rishes for Artful

In this marvelously entertaining book, word maven Hugh Rawson rounds up 1,000 words and phrases whose origins are not what you might expect. Some wiseacre (the word has nothing to do with land measure) may have told you that a tip is given to a waiter "to insure promptness," or that S.O.S. stands for "Save Our Ship," or that hooker is a tribute to the character of Joseph Hooker, the Civil War general. Like hundreds of popular etymologies, these oft-repeated accounts are just too good to be true. Now Mr. Rawson punctures the myths, gives the real derivations, and along the way provides many insights into how language works.

Devious Derivations: Popular Misconceptions--and More than 1,000 True Origins of Common Words and Phrases

Foreign Language Study & Reference

A Dictionary of Euphemisms and Other Doubletalk

CROWN PUB.

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