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The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins
 
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The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins [Hardcover]

Robert Hendrickson (Author)
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 96.86
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Seemingly designed for those with laser-focused attention or plenty of time on their hands, the Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins provides days of browsing for etymophiles. More than 9,000 entries, nearly a quarter of them new to this edition, cover slang, idiom, and commonly used words with interesting or curious histories. Ranging from a few sentences to half a page, the entries are consistently entertaining and well-researched, though author Robert Hendrickson acknowledges in his preface that "no good tale is omitted merely because it isn't true." (He does note apocrypha when appropriate.) The book pulls few, if any, punches, and nearly everyone will find at least one term or definition offensive; try "Irish beauty" for "a girl with two black eyes," for example. But, for every potentially offensive term, you'll find several hundred delights, such as "veronica" and "cut off your nose to spite your face." Though there's a slight trend toward Americanisms, there's plenty of British, Irish, and other varieties of English represented herein as well. While it is a terrifically useful reference work, it is nearly impossible to keep one's eyes from wandering, more so than with any other work of its kind. Still, a few extra minutes spent in the company of good words and good stories makes the Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins as pleasurable as it is useful. --Rob Lightner --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This is a collection of stories, speculative though entertaining, behind 7500 English words and phrases, from A & P through babushka, Calvinism, Davy Crockett, eggs Benedict, fifty-four forty or fight, German measles, and many more to ZZZ. The stories are fascinating, but the book is marred by many misspellings, particularly in the quotations from German. Still, it will appeal to word buffs and hence should be of interest to public libraries. Scholars will probably continue to rely on the OED and other standard reference works. Catherine von Schon, SUNY at Stony Brook
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
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4 star:
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Average Customer Review
3.6 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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2.0 out of 5 stars Missing many common phrases, Jan 12 2003
This review is from: The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, Second Edition (Paperback)
I got this book based on some of the reviews I read and there are indeed many good entries. But there are so many more missing entries that are far more common than what it is listed.

Some of the entries I have looked for and NOT found:

Tomfoolery
can't have your cake and eat it too
can't see the forest for the trees
dog and pony show
in the doghouse
with bells on
hard-nosed
slowpoke
wisecrack

Or in the case of "high noon" it has an entry but just says that it is not from the movie, it was first recorded in 14th-century England. No further explaination of how or why. In fact many of the entries that are listed don't have that answer. A large percentage of the entries have some form of uncertainty.
"... is probably dated back to..."
"It is unknown how..."
"... may have it's origins in..."

The defintions of some of the phrases are confusing and don't even touch on origin. All I can do it list an entry on this one (NOTE: this is the complete entry):

beg to advise. The much-used phrase beg to advise, so often read in business letters, may be dated but isn't incorrect by any means. Here "advise" doesn't mean "to give advice" but "to give information," information being one of the meanings of advice. This is seen in another common business expression: "We would appreciate the benefit of your advice."

The index is also poor, it seems only to list the people who said the phrases not the actually phrases.

I recommend the Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins it has all of the phrases I couldn't find here. The index is great, it also list the root word of the phrase. So if I want "can't have your cake and eat it too" I could lookup the actual phrase or under "cake" it has a list of the phrases with cake in them.

Keep in mind this book has a lot of words and phrases that one doesn't, and that one has a lot this one doesn't, but that one has more of what you (or at least I) want.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Fine reference but......, Aug 15 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins (Hardcover)
I bought this revision in its "hardcover" format. My first-edition hardcover of this book has a sewn binding, unlike the cheap "glued-in" binding of *this* revision. Geez, if they want to charge such a premium price for a reference work I feel that they should maintain all aspects of quality, including binding quality. Anyhow, the content in this new edition is indeed expanded, and various original entries have been revised and corrected. The book is great for mere reference as well as for browsing.

All the above being said, if this new edition had a *SEWN* binding I'd give it five stars!

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1.0 out of 5 stars Hendrickson, Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, Jan 30 2002
By 
Brian Barratt (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, Second Edition (Paperback)
This is the least used of approximately 50 similar reference works in my personal reference library. It seems to have a very high USA content which is not relevant to international English.
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