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Six Words You Never Knew Had Something To Do With Pigs: and Other Fascinating Facts about the Language from Canada's Word Lady
 
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Six Words You Never Knew Had Something To Do With Pigs: and Other Fascinating Facts about the Language from Canada's Word Lady (Paperback)

by Katherine Barber (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
List Price: CDN$ 16.95
Price: CDN$ 12.37 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details
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Customers buy this book with Only in Canada You Say: A Treasury of Canadian Language by Katherine Barber

Six Words You Never Knew Had Something To Do With Pigs: and Other Fascinating Facts about the Language from Canada's Word Lady + Only in Canada You Say: A Treasury of Canadian Language
Price For Both: CDN$ 24.03

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  • This item: Six Words You Never Knew Had Something To Do With Pigs: and Other Fascinating Facts about the Language from Canada's Word Lady by Katherine Barber

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details

  • Only in Canada You Say: A Treasury of Canadian Language by Katherine Barber

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    Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.
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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Editor-in-chief of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary and celebrated word nerd Barber has put together a suitably snappy compendium of word origins. Organized by seasons, this snore-free guide to etymology presents more than 500 paragraph-long histories on everything from sports terms to teen-speak to Yiddish. Curious minds will learn that the modern definition of "bidet" comes from the 1300s French verb "bider," meaning "to trot"; the bathroom fixture in the 1750s took the name because of the straddling action one performs while using it. The word "dunce" was derived from the name of a once-revered medieval theologian, John Duns Scotus, who fell out of favor; his disciples were called "Duns men" or "Dunses" for short. And who knew that the first recorded usage of the phrase "as if" was in Frank Morris's 1903 novel The Pit (" 'Maybe he'll come up and speak to us.' 'Oh, as if,' contradicted Laura. ")? No matter what word she puts under the microscope, Barber clearly takes its history seriously, but her light, witty descriptions make each discovery a pleasure. Ideal for dinner party discussions or bathroom reading.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


Review

Six Words You Never Knew Had Something To Do With Pigs is that rare book that is both entertaining and illuminatingyou could gobble it all down at one sitting The Vancouver Sun Six Words You Never Knew Had Something To Do With Pigs is an elegant little publication that will likely find a place of prominence o regularly used bookshelves in many Canadian homes and cottages. The Chronicle Herald, Halifax

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Six Words You Never Knew Had Something To Do With Pigs: and Other Fascinating Facts about the Language from Canada's Word Lady
65% buy the item featured on this page:
Six Words You Never Knew Had Something To Do With Pigs: and Other Fascinating Facts about the Language from Canada's Word Lady 5.0 out of 5 stars (1)
CDN$ 12.37
Only in Canada You Say: A Treasury of Canadian Language
15% buy
Only in Canada You Say: A Treasury of Canadian Language 4.0 out of 5 stars (1)
CDN$ 11.66
Canadians: A Portrait of a Country and Its People
12% buy
Canadians: A Portrait of a Country and Its People 5.0 out of 5 stars (3)
CDN$ 22.05
Canadian A to Z of Grammar, Spelling, and Punctuation
4% buy
Canadian A to Z of Grammar, Spelling, and Punctuation 1.0 out of 5 stars (1)
CDN$ 9.95

 

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5.0 out of 5 stars March Break is a Canadianism, Mar 9 2006
By Canuckfcuk (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   
Did you know that 'March Break' and 'Cottage Country' are Canadianisms? That's just two of the cool things you learn in this book. If you read 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves' you'll enjoy this. It's written in the same vein (witty, quick, informative)and is even roughly the same physical size!

Another wonderful thing is that this book is CANADIAN and isn't afraid to be so! Damn it! The spelling, grammar and references are Canadian.

Travelled: comes from a word that initially meant 'an instrument of torture'. Love it!

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