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What in the word? : wordplay, word lore, and answers to your peskiest questions about language / Charles Harrington Elster.

by Elster, Charles Harrington.

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Harcourt, Inc., c2005.

English language -- Etymology.

English language -- Usage.

English language -- Style.

Plays on words.

Table of contents

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description

0156031973 (pbk.)

xvi, 286 p. ; 21 cm.

A Harvest original.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [269]-273) and index.

Once upon a word : word histories, mysteries, hoaxes, and hype : sorting the tall tales from the truth -- A slough of solecisms : wherein the author leads you safely out of a morass of mistakes and misperceptions into the clear, comforting light of correct English -- The grandiloquent gumshoe : words recovered, discovered, and devised -- The elegance of style : distinctions, clarifications, niceties, and other little things that make your language more polished and precise -- A civil tongue : wherein the author launders your pronunciation and presses you to speak with propriety and poise -- Born in the U.S.A. : some quintessentially American words and expressions, from okay to humongous, with some other American stuff thrown in just for fun -- The wonder of words : a fascinating farrago of word lore and wordplay that just didn't fit anywhere else.

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