WORDLAB

Free Naming and Branding Consultants and Resources

World Wide Words Author Not Lost For Titles

One book, two titles: It is called Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds in the USA and Port Out, Starboard Home everywhere else. This is the book's description in the words of the author, Michael Quinion.
The cat’s pajamas, the bee’s knees, and the whole nine yards rolled into one, this true feast for word lovers skewers commonly accepted word-origin myths and etymological folk tales. Can it really be true that golf stands for “Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden”? Did the term computer bug really derive from an errant moth shorting out an early computer? Did the kangaroo really get its name through a misunderstanding between explorers and natives? The real story of the origin and evolution of a word or phrase is often much stranger than the commonly accepted one. The expressions that Michael Quinion reviews range throughout the English-speaking world, from cater-cornered to dinkum and from wet one’s whistle to happy as a clam. From the bawdy to the sublime, explanations and delightful asides truly prove that the proof is in the pudding. If you ever wondered about why we utter such oddities as raining cats and dogs, I could care less or twenty-three skidoo, this one’s for you. It’s a treasure trove of fiction and fact for anyone interested in language.
You can read a nice bit of it here, or go out to your favorite bookstore and read the whole thing there, or simply buy the book online.
Posted by abnu on Tuesday, April 26, 2005 @ 11:56 PM [ + ]

WordLab

More blogs about naming and branding.

Technorati Blog Finder

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?


Latest Wordlab Entries
  • Fanatastic
  • Shock and Almonds
  • Will Drink for Food
  • A Parent's Guide to Ambulance Chasing
  • Sproil
  • Hunt and Garter
  • Crutch and Dagger
  • Zenacity
  • Dwealth
  • Exosurance
  • Atilla Mockingbird
  • Born to Scrum
  • Harpo Marxism
  • Outliving Your Life Insurance Company - A Parent's Guide
  • Ciàobama






© 2006 WordLab. All rights resilient.


Note the cool Fine Print: The content found on WordLab is free to the world. Although we cannot guarantee that any of this content is not already in use by someone, somewhere, on this planet who may have seen it on this Web site or created it independently of our Web site, we have made a reasonable effort to give you what we believe to be original names and slogans and generally good stuff. Use what you will of our content since it is here for the taking. However, if you decide to use one of our names for a commercial activity, and since we have no assurance that the name may not already be in use by someone else as a trademark, domain name or otherwise, we strongly suggest that you take appropriate legal precautions, such as seeing a lawyer. In short, any necessary due diligence is up to you, but we at least make no claims on your potential future dream name. We merely ask that if you do decide to use any of our content, that you please send us an email ["word at wordlab dot com"] about it for use in our internal records and eplosive marketing campaigns. Thank you, and enjoy.