Thereby Hangs A Tale: Stories of Curious Word Origins

Thereby Hangs A Tale: Stories of Curious Word Origins

by Charles E. Funk (Author)

Synopsis

The Greek root of school means leisure.

A language where hearse and rehearse have the same root and the word dunce comes from a great philosopher, English has hundreds of every day words that originated or acquired their meaning in unusual ways. Dictionaries don't have the space to tell us all the mysteries, but now Dr. Funk, with humor and insight, tells us the strange and intriguing stories of hundreds of words and how they came to be a part of our language.

$17.61

Quantity

10 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 320
Edition: Reprint
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Published: 24 Sep 2014

ISBN 10: 006272049X
ISBN 13: 9780062720498

Author Bio
Charles Earle Funk was editor in chief of the Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary Series. He wrote several other books on word and phrase origins, including Horsefeathers, Heavens to Betsy!, and Thereby Hangs a Tale.