The Guinness Book of Curious Words

by Leslie Dunkling (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1994

  $4.16

  This collection of verbal oddities examines not just words that are unmistakably and intrinsically curious words - words like hobbledehoy , sophomore and shibboleth - but also the strangeness that lurks behind everyday words such as bed , book , expert , love' and week-end . Special features include word articles which examine the unexpected origins of familiar words like window and apron ; the history of curious compounds such as mushroom and toadstool ; homophones, homonyms, antonyms, nonce-words, eponyms, synonyms, taboo words, buzz words, hybrid words, loan words, portmanteau words, spoonerisms and back formations; word teasers to test your knowledge of words, their meanings and origins; regular link word features, revealing unexpected verbal connections between apparently unrelated words like bread and companion ; a unique Shakespearean word alphabet ; word quotations which offer numerous practical examples of curious words in use, from Shakespeare to Ruth Rendell; a comprehensove word index.