Word Myths Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends

Name: Word Myths Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends
Price: 4.22 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780195172843

ISBN-10: 0195172841

ISBN-13: 9780195172843

Edition: 2004

Authors: David Wilton, Ivan Brunetti

List price: $28.99

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Do you "know" that posh comes from an acronym meaning "port out, starboard home"? That "the whole nine yards" comes from (pick one) the length of a WWII gunner's belt; the amount of fabric needed to make a kilt; a sarcastic football expression? That Chicago is called "The Windy City" because of the bloviating habits of its politicians, and not the breeze off the lake? If so, you need this book. David Wilton debunks the most persistently wrong word histories, and gives, to the best of our actual knowledge, the real stories behind these perennially mis-etymologized words. In addition, he explains why these wrong stories are created, disseminated, and persist, even after being corrected time…

Book details

List price: $28.99
Copyright year: 2004
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Publication date: 12/2/2004
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 240
Size: 8.31" wide x 5.79" long x 0.98" tall
Weight: 0.836
Language: English

Ivan Brunetti was born in Italy in 1967 and lives in Chicago, IL, where he teaches at Columbia College Chicago.



Acknowledgments


Introduction


What Is a Linguistic Urban Legend?


Where Do They Come From?


How Do They Vary?


Why Do We Tell Them?


How Are They Told?


Who Tells Them?


Are We Being Spoilsports?


How Do We Ferret Out the Truth?



Debunking the Big Boys


Ring Around the Rosie


OK


The Whole Nine Yards


Rule of Thumb


They Speak Elizabethan English in the Appalachians


500 Eskimo Words for Snow


Windy City


Hot Dog



The Elizabethan E-mail Hoax


Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater


Raining Cats and Dogs


Dirt Poor


Threshold


Pease Porridge


Bring Home the Bacon


Chew the Fat


Trencher / Trench Mouth


Bed and Board


Upper Crust


Wake


Graveyard Shift


Saved by the Bell and Dead Ringer



Posh, Phat Pommies


Ichthys


Cabal


AWOL


Fuck


News and Tips


Golf


Spud


Wog


Nylon


SOS


Pommy


Phat


Posh



Canoe


Devil to Pay


Let the Cat Out of the Bag


Cold Enough to Freeze the Balls off a Brass Monkey


Over a Barrel


Mind Your Ps and Qs


Under the Weather


Knock Off


Son of a Gun


Railroad Origins


Balling the Jack


Balls to the Wall


Ethnic Origins


Lynch


Jazz


America



Hookers, Harlots, and Condoms


Hooker


Harlot


Condom


Crap


In Like Flynn


Real McCoy


Dixie


Upset


Pumpernickel


Ellis Island Name Changing



The Perils of Political Correctness


Picnic


Nitty Gritty


Jimmies


Indian / In Dios


Indian Giver


Squaw


Hip / Hep


Gay


Faggot


Handicap


Politically Correct


Tinker's Damn



Wax Tadpoles and Jelly Doughnuts


I Am a Jelly Doughnut


Chevy No Go


Bite the Wax Tadpole


Turn It Loose and Fly Naked


Kangaroo


Gringo


Conclusion


Notes


Selected Annotated Bibliography


Index