In day-to-day speech we use words and phrases without a passing thought as to why we use them or where they come from. Max Cryer changes all that by showing how fascinating the English language really is. Did you know that the former host of Today, Jane Pauley, claims to have coined the term “bad hair day,” or that a CBS engineer named Charley Douglass invented the name and use of “canned laughter” for television, or that “cold turkey” as a term for quitting something immediately ...

Why has Fido become a generic term for all dogs? Why did hundreds of people collect dog faeces and sell it? Dogs never eat other dogs, so why is it a dog-eat-dog world? Did any dogs survive the Titanic? What is a Yorkipoo? Do mad dogs really go out in the midday sun? Every Dog Has Its Day pays homage to mans best friend, telling the stories of famous dogs in history, tracing the origins of some of our favourite breeds, showing how dogs have become a significant part of our language, and de...

Proverbs ... weve all grown up with them and we probably repeat them without much thought. Yes, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush and absence makes the heart grow fonder, but these sayings have almost become clichés and it is the same in every country and culture. Such pearls of wisdom play a key role in the moral guidance of societies everywhere. Sometimes the wisdom is distinctly odd, sometimes it has become outdated and sometimes it is simply contradictory. After all, do many ...

Have you ever wondered where terms like ‘end of your tether’, ‘gets my goat’ or ‘letting ones hair down’ come from? Or why we call some people ‘geezers’, ‘sugar daddies’ or ‘lounge lizards’? Or where the words ‘eavesdropping’, ‘nickname’ and ‘D-Day’ come from? They are just a few of the many words and phrases that language expert Max Cryer examines in this fact-filled and fun new book. Max explains where these curious expressions come from, what they mean and how they are used. Along the w...

Who first wrote ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’, ‘accidentally on purpose’ or ‘no pain, no gain?'Did you know that there is no evidence Queen Victoria said ‘We are not amused’ or Marie Antoinette proclaimed ‘Let them eat cake’, but ‘iron curtain’ was in use for 40 years before Winston Churchill said it, and we have P. G. Wodehouse to thank for ‘straight from the horse’s mouth’?This witty and accessible compendium reveals the obscure origins of over 500 common phrases,...

In Superstitions, Max Cryer explains the origins of many of the things we commonly say and observe and why we continue to include them in our lives: kissing under the mistletoe, the unlucky number thirteen, the significance of the bridal bouquet, saying ‘bless you’ after sneezing, the hanging of a horseshoe, the danger in opals, the Leap Year proposal. So many aspects of our lives are coloured by superstition; now you can discover the reasons for them in this witty and informative book.

Many bright minds have come up with expressions we now take for granted as part of the English language, and which we use freely in vernacular speech. But the originators of many of our most useful second-hand remarks go uncredited. So who said it first? This collection sets out to credit as far as its possible to do so the people who actually created many familiar terms in common us. For example, poor Ernest Dowson is all but forgotten, but author Margaret Mitchell read his 1891 poem Non ...

Visitors to New Zealand are frequently surprised — and puzzled — by local terms and expressions. This concise A–Z dictionary, now updated in a new expanded edition, is a quick and easy reference to understanding the words and phrases that make the New Zealand language and speech patterns so different. Language expert Max Cryer not only provides helpful definitions for the various entries, but also sheds light on their origins. Slang words feature heavily, while a key feature of the book is...

The Godzone Dictionary is a concise A-Z of the words and phrases that make our New Zealand language and speech patterns so distinctive and individual, from Aotearoa and Avondale spiders to Zambuck and Zespri. Slang words and expressions feature heavily, while one of the unique features of this book is the large number of Maori words that have become a part of our common language in recent years. The listing also includes the popular names of our sports teams (so often confused!) and an app...

Discover hundreds of intriguing, entertaining & often hilarious origins to the English language's most curious phrases in this trivia book from a bestselling author.English is filled with interesting phrases. This book reveals the surprising, captivating and even hilarious origins behind 400 of them, including:• Read between the Lines• Cat Got Your Tongue?• Put a Sock in It• Close, but No Cigar• Bring Home the Bacon• Caught Red-Handed• Under the Wea...

Hungry for a treasure trove of weird and wonderful facts beyond your wildest imagination? Then keep on reading...Did you know that trees collaborate, communicate, and engage in chemical warfare?Or that humans are better at smelling rain than sharks are at smelling blood?Or that Napoleon once fought a pack of tame rabbits... and lost?Sometimes, life gets boring. Your sense of wonder often gets lost in a pile of chores, paperwork, and ...

From Neil deGrasse Tyson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, comes a spirited journey to the planets and stars, revealing the answers to many mysteries of our galaxy and beyond.In this companion volume to Merlin’s Tour of the Universe, we visit again with Merlin, a timeless traveler from Planet Omniscia, who answers a collection of imaginative questions about the cosmos from curious stargazers. Whe...