Red Herrings and White Elephants: Albert Jack

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lots of interesting stuff here...lots of history...stuff you might read in the oed only more info here. where word phrases came from. Starts off really well, entertaining and engaging. There are some great explanations about frequently used sayings in there. My favourites included "winning hands down" and "to be screwed." An enjoyable and interesting guide to the historic stories behind many current and recent-times sayings within the English language.

Red Herrings and White Elephants by Jack, Albert Published by

It is popularly—but erroneously—claimed that the phrase (as) bold as brass originally referred to Brass Crosby (1725-93), Lord Mayor of London. A White Elephant is an expression used to describe something that has, or will, become a huge burden to those who possess it. It suggests the cost of possession could ruin a person financially. For this we travel to Thailand, in the days when it was known as Siam. According to the legend white elephants … une oie blanche” (= a white goose) refers to a young woman, naive and unenlightened regarding the birds and the bees. If you happen to be a bootlegger, your profession recalls the Wild West outlaws who sold illegal alcohol by concealing slender bottles of whiskey in their boots. If you're on cloud nine, you owe a nod to the American Weather Bureau's classification of clouds, the ninth topping out all others at a mountainous 40, 000 feet. If you opt for the hair of the dog the morning after, you're following the advice of medieval English doctors, who recommended rubbing the hair of a dog into the wound left by the animal's bite.This book is absolutely amazing I read it while in hospital and I cannot say how fantastic this book is and the quality of the book as well I bought this for my mum and she has really really enjoyed it. Thank you

Red Herrings and White Elephants by Albert Jack | Open Library

Not a sit-down and read cover to cover but a reference to phrases. If you overheard someone say he's "Dressed to Kill", you may conjure up a Ninja preparing to assassinate a dignitary. But it means "to suggest they are smart, fashionable and set to make a romantic conquest." Now I find out about the romantic conquest. Boy, have I been missing out all these years. I think I'll refer to it more often. Dicey,” the story went, originated among Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots during World War II. When the weather at their home fields was too bad to permit landing when returning from a mission, they would fly north to an airfield called Dice, where the skies were almost always clear. Thus bad weather came to be known as “Dicey,” a term later expanded to describe anything risky.Bold as brass": Brass is hard, brass is shiny, brass is eye-catching. Brass is, in a word, bold. Is the word "brazen," originally meaning made of brass but now also meaning "bold and without shame" supposed to be just coincidental and having nothing to do with the origin of this phrase?

Red Herrings and White Elephants - AbeBooks Red Herrings and White Elephants - AbeBooks

long and short is...the white elephants resides, i suspect, in fort knox..as that was one of two possible likelys the bus passed through... Not sure it’s what you had in mind but concerning phrases with colour adjective+animal, in French we have the following sayings and phrases: Great book it has a comprehensive knowledge of the bygone sayings that are still used by people todaybiblioboy, Ebooksweb COM LLC, Phillybooks COM LLC, BookCorner COM LLC, BookCorner COM LLC, Phillybooks COM LLC, Ebooksweb COM LLC, Phillybooks COM LLC, Ebooksweb COM LLC, BookCorner COM LLC, Washburn Books, thelondonbookworm.com Penelitian tingkat keberhasilan kelompok usaha bersama peningkatan peranan wanita di bidang kesejahteraan sosial dalam pengentasan kemiskinan As others have noted, some of the words or phrases discussed are very specifically British. Knowing the derivation of the word "berk" makes me happy that this is not much used in the United States. Mad hatter... pie in the sky... egg on your face. We use these phrases every day, yet how many of us know what they really mean or where they came from? have looked through this a few times and read bits and pieces from it. just dug it out again now/ Thank you auntie Pat D. great book have it still with us after you buying it years ago. will never part with this.

Red Herrings and White Elephants – HarperCollins Red Herrings and White Elephants – HarperCollins

Forgotten the title or the author of a book? Our BookSleuth is specially designed for you. Visit BookSleuthOcr tesseract 4.1.1 Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_module_version 0.0.5 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA19203 Openlibrary_edition Origin: From the Burmese belief that albino elephants are sacred. They can’t be used for work and they must be lavished with the ultimate amount of care. If the King of Siam wished to get rid of a particular courtier, he gave a gift of a white elephant. The courtier dared not offend the King with a refusal although he was fully aware that the cost of upkeep of such an animal was ruinous.