Author: Yee-Lum Mak Publisher: Chronicle Books ISBN: 1452163111 Category : Reference Languages : en Pages : 62
Book Description
Discover words to surprise, delight, and enamor. Learn terms for the sunlight that filters through the leaves of trees, for dancing awkwardly but with relish, and for the look shared by two people who each wish the other would speak first. Other-Wordly is an irresistible ebook for lovers of words and those lost for words alike.
Author: Margaret Jewett Burland Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess ISBN: 0268076278 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 344
Book Description
Strange Words offers separate but interrelated close readings of four medieval Roland texts in French and Occitan, paying particular attention to scenes in which the speeches of various characters perform or mirror narrative functions. In this clearly written and accessible book, Margaret Jewett Burland focuses on discourse and narrative within the fictional universe to argue persuasively that medieval authors and audiences understood the battle of Roncevaux and its aftermath as an appropriate story in which to incorporate implicit commentaries about contemporary issues. It allows readers to interpret the well-known Oxford version, The Song of Roland, within the expanded context of its larger medieval textual tradition. The similarities and differences among the four versions Burland analyzes help modern readers to better appreciate which aspects of a given Roland text are most innovative and thus most suggestive of its particular political, social, or literary agenda. Strange Words is the first book in fifty years to compare multiple medieval Roland texts, and the first to do so in English. It will be welcomed by students and scholars of French and medieval studies.
Author: Eddie Robson Publisher: Tordotcom ISBN: 1250807360 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 241
Book Description
Eddie Robson's Drunk on All Your Strange New Words is a locked room mystery in a near future world of politics and alien diplomacy. Lydia works as translator for the Logi cultural attaché to Earth. They work well together, even if the act of translating his thoughts into English makes her somewhat wobbly on her feet. She’s not the agency’s best translator, but what else is she going to do? She has no qualifications, and no discernible talent in any other field. So when tragedy strikes, and Lydia finds herself at the center of an intergalactic incident, her future employment prospects look dire—that is, if she can keep herself out of jail! But Lydia soon discovers that help can appear from the most unexpected source... At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Author: Erin McKean Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0199886032 Category : Reference Languages : en Pages : 298
Book Description
Do you know what a snollygoster is? Would you eat something called a muktuk? Do you know anyone who engages in onolatry? Impress your friends and pepper your dinner party conversations with such nuggets as gobemouche, mumpsimus, and cachinnate. You can learn about all of these bizarre and beautiful words and many more in Totally Weird and Wonderful Words. Offering a potpourri of colorful and fascinating words compiled by noted lexicographer Erin McKean, it contains hundreds of definitions, and has been updated to include two new essays, with over 150 words new to this edition. Written in a clear and conversational style, the book contains full-page cartoon illustrations by Roz Chast and Danny Shanahan. Featuring hundreds of words guaranteed to amuse and astonish, this is a book that will appeal to logophiles everywhere. It also features a bibliography of Oxford's dictionaries and a guide to creating your own unusual words correctly from Greek and Latin roots.
Author: Mitchell Symons Publisher: Zest Books ™ ISBN: 1541582128 Category : Young Adult Nonfiction Languages : en Pages : 290
Book Description
Did you know that ‘Almost’ is the longest word in the English language with all of its letters in alphabetical order ? Or that ‘Stewardesses’ is the longest word you can type solely with your left hand? Or that fireflies aren’t actually flies, they’re beetles? From information about words and their uses, to useful lists of things you never knew had names, palindromes, famous lines from literature and film, bizarre test answers and more, The Weird World of Words is bursting with truly oddball facts about words and language—and will have you hooked from the very first page.
Author: John Koenig Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1501153668 Category : Reference Languages : en Pages : 288
Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “It’s undeniably thrilling to find words for our strangest feelings…Koenig casts light into lonely corners of human experience…An enchanting book. “ —The Washington Post A truly original book in every sense of the word, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows poetically defines emotions that we all feel but don’t have the words to express—until now. Have you ever wondered about the lives of each person you pass on the street, realizing that everyone is the main character in their own story, each living a life as vivid and complex as your own? That feeling has a name: “sonder.” Or maybe you’ve watched a thunderstorm roll in and felt a primal hunger for disaster, hoping it would shake up your life. That’s called “lachesism.” Or you were looking through old photos and felt a pang of nostalgia for a time you’ve never actually experienced. That’s “anemoia.” If you’ve never heard of these terms before, that’s because they didn’t exist until John Koenig set out to fill the gaps in our language of emotion. The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows “creates beautiful new words that we need but do not yet have,” says John Green, bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars. By turns poignant, relatable, and mind-bending, the definitions include whimsical etymologies drawn from languages around the world, interspersed with otherworldly collages and lyrical essays that explore forgotten corners of the human condition—from “astrophe,” the longing to explore beyond the planet Earth, to “zenosyne,” the sense that time keeps getting faster. The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is for anyone who enjoys a shift in perspective, pondering the ineffable feelings that make up our lives. With a gorgeous package and beautiful illustrations throughout, this is the perfect gift for creatives, word nerds, and human beings everywhere.
Author: Douglas R. Hofstadter Publisher: Basic Books (AZ) ISBN: 0465030785 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 537
Book Description
Argues that the key to understanding ourselves and consciousness is the "strange loop," a special kind of abstract feedback loop that inhabits the brain.
Author: David Astle Publisher: Allen & Unwin ISBN: 1760870102 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 144
Book Description
101 Weird Words (and Three Fakes) is a mini-dictionary jam-packed with unusual or interesting words, followed by a fun and descriptive definition for each one. Filled with silly pictures and strange wordy facts, this is a book to sweep the reader through the alphabet from AMBIDEXTROUS (no repeated letters) to ZUGZWANG (not a place you want to visit), with a generous sprinkling of riddles, puzzles and bonus facts. For an extra challenge, try to spot the three fakes in the collection. Is it YARG - the cheese that turned its maker backwards? Or maybe JUFFLE - the semi-jig, semi-shuffle you do on a zebra crossing? Only a true word detective will crack the case!
Author: Paul Anthony Jones Publisher: University of Chicago Press ISBN: 022664670X Category : Reference Languages : en Pages : 385
Book Description
Open The Cabinet of Linguistic Curiosities and you’ll find both a word and a day to remember, every day of the year. Each day has its own dedicated entry, on which a curious or notable event—and an equally curious or notable word—are explored. On the day on which flirting was banned in New York City, for instance, you’ll discover why to “sheep’s-eye” someone once meant to look at them amorously. On the day on which a disillusioned San Franciscan declared himself Emperor of the United States, you’ll find the word “mamamouchi,” a term for people who consider themselves more important than they truly are. And on the day on which George Frideric Handel completed his 259-page Messiah after twenty-four days of frenzied work, you’ll see why a French loanword, literally meaning “a small wooden barrow,” is used to refer to an intense period of work undertaken to meet a deadline. The English language is vast enough to supply us with a word for every occasion—and this linguistic “wunderkammer” is here to prove precisely that. So whatever date this book has found its way into your hands, there’s an entire year’s worth of linguistic curiosities waiting to be found.
Author: Yee-Lum Mak
Author: Margaret Jewett Burland
Author: Eddie Robson
Author: Erin McKean
Author: Erin McKean
Author: Mitchell Symons
Author: John Koenig
Author: Douglas R. Hofstadter
Author: David Astle
Author: Paul Anthony Jones