Edition |
First American edition. |
Description |
x, 209 pages : illustrations ; 19 cm |
Contents |
Meeting and greeting -- From top to toe -- Movers and shakers -- Getting around -- It takes all sorts -- Falling in love -- The family circle -- Clocking on -- Time off -- Eating and drinking -- Below par -- From cradle to grave -- Otherworldly -- All creatures great and small -- Whatever the weather -- Hearing things -- Seeing things -- Number crunching -- What's in a name? |
Summary |
A garden of delights for the word obsessed: a world tour of the best of all those strange words that don't have a precise English equivalent, the ones that tell us so much about other cultures' priorities and preoccupations and expand our minds. Did you know that people in Bolivia have a word that means "I was rather too drunk last night and it's all their fault"? This collection of trivia from more than 254 languages also includes a frank discussion of exactly how many Eskimo words there are for snow. So, what in fact is "tingo"? In the Pascuense language of Easter Island, it's to take all the objects one desires from the house of a friend, one at a time, by asking to borrow them. Well, of course it is.--From publisher description. |
Subject |
Language and languages -- Foreign words and phrases.
|
Indexed Term |
Philology-Linguistics |
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Lexicography |
ISBN |
1594200866 |
|
9781594200861 |
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0140515615 |
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9780140515619 |
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9780143038528 paperback |
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0143038524 paperback |
|