From wordmeister Ruth Wajnryb, a witty and thought provoking examination of the words that once peppered our language but are now fading from use.
Wajnryb is the grammarian you always wanted: wise, wearing her erudition lightly and enlivening it with sly humour.'
Kirkus Reviews
Ruth Wajnryb embarks on a voyage of discovery among the words that once peppered the language of baby boomers and their parents to discover why they seem to be slipping from common use. Why is it that people don't say cheerio' any more, and, come to think of it, why did they in the first place? Do people still tinker with jalopies? And whatever happened to Tom, Dick and Harry, not to mention all those other folk who provided us with such excellent conversational shorthand? Filled with entertaining vignettes and intriguing etymology, Ruth has created an imaginary hospice that offers a caring refuge for pre-loved words that are in imminent danger of being dismissed as obs' (for
obsolete') or arch' (for archaic') in English dictionaries.
Written with Ruth Wajnryb's characteristic intelligence, sly wit and lan, Cheerio Tom, Dick and Harry examines the way in which our everyday language reflects and gives expression to the enormous changes that have taken place in our physical and social landscape over the last fifty years or so.
Author bio:
Dr Ruth Wajnryb is an applied linguist, researcher and writer. She has a regular weekly column in The Sydney Morning Herald's 'Saturday Spectrum' in which she explores often offbeat linguistic topics with that lightness of touch she brings to this new project. This is her third book with Allen + Unwin and her twelfth in total.
Category:
Writing & Language
ISBN:
9781741149937
Table Of Contents:
Contents
Acknowledgments
1 The Hospice
PART I As the pace quickens
2 Cheerio
3 Peopled phrases
4 Darn
5 Tinker
6 Hobby
7 Steady
PART II Old ways, old language
8 Jalopy
9 Handkerchief
10 Hats
11 Nongs and yobbos
PART III Quainteries eschewed
12 Colourful language
13 Fixed rejoinders
14 Doubling up
15 Mercers
16 As easy as
17 Useful tits
18 Cockney rhyming slang
19 Odds and sods
PART IV Victims of modern candour
20 Sexuality
21 The fall
22 Dying and death
23 Consumption, hysteria, ticker and coming out
24 Black dog
25 Bad
PART V A new century with its own sensibilities
26 Body bits
27 Mad
28 Stupid
29 Ought
30 Honey
31 Fortitude
32 Modesty
PART VI The past is dead, long live the future
33 Cooking
34 Histor
Publisher:
Allen & Unwin
Imprint:
Allen & Unwin
Pub Date:
July 2007
Page Extent:
288
Format:
Paperback - B format
Age:
0 - 0
0 - 0
Subject:
Language