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Coles Red Herrings & White Elephants: The Origins of the Phrases We Use Every Day at Bayshore Shopping Centre in Ottawa, ON
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The international bestseller. "Amusing and informative . . . [takes] you on a trip through the most fascinating and richest regions of the English language." —Knutsford Guardian (UK)
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?
From bringing home the bacon to leaving no stone unturned , the English language is peppered with hundreds of common idioms borrowed from ancient traditions and civilizations throughout the world. In Red Herrings & White Elephants , Albert Jack has uncovered the amazing and sometimes downright bizarre stories behind many of our most familiar and eccentric modes of expression . . .
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.
A delightful compendium of anecdotes on everything from minding your Ps and Qs to pulling out all the stops , Red Herrings & White Elephants is an essential handbook for language-lovers of all ages.
The international bestseller. "Amusing and informative . . . [takes] you on a trip through the most fascinating and richest regions of the English language." —Knutsford Guardian (UK)
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?
From bringing home the bacon to leaving no stone unturned , the English language is peppered with hundreds of common idioms borrowed from ancient traditions and civilizations throughout the world. In Red Herrings & White Elephants , Albert Jack has uncovered the amazing and sometimes downright bizarre stories behind many of our most familiar and eccentric modes of expression . . .
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.
A delightful compendium of anecdotes on everything from minding your Ps and Qs to pulling out all the stops , Red Herrings & White Elephants is an essential handbook for language-lovers of all ages.
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