2107 Curious Word Origins, Sayings & Expressions From White Elephants to a Song & Dance /

New York: Galahad Books, 1993. Octavo in dark blue boards with gilt titles to spine and off white paper in tan-brown dust jacket; illus.; 988 pp., 24 cm. Fine copy in near fine(-) DJ with very light edgewear mostly to top edge; o/w DJ is clean and free of tears and major shelfwear; board are clean; pages are clean, crisp, bright and free of marks and creases; edges of pages are clean; binding is tight and square. in very good + dust-jacket. Hardcover. ISBN: 0883658453; 9780883658451

In English. Abstract: This volume contains entertaining trivia about clichés, word origins, historic events, classical literature, and frontier humor used in the English language. It reveals the sometimes surprising, often amusing, and always fascinating roots of more than 2,000 vernacular words and expressions. From "kangaroo court" to "one-horse town", from "face the music" to "hocus-pocus," it tells the stories of hundreds of these sayings and the circumstances that brought them into our everyday speech.