Ebenezer Cobham Brewer Books

Much loved since 1870, this book offers a captivating journey through a unique blend of language, culture, myth, and legend. Edited by Susie Dent, the new edition features an intriguing supplement of Brewer's Gems—facts, fables, and curiosities from past collections. Its pages are filled with esoteric and entertaining entries, covering everything from curious customs to historical political alliances, all viewed through the distinctive Brewer lens. This nineteenth edition encapsulates the charm and wit of its predecessors while upholding the standards of scholarship and eclecticism that define it. Updated with over 100 new and revised entries, including crowdsourcing, cyberpunk, iPad, and mash-up, it promises to delight and inspire in the best Brewer tradition. Additionally, twenty special entries highlight the dictionary's enticing spirit, offering insights into topics like angels, heraldry, pub signs, and recluses, as well as the lexicographical world of the eggcorn. Whether you are a devoted fan or a newcomer, this edition invites you to explore its rich mix of eccentric nuggets. As Susie Dent notes in the foreword, this work is unlike any other reference book, blending dictionary and encyclopaedia in a truly unique way.

An informative reference tool provides complete background to common phrases. Many entries are accompanied by quotations

Since its first publication in 1870, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable has become one of the world's best-loved and most-browsed-through books. Where else can one find the meanings of - and the stories behind - so many terms and phrases drawn from mythology, literature, history, folk customs, pop culture, philosophy, science, magic, and superstitions? From expressions as common as sour grapes to allusions such as Pyrrhic victory, Dr. Brewer and his editorial successors both teach and delight the reader, offering unusual, out-of-the-way, and fascinating information on thousands of familiar - and unfamiliar - phrases. Completely revised, updated, and expanded, this fifteenth edition contains hundreds of new entries, improved etymologies, and a reorganized format that make Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable even more of a delight than ever.

Celebrating the 125th anniversary of its original publication, this expanded and updated edition of a classic reference features a new, simplified organization.

This work explains the origins of the familiar and the unfamiliar in everyday speech and literature, including the colloquial and the proverbial. It embraces archaeology, history, religion, the arts, science, mythology and characters from fiction.

Over 15,000 entries give the meaning and origin of words, phrases and proper names, from Auld lang syne to ZIP code. This concise edition also gives information about figures in myth and history, from Abdalla and Alberick to Zephyr and Zuleika and has tables of dwarfs, giants and saints.