Red Herrings and White Elephants: Albert Jack

Product Information

Origin: From the Burmese belief that albino elephants are sacred. They can’t be used for work and they must be lavished with the ultimate amount of care. If the King of Siam wished to get rid of a particular courtier, he gave a gift of a white elephant. The courtier dared not offend the King with a refusal although he was fully aware that the cost of upkeep of such an animal was ruinous. I never questioned the origin of While Elephants, Red Herrings, or any of the other many ideomatic phrases that we use everyday, but a friend of mine bought me this book and I was blown away! biblioboy, Ebooksweb COM LLC, Phillybooks COM LLC, BookCorner COM LLC, BookCorner COM LLC, Phillybooks COM LLC, Ebooksweb COM LLC, Phillybooks COM LLC, Ebooksweb COM LLC, BookCorner COM LLC, Washburn Books, thelondonbookworm.com

Red Herrings And White Elephants: The Origins of the Phrases

To Chance Your Arm is to take an uncalculated risk, where the outcome is completely unknown. A blind bet, if you like. There are several suggestions for the origin of this saying, one being that military men, whose rank was displayed in the way of stripes on their sleeves, would take battlefield risks, which could … Choose the most ridiculous ones or ones which meaning is almost unrelated to its phrase (I think none will catch more attention than 'to swear on your testicles'). Entertain them with the origin and its story, and watch your students swarm to your class with expectation on the next class. That will drill the language into them better than any other method. voir des éléphants roses” (= to see pink elephants) which refers to hallucination supposedly brought by abuse of alcohol. The OED doesn’t mention whether albino elephants are considered sacred in Burma, but does have the story about the King of Siam giving troublesome or obnoxious courtiers the ‘gift’ of a white elephant which would ruin the recipient due the costs of maintenance.Teachers of the language, especially one teaching ESL (English as a Second Language), would benefit from the book as well. At the first sign of boredom your class shows in an English course (you should be able to notice the blank looks and nodding heads), swipe Red Herring and White Elephants out and start to ask them why certain phrases are so. If you have even a slight interest in the history of language and phrases this book is a must read. 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. This is a British book, and so some of the phrases were unfamiliar to me. But that's a relative few. The majority are phrases within my experience. Dicey,” the story went, originated among Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots during World War II. When the weather at their home fields was too bad to permit landing when returning from a mission, they would fly north to an airfield called Dice, where the skies were almost always clear. Thus bad weather came to be known as “Dicey,” a term later expanded to describe anything risky.

Red Herrings and White Elephants – HarperCollins Red Herrings and White Elephants – HarperCollins

have looked through this a few times and read bits and pieces from it. just dug it out again now/ Thank you auntie Pat D. great book have it still with us after you buying it years ago. will never part with this. At coffee mornings, fetes and similar events in the village where I grew up there was often white elephant stall, which had all sorts of odds and ends that people want to get rid of. It is popularly—but erroneously—claimed that the phrase (as) bold as brass originally referred to Brass Crosby (1725-93), Lord Mayor of London.It is interesting to note that most of the sayings do not even originate from the English language, and are cobbled up from Anglo-Saxon, Latin, Greek, French, Swedish, Norse (when it's raining cats and dogs or when someone went berserk), Hindustani (when someone has gone Doolally), Jewish (when you tell someone to eat his heart out) and even Gaelic (when you declared something as phoney), just to name a few. Not sure it’s what you had in mind but concerning phrases with colour adjective+animal, in French we have the following sayings and phrases: Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2020-09-08 14:05:18 Bookplateleaf 0004 Boxid IA1926801 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier Dicey": From some Mr. Dicey. I doubt it. The derivation from "dice" just sounds much more plausible.

Red Herrings and White Elephants - Albert Jack 1843581299 - Red Herrings and White Elephants - Albert Jack

As others have noted, some of the words or phrases discussed are very specifically British. Knowing the derivation of the word "berk" makes me happy that this is not much used in the United States. This book is absolutely amazing I read it while in hospital and I cannot say how fantastic this book is and the quality of the book as well I bought this for my mum and she has really really enjoyed it. Thank you Starts off really well, entertaining and engaging. There are some great explanations about frequently used sayings in there. My favourites included "winning hands down" and "to be screwed."Red Herrings and White Elephants. The Origins of the Phrases We Use Every Day : - signed or inscribed book And then minutes later you will be bothering them with another gem that you just have to share. And then you interrupt them yet again with another one. Definitely a fun, interactive book. 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. Origin: This phrase refers to smoked herring. In many parts of 19th century Britain such fish have a very strong smell and were usually known, not as kippers, but as red herrings. Because of their smell, they were good at masking other smells. As a result, they could easily cover the scent of a fox. A red herring pulled across the trail could divert the hounds onto a false path. Thus, by analogy, the phrase came to be used to describe any false trail.

Red Herrings and White Elephants - Albert Jack Books Red Herrings and White Elephants - Albert Jack Books

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. Ocr tesseract 4.1.1 Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_module_version 0.0.5 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA19203 Openlibrary_edition Forgotten the title or the author of a book? Our BookSleuth is specially designed for you. Visit BookSleuthFrom 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. Had this little book for years, was brought as a present from my auntie from Australia. A great book of sayings and where they came from. Mostly English. long and short is...the white elephants resides, i suspect, in fort knox..as that was one of two possible likelys the bus passed through...