Traces the history of more than 15,000 English words and phrases, including slang, proverbs, plant and animal names, place-names, phrases from literature, nicknames, historical expressions, and foreign-language expressions.
Defines and illustrates nearly ten thousand American idioms and popular phrases, and includes the origin and date each expression came into the language.
An exploration of everyday Latin, looking at poetry, epitaphs, lyrics, gossip, and inscriptions, and discussing the origins of Latin names that are used in modern-day English.
a decade-by-decade guide to the vanishing vocabulary of the twentieth century
Ostler, Rosemarie
2003
Presents a decade-by-decade guide to words that became popular over the course of the twentieth century, many of which have since disappeared from the English language.
