Download or read book Interesting Stories about Curious Words written by Susie Dent and published by John Murray. This book was released on 2023-09-28 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Join Susie Dent, lexicographer extraordinaire and Queen of Countdown's Dictionary Corner, on a curious and exceedingly interesting adventure through all the very best RED HERRINGS, COCK AND BULL STORIES and NINE-DAY WONDERS in the English language. Who was SWEET FANNY ADAMS? What's the dramatic true story behind STEALING THUNDER? Why is it CHANCING YOUR ARM when you take a risk? What do bears have to do with LICKING INTO SHAPE? Or robbers with PULLING SOMEONE'S LEG? Why are CIRCLES VICIOUS? And, what's so bad about a WHITE ELEPHANT? 'Nobody on earth knows more about the English language than Susie Dent' Gyles Brandreth
Download or read book Susie Dent s Weird Words written by Susie Dent and published by Scholastic UK. This book was released on 2013-11-07 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A funny and entertaining way to discover more about the history and meaning of language. SUSIE DENT'S WEIRD WORDS takes children on a rip-roaring tour through some of the most astonishing and sometimes quite revolting origins of English words. As Susie Dent knows, even the most ordinary-sounding word can have the most extraordinary story behind it.
Download or read book Interesting Stories For Curious People Volume 2 written by Bill O'Neill and published by Lak Publishing. This book was released on 2021-05-10 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Want to impress your coworkers at your next happy hour? Need to think of something interesting to do at the next family gathering? Want to learn a bunch of random facts about history, science, true crime, and the paranormal? Pick up Interesting Stories for Curious People 2, your ultimate source of interesting facts about a wide range of diverse topics. This book is truly a quick read packed with information from cover to cover. Here you will find out:- Was martial arts expert and action film star Bruce Lee the victim of a curse?- How did the guillotine become France's execution method?- What is the Mokele-mbeme? - Did famous American bank robber John Dillinger survive his shootout with the FBI?- Do some people have a natural immunity to HIV/AIDs?Interesting Stories for Curious People 2 is not some boring book packed with useless facts, but is an engaging reference guide that brings to life some of the strangest and most fascinating aspects of our planet, and beyond! The book is designed for the busy person, so you can pick up it at your convenience, read a quick story, and then go about your business. Whether you just like to learn new things that aren't normally taught in school, of if you're honing your skills for trivia challenges, you'll definitely find this book entertaining and useful. Some of these stories are ripped from the headlines, while others come from the history books, and some are just weird, but you're sure to find plenty in here that will keep you reading!
Download or read book Thereby Hangs A Tale written by Charles E. Funk and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2002-10-01 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Greek root of school means leisure. A language where hearse and rehearse have the same root and the word dunce comes from a great philosopher, English has hundreds of every day words that originated or acquired their meaning in unusual ways. Dictionaries don't have the space to tell us all the mysteries, but now Dr. Funk, with humor and insight, tells us the strange and intriguing stories of hundreds of words and how they came to be a part of our language.
Download or read book The Book of Strange and Curious Legal Oddities written by Nathan Belofsky and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2010-08-03 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: You're probably breaking the law right now-and don't even know it. Did you know... ? Naples, Italy, enforces laws for what constitutes real pizza, and "pizza police" visit restaurants to crack down on unlawful pies? ? In West Virginia it is a crime to display or possess a red or black flag? ? It is illegal to sell stuffed articles depicting female breasts within a thousand feet of any county highway in California? ? Spherical fishbowls have been banned in Rome since 2004? There are hundreds of bizarre laws that we could be breaking at any moment. What exactly are we doing that we shouldn't be doing, and what happens if we get caught? In this engaging and insightful collection, Nathan Belofsky takes us on a journey of eclectic, unexpected, and bizarre laws from around the world. Written by a practicing lawyer with an eye for his profession's most unusual quirks, The Book of Strange and Curious Legal Oddities offers a delightful look at the legal system's peculiarities through the ages. From laws that crack down on how we eat, look, and have sex, to real legal battles involving litigious chimpanzees, you'll start wondering whether you're really the law-abiding citizen you claim to be.
Download or read book The Big Book of Words for Curious Kids written by Heloise Antoine and published by Peachtree Publishers. This book was released on 1995 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Observing, recognizing, and naming things will become an exciting adventure with The Big Book of Words for Curious Kids. This appealing, easy-to-use book makes the first steps of learning easier for children and more fun for their parents. Through these pages, children can enter the universe of words on their own level, recognizing little by little the order of things, what things are called, how they are used, and how they relate to one another.
Download or read book Thing Explainer written by Randall Munroe and published by John Murray. This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The creator of the popular webcomic "xkcd" uses line drawings and common words to provide simple explanations for how things work, including microwaves, bridges, tectonic plates, the solar system, the periodic table, helicopters, and other essential concepts.
Download or read book The Story of English in 100 Words written by David Crystal and published by Profile Books. This book was released on 2011-10-13 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring Latinate and Celtic words, weasel words and nonce-words, ancient words ('loaf') to cutting edge ('twittersphere') and spanning the indispensable words that shape our tongue ('and', 'what') to the more fanciful ('fopdoodle'), Crystal takes us along the winding byways of language via the rude, the obscure and the downright surprising. In this unique new history of the world's most ubiquitous language, linguistics expert David Crystal draws on words that best illustrate the huge variety of sources, influences and events that have helped to shape our vernacular since the first definitively English word was written down in the fifth century ('roe', in case you are wondering).
Download or read book Curious George Race Day CGTV Reader written by H. A. Rey and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2010-09-06 with total page 27 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Curious George is helping Professor Wiseman train for a race, but she thinks running is boring. Can George find a way to show her that running is fun before the big race?
Download or read book Stolen Words written by Melanie Florence and published by Second Story Press. This book was released on 2017-09-05 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of the beautiful relationship between a little girl and her grandfather. When she asks her grandfather how to say something in his language – Cree – he admits that his language was stolen from him when he was a boy. The little girl then sets out to help her grandfather find his language again. This sensitive and warmly illustrated picture book explores the intergenerational impact of the residential school system that separated young Indigenous children from their families. The story recognizes the pain of those whose culture and language were taken from them, how that pain is passed down, and how healing can also be shared.
Download or read book Horsefeathers and Other Curious Words written by Charles Earle Funk and published by . This book was released on 1958 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Potpourri of curious words like butterscotch, sputnik, or pin money, with explanations of their origin and significance.
Download or read book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time written by Mark Haddon and published by Anchor Canada. This book was released on 2009-02-24 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bestselling modern classic—both poignant and funny—narrated by a fifteen year old autistic savant obsessed with Sherlock Holmes, this dazzling novel weaves together an old-fashioned mystery, a contemporary coming-of-age story, and a fascinating excursion into a mind incapable of processing emotions. Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. Everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning for him. At fifteen, Christopher’s carefully constructed world falls apart when he finds his neighbour’s dog Wellington impaled on a garden fork, and he is initially blamed for the killing. Christopher decides that he will track down the real killer, and turns to his favourite fictional character, the impeccably logical Sherlock Holmes, for inspiration. But the investigation leads him down some unexpected paths and ultimately brings him face to face with the dissolution of his parents’ marriage. As Christopher tries to deal with the crisis within his own family, the narrative draws readers into the workings of Christopher’s mind. And herein lies the key to the brilliance of Mark Haddon’s choice of narrator: The most wrenching of emotional moments are chronicled by a boy who cannot fathom emotions. The effect is dazzling, making for one of the freshest debut in years: a comedy, a tearjerker, a mystery story, a novel of exceptional literary merit that is great fun to read.
Download or read book Spectacular Stories for Curious Kids written by Jesse Sullivan and published by Big Dreams Kids Books. This book was released on 2021-09 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DISCOVER, WONDER, EXPLORE, IMAGINE You have found the book that is a wild, whirling tornado of breathless fascination. This book, a gift for kids who revel in reading (or even those who find it tedious) is a most extraordinary, gratifying, daring affair, teeming with life and vivid stories, abundantly complete with diverse and unique marvels for the young mind, the whole forming a blazing vision of breathtaking splendor that will astonish, inspire, and capture the imagination of young readers everywhere. Each story is an adventure, each tale a discovery. Each page is dripping with captivating tales from history and scientific wonders, all of which have been specifically curated and written for YOUNG READERS. The purpose of this book is to fascinate but also to empower and uplift. These 100 stories filling over 280 pages will inspire awe and fascination in both reluctant readers as well as budding aficionados of the written word. You will be amazed at what your child excitedly learns from a book like this. Get this book today and ignite your child's curiosity. ★ Fascination is an incredible gift. ★
Download or read book Horsefeathers and Other Curious Words written by Charles Earle Funk and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Word Perfect written by Susie Dent and published by John Murray. This book was released on 2020-10-15 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Susie Dent is a one-off. She breathes life and fun into words and language' Pam Ayres 'Susie Dent is a national treasure' Richard Osman Welcome to a year of wonder with Susie Dent, lexicographer, logophile, and longtime queen of Countdown's Dictionary Corner. From the real Jack the Lad to the theatrically literal story behind stealing someone's thunder, from tartle (forgetting someone's name at the very moment you need it) to snaccident (the unintentional eating of an entire packet of biscuits), WORD PERFECT is a brilliant linguistic almanac full of unforgettable stories, fascinating facts, and surprising etymologies tied to every day of the year. You'll never be lost for words again.
Download or read book Write Your Own Story Word Book written by Jane (EDFR) Bingham and published by Write Your Own. This book was released on 2021-10-28 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An enticing write-in book packed with words and phrases to inspire young writers. Provides helpful advice on choosing the best words for creating characters, setting scenes and shaping stories, as well as special vocabulary for different story themes. Young authors can create their own stories and build up a word bank of favourite words and phrases, so that they need never use 'nice' again... This book is the perfect companion to Usborne's best-selling Write Your Own Story Book. Like this book, it has space for writing on pages that open flat, as well as over 1000 interesting words and phrases for story writing.
Download or read book 100 Curious Words to Know written by Rose Nestling and published by . This book was released on 2018-11-27 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn many curious words that are inspired by the collections found in the Smithsonian museums.
