Word myths : debunking linguistic urban legends
"Word Myths takes on linguistic urban legends, not just debunking them, but also examining why they are told and what they tell us about ourselves. The book examines the patterns and comes to conclusions about such things as why we attach morbid tales to children's rhymes, why newspapers keep promulgating false origins for terms like the Windy City, or why so many words have false nautical origins."--Jacket
Electronic books
x, 221 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
9780195172843, 9780739455937, 0195172841, 0739455931
54767339
Introduction. What is a linguistic urban legend?
Where do they come from?
How do they vary?
Why do we tell them?
How are they told?
Who tells them?
Are we being spoilsports?
How do we ferret out the truth?
Debunking the big boys . Ring around the Rosie
Ok
The whole nine yards
Rule of thumb
They speak Elizabethan English in the Appalachians
500 Eskimo words for snow
Windy city
Hot dog
The Elizabethan e-mail hoax. Throw the baby out with the bathwater
Raining cats and dogs
Dirt poor
Threshold
Pease porridge
Bring home the bacon
Chew the fat
Trencher / trench mouth
Bed and board
Upper crust
Wake
Graveyard shift
Saved by the bell and dead ringer
Posh, phat pommies. Ichthys
Cabal
AWOL
Fuck
News and tips
Golf
Spud
Wog
Nylon
SOS
Pommy
Phat
Posh
Canoe. Devil to pay
Let the cat out of the bag
Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey
Over a barrel
Mind your Ps and Qs
Under the weather
Knock off
Son of a gun
Railroad origins : Balling the jack ; Balls to the wall
Ethnic origins : Lynch ; Jazz ; America
Hookers, harlots, and condoms. Hooker
Harlot
Condom
Crap
In like Flynn
Real McCoy
Dixie
Upset
Pumpernickel
Ellis Island name changing
The perils of political correctness. Picnic
Nitty gritty
Jimmies
Indian / In Dios
Indian giver
Squaw
Hip/hep
Gay
Faggot
Handicap
Politically correct
Tinker's dream
Wax tadpoles and jelly doughnuts. I am a jelly doughnut
Chevy no go
Bite the wax tadpole
Turn it loose and fly naked
Kangaroo
Gringo