Word: etymologists
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...rings. "I don't have a girlfriend," I reply. "You know why you don't have a girlfriend? It's because you don't buy her a present." The logic is hardly watertight, but her repartee is easily worth a dollar. After dusk, Phsar Chas hurtles into overdrive. No etymologist is required to explain the nature of adjoining Pub Street, a grid of red-tiled colonial town houses that has evolved into one of the most eclectic entertainment zones in Asia. There's the inevitable Irish pub, numerous spots punning on the Angkor handle (including the semi-satirical Angkor What...
...sample of etymologist Eric Partridge's "vulgar dictionary" contained the commonest four-letter words, but they were masked with asterisks. The fun came in definitions of such obscure but piquant phrases as Back Gammon Player, Brother of the Gusset, Fire Ship, Irish Whist, Nogging House, Pushing School, Scotch Warming Pan and Whiffles. I suppose they might have raised a giggle from the youth of Olde England or 60s Middle America, but kids of the latter era were getting naughtier word play from Ian Fleming. Remember Pussy Galore...
...holocaust” did not always have the stigma of being connected to arguably the greatest concentration of organized evil in human history. Originally, he says, holocaust was just a word, and with that in mind, Webster feels that “I, as a lexicographer and etymologist, have a duty to restore a perfectly respectable word back to its original meaning...
...etymologist in me prefers “Parthian shot” to “parting shot”: the former version of the phrase retains the allusion to Parthia, that ancient West Asian kingdom whose inhabitants employed the charming tactic of firing arrows backwards while they were fleeing, or pretending to flee, battles. Treat this column as a series of shots from Southeast Asia. I have no advice to give. I’m just telling my (unabashedly enthusiastic) story...
...filling each page to the maximum has produced sometimes uncomfortably small, though sharp, illustrations. Which one should birders buy? The answer for many will probably be both: Kaufman to have in hand for quick reference in the field, with Sibley waiting at home for post-trip analysis. No etymologist would be content to own just one dictionary. Why should birders be any less resourceful...