Staff Picks: Books

Staff-recommended reading from the KPL catalog.

This one puts a crick in the pump handle!

As might be expected, KPL owns a wide range of English language dictionaries, including the esteemed Oxford English Dictionary, the Random House, and the American Heritage. What many may not know is that we also have many specialized sources for word information. One of my favorites is NTC’S Dictionary of Folksy, Regional, and Rural Sayings, edited by Anne Bertram. The purpose of this volume is to catalog and provide examples of usage of words, expressions, and idioms not likely to be found in the standard repertoire of sources that one usually consults. Here are some of the entries: buffalo chip, take a look-see, like tryin’ to scratch your ear with your elbow, I’ll eat my hat, thisaway, think a heap of, sorry-lookin,’ boughten, tarnation, prolly, your eyes are bigger than your stomach, it’s raining pitchforks, get shed of it, etc. etc. Maybe it’s because my family lived for many years in the rural parts of Iowa and Michigan when they first came to this country that many phrases in this book sound very familiar to me. Or, possibly when the editor included the word “regional” in the title she also meant the Midwest! This unique work nicely fills a niche in the documentation of American speech and dialect. [Please note that I had this all written and ready to go before the review of the Strunk volume appeared!]

Book

NTC's dictionary of folksy, regional, and rural sayings
0844258334
David D.

Comments

Thanks, David... should be interesting! I also grew up in rural Michigan, and remember well the many sayings exchanged by my parents and other nearby farmers that are now all but lost... "Couldn't hit the broad side of a barn" (referring to my pitching skills), "If it'd been a bear, it'd have bit ya'" (when something was close but I couldn't see it), "cow pie" (no description necessary), "hotter 'n blue blazes," and "lower than a snake's belly in a wagon rut" (not really sure where that one came from!).

By Keith, 04/14/2009

interesting post! amazing the words and phrases that are in the actual dictionary these days to... clutching at straws is one of my old time favourites :)

By Cape Town Hotels, 06/05/2009