Product Description

This thoroughly updated new edition of How Not to Say What You Mean celebrates 20 years of R. W. Holder's popular and successful dictionary of euphemisms, offering a delightful collection of jocular and evasive expressions for sex, death, murder, crime, prison, and much more.
Here are almost five thousand euphemistic expressions listed in alphabetical order, ranging from well-known favorites such as "push up the daisies," "fly-by-night," "red light district," "take to the cleaners," "get lucky," and "five-fingered discount," to less amusing expressions from the bureaucratic and military world such as "restructuring," "collateral damage," and "extrajudicial killing." For each word or expression, Holder includes examples from real authors, along with entertaining explanations of the words origins and meaning. Thus we learn that "bite the bullet" (to make a difficult decision) comes from the fact that soldiers, being flogged, were once given a bullet to bite down on, and "Stool Pigeon" (an informant) comes from the practice of tying a pigeon to a stool to lure other pigeons to capture.
New to this edition are over 250 new entries and fourteen introductory articles on major themes in euphemistic language, such as business, sex, death, and the human body. The book includes an extensive thematic index which groups words together under topics such as Age, Bankruptcy, Bribery, Copulation, Sexual Variations, Drunkenness, Erections and Orgasms, Farting, Funerals, Killing and Suicide, Low Intelligence, Politics, Prison, and Warfare.
From "suck the monkey" to "surgical strike," here is a wonderful collection of colorful words that allow us to avoid life's unpleasantries as we add spice and humor to our everyday speech.

"A must for tiptoeing around the truth. It is also rollicking reading for those who love words and the not always forthright uses to which they are put." --Chicago Sun-Times

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #255246 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780199208395
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

From Publishers Weekly
Delightful, quirky and exhaustive, Holder's dictionary of American and British circumlocutions is the kind of reference work that one can spend hours browsing through happily. This third edition includes thousands of alphabetized entries for both old-fashioned and contemporary terms. The term "uncover nakedness," for example, used be a standard Biblical translation for "copulate," though many people wouldn't recognize that use today. (Incidentally, "to line" also meant to copulate, and Holder cites part of Shakespeare's As You Like It as an example of such use: "Winter garments must be lined/So must slender Rosaline.") "Deep six," "underprivileged" and "rip off" still enjoy healthy use, and in Ireland "scuttered" still means "drunk." For Holder, however, this project is about more than just having fun with word games. In fine Orwellian spirit, Holder writes in his introduction that euphemism is "the language of evasion, of hypocrisy, of prudery, and of deceit," which makes it all the more important to be able to see through the embroidery.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
`An informative, amusing collection' The Observer

`Concise, well-organized entries' Library Journal

`Great fun, but not for the maiden aunt.' Sunday Telegraph

`Hugely enjoyable and cherishable' Times Educational Supplement

`It's unputdownable once you open it.' Yorkshire Post

`Review from previous edition Euphemists are a lively, inventive, self-regarding and bumptious bunch. Holder goes among them with an etymological glint in his eye.' Financial Times

`This bran tub of linguistice gems... A delight for browsers who love the vivid oddities of language... A valuable collection' City Limits

About the Author

R. W. Holder is a business executive and life-long lover of words. The director of numerous companies, he speaks several languages, and travels widely. He is also the author of Thinking About Management.

Customer Reviews

Straightforwardness over euphemism every time
R.W. Hodderfs dictionary is very helpful for those of us who want to say and write to be helpful without ambiguity, and who rail against the subversion of political correctness.

How Not To Say What You Mean is the updated guide to probity, candor, earthiness, and straightforwardness. The dictionary provides definitions with example sentences as well as explanations where appropriate. Thematically indexed the entries are wide-ranging: work, sexuality, bankruptcy, clothing, education, politics and aircraft, provide the real meaning for phrases well-known and obscure we come across daily in speech and writing such as liquidity crisis, coronary inefficiency, four-letter man, normalization, investigative journalism, governmental relations, ethically challenged and year of progress.

Itfs a dictionary to browse, to be entertained by and take courage from. Highly recommended for all who have the courage to say and write what we mean.

A fun reference book that may make you blush...
This is a good reference book for readers and writers, and possibly courageous public speakers. A thematic index at the back of the book makes finding the right term easy. The entries provide concise, clear definitions, as well as quoted sources which add clarity as to the origin and usage of the word or phrase. These authorities are cross-referenced to an author/work bibliography in the front of the book, handy for those who wish to conduct further research. Many of the euphemisms deal with sexual topics, a possible commentary on either the repressive or playful nature of our social mores. Most of the words and phrases are modern, at least within the last fifty years, but some obsolete terms are included, often to show comparison to current usage. While not an exhaustive study of euphemisms, or a substitution for a good slang dictionary, this is a great reference book to have, to use, and to read -- just for the fun of it.

Must read for lovers of words
The contents may be offensive to some readers. So be it! Words and their usage are part of our language. As an aside, I'd like to see someone take on the task of relating euphemisms to short titles of Congressional bills: Leave No Child Behind Act; Fair Tax Act; The USA Patriot Act; Help American Vote Act...