Shaggy Dogs and Black Sheep
By Albert Jack
()
About this ebook
Albert Jack's Shaggy Dogs and Black Sheep is a compulsively readable, highly enlightening look at the phrases we use all the time but rarely consider.
The English language is crammed with colourful phrases and sayings that we use without thinking every day.
It's only when we're asked who smart Alec or Holy Moly were, where feeling 'in the pink' or 'once in a blue moon' come from, or even what letting the cat out of the bag really means that we realize that there's far more to English than we might have thought.
Luckily enough, we now have Albert Jack. And rather than resting on his laurels after the enormous success of Red Herrings and White Elephants, he has continued his search around the world, exploring the origins of hundreds more phrases.
The fascinating stories he has uncovered come from the rich traditions of the navy, army and law to confidence tricksters and highwaymen, from the practices of ancient civilizations to Music Hall and pubs.
Determined to chase each shaggy dog story to the bitter end, his discoveries are even stranger and more memorable this time round. From the skin of your teeth to the graveyard shift - you'll never speak (or even think) English in the same way again.
Albert Jack has become something of a publishing phenomenon, clocking up hundreds of thousands of sales with his series of bestselling adventures tracing the fantastic stories behind everyday phrases (Red Herrings and White Elephants), the world's great mysteries (Loch Ness Monsters and Raining Frogs) nursery rhymes (Pop Goes the Weasel) pub names (The Old Dog and Duck and food history (What Caesar did for My Salad)
Read more from Albert Jack
Short Stories for Kids: Children’s Stories: Reading for Children Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Robert Kennedy: JFK: The Death of Marilyn Monroe: Who Didn't Kill Them Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Moral Stories for Kids Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRed Herrings & White Elephants: The Origins of the Phrases We Use Every Day Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Food History & Recipe Origins: The Origins of the Names of the World's Favorite Recipes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPop Goes the Weasel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEnglish Words: Learn English: English Grammar: Advanced English Words: Origins, History & Meanings Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Bermuda Triangle: Real Life Mysteries: Unsolved Mysteries Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5They Laughed at Galileo: How the Great Inventors Proved Their Critics Wrong Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnsolved Mysteries: Real Life Mysteries: Ten Famous Disappearances Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/59/11 Conspiracy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHealthy Breakfast Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Sheep and Lame Ducks: Origins of Idioms and Phrases Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5JFK: The Death of Marilyn Monroe: Who Didn't Kill Them Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBritish Myths & Legends: Good Short Stories: Legends that made Britain Great Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Urban Myths: Short Stories: Urban Myths & Legends Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsD.B. Cooper Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUrban Myths & Legends Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mysterious World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Seventh Day Adventists & The Great American Fraud Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5How to Write Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJet Engines Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSeptember 11 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Paranormal Mysteries Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Donald Trump: Donald Trump Quotes: In His Own Words Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Jam: Sounds From The Street Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAre Aliens Real?: Aroura Spaceman: America's First Reported UFO Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNWO: Bilderberg Conspiracy and the Future of the West Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Shaggy Dogs and Black Sheep
Related ebooks
Blue Moons and Black Markets Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlack Sheep and Lame Ducks: Origins of Idioms and Phrases Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Ridiculously Comprehensive Dictionary of British Slang Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5English Words Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Language of London: Cockney Rhyming Slang Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEndangered Phrases: Intriguing Idioms Dangerously Close to Extinction Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It's a Wonderful Word Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dictionary of Clichés: A Word Lover's Guide to 4,000 Overused Phrases and Almost-Pleasing Platitudes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHoly Cow!: Doggerel, Catnaps, Scapegoats, Foxtrots, and Horse Feathers—Splendid Animal Words and Phrases Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAs Right as Rain: The Meaning and Origins of Popular Expressions Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5A Certain Je Ne Sais Quoi: Words We Pinched From Other Languages Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Military & Nautical Phrases Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Word In Your Shell-Like Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Not Hanging Noodles on Your Ears and Other Intriguing Idioms From Around the World Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Blimey, I’m Knackered!: An American's Survival Guide to British English Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhy Do Pirates Love Parrots?: An Imponderables (R) Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Disappearing Dictionary: A Treasury of Lost English Dialect Words Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Common Phrases: And the Amazing Stories Behind Them Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The World's Worst Swear Words & Their Surprising Origins: English: The World's Swear Words, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Story of English: How an Obscure Dialect Became the World's Most-Spoken Language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pop Goes the Weasel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Book of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks: A Celebration of Creative Punctuation Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Sorry, I'm British!: An Insider's Romp Through Britain from A to Z Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gift of the Gob: Morsels of English Language History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Divided by a Common Language: A Guide to British and American English Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A History of English Place Names and Where They Came From Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWordstruck!: The Fun and Fascination of Language Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5What's in a Word?: Fascinating Stories of More Than 350 Everyday Words and Phrases Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Linguistics For You
500 Beautiful Words You Should Know Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5We Need to Talk: How to Have Conversations That Matter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Verbal Judo, Second Edition: The Gentle Art of Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dark Matter of the Mind: The Culturally Articulated Unconscious Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tyranny of Words Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Essential Chomsky Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms: American English Idiomatic Expressions & Phrases Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dictionary of Word Origins Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5made in america: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Grammar Book You'll Ever Need: A One-Stop Source for Every Writing Assignment Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5So to Speak: 11,000 Expressions That'll Knock Your Socks Off Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Yiddishkeit: Jewish Vernacular & the New Land Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Language: Chomsky's Classic Works: Language and Responsibility and Reflections on Language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dark Psychology and Manipulation: Psychology, Relationships and Self-Improvement, #1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Origin of Names, Words and Everything in Between Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Book of Common Fallacies: Falsehoods, Misconceptions, Flawed Facts, and Half-Truths That Are Ruining Your Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInspired Baby Names from Around the World: 6,000 International Names and the Meaning Behind Them Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Kind of Creatures Are We? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Watch Your Tongue: What Our Everyday Sayings and Idioms Figuratively Mean Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInventing English: A Portable History of the Language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flappers 2 Rappers: American Youth Slang Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Shaggy Dogs and Black Sheep
0 ratings0 reviews