Idiomantics: The Weird and Wonderful World of Popular Phrases

by Philip Gooden, Peter Lewis

Idiomantics is a unique exploration of the world of idiomatic phrases. The very etymology of the word 'idiom' reveals what's so endlessly fascinating about the wide range of colourful phrases we use in everyday speech: their peculiarity. They're peculiar both in the sense of being particular or unique to the culture from which they originate, and in the sense of being downright odd.

To cite three random examples - from American English, Dutch and Italian - what on Earth are a snow job, a monkey sandwich story, and Mr Punch's secret? Fascinating and illuminating, Idiomantics explains all...

The ideal gift for word buffs and in fact, anyone who enjoys a good yarn, this playful book looks at 12 groups of idioms around the world, looking at subjects such as fun and games, gastronomic delights and the daily grind.

Genres: Language, Linguistics, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Philip Gooden lives in Bath. In addition to his Nick Revill series, Sleep of Death, he is the author of The Guinness Guide to Better English and the editor of The Mammoth Book of Literary Anecdotes. Each of his Nick Revill mysteries revolves around a Shakespearean play mirroring life - in Sleep of Death the play was Hamlet, in this offering it is Troilus and Cressida.
AKA Philippa Morgan.

Series:
* Shakespearean Murder
* Tom Ansell

Reviews

[Maura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Skewed with no explanation

Around 35% of all idioms offered were American in origin and around 12% of all idioms were specifically from, or about, American politics. This doesn't include when examples from American politics were given for more widely applicable idioms. Also, there's nothing wrong with a Eurocentric language focus but, even for a Eurocentric focus, it's very limited in scope (6 languages* and 3 English dialects over nearly 200 idioms).

None of this would be an issue if the framing of the book either set up an expectation or explanation for this clear bent. If you tell me it's a hodge-podge of idioms, that's what I'm going to expect. Furthermore, a book telling me the history of nearly 200 idioms with only 14 footnotes does not fill me with confidence, especially as I spotted a factual error used to emphasise a point (Joanne Harris is half French. Her first language was French. While she also grew up in the UK, her perspective is not of a monolingual British person, so she's a poor example of how France's 'Northern European' neighbours depict its love of eating).

*(Flemish was included in one of the final idioms and is really bolstering the stats here).

[Helena · Rating 2 out of 5]

Giles Brandreth and I are looking for different things in the books we read, it seems. A simple book, I read most of it today and only read a few pages on Friday morning on the way into work. I was puzzled by the lack of conclusions for some idioms - "origin unknown" seemed to be an okay finish more often than I'd expect from a book written to explain idioms and their origins.

[Yas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly interesting in places, but largely ethnocentric and outdated.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an entertaining little book. It was a little ethnocentric (British) on occasion, but probably tongue in cheek (to use an idiom that wasn't in the book).

Some of my favorites:
German: Den flotten Otto Haben - To have the brisk Otto or diarrhea.
Dutch: Broodje aap verhaal - Monkey Sandwich Story - an urban myth
German: Die beleidigte Leberwurst spielen - To play the insulted liver sausage - go off in a huff
French: Peigner la girafe - combing the giraffe - waste time on a pointless task
US: All hat and no cattle - You're pretending to be important but your claims are without substance
French: Revenons a nos moutons - Let's return to our sheep - as I was saying...
French: Parler francais comme une vache espagnole - speak French like a Spanish Cow - to speak French very badly.
German: Einen Ohrwurm haben - To have an earworm - can't get that song out of your head.
and my MOST favorite:
Spanish: Salir de Guatemala y/para entrar en Guatepeor - leave Guatemala and arrive in Guatepeor - out of the frying pan into the fire - this one is a clever pun using the ending Mala (bad) and Peor (worse).

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book with all those phases in that you that you know, but are never sure where they came from. This cover a number of countries phrases, not just the UK and US. Some of them are very similar to phrases and naturally can be quite rude, either implied or innuendo.

As a fan of language books, this was right up my street, so to speak...

[Kathleen Fredd · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mildly interesting.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fun book about the origins of phrases, though probably better to delve than to attempt to peruse cover-to-cover as I did, it being a library book.