Language History

Idioms and expressions are a part of everyday English, but they aren't always the easiest to figure out. Many of these phrases have meanings that aren't immediately clear, and it can be confusing when they come up in conversations.

Sir Philip Sidney was an Elizabethan courtier, statesman, soldier, poet, and patron of scholars and poets. He was famous as the ideal gentleman of his day and a model for subsequent generations until the twentieth century replaced classical education with industrial age expedience. He represents something of what we have lost in modern self-interest. For three centuries, he was considered the most extraordinary man of the English Renaissance. But unfortunately, his legacy has faded from modern prominence. Nevertheless, it is fascinating to peer into the past and discover a singular person ...

Bad English is sure to enlighten, enrage, and perhaps even inspire. Filled with historic and contemporary examples, the audiobook chronicles the long and entertaining history of language mistakes, and features some of our most common words and phrases, including decimate, hopefully, enormity, that vs. which, enervate vs. energize, bemuse vs. amuse, literally vs. figuratively, ain't, irregardless, socialist, OMG, and stupider.

Get the Ultimate Guide to Winning Wars! Sun Tzu's Art of War For centuries, Sun Tzu's Art of War has been the ultimate guide for military strategists, diplomats, and leaders seeking to gain a competitive edge. This comprehensive compendium brings together two of the most respected English translations of this ancient Chinese masterpiece, along with the original text in Chinese annotated with pinyin. Two Classic Translations, One Unparalleled Resource This unique collection features the translations of: Arthur Calthrop, a British officer and scholar who first introduced the Art of War to ...

Read Between the Lines Poetry Book, by author Reneé Drummond-Brown, depicts precept upon precept, line upon line, little here and a little there, stroke by stroke, mark by mark, ink by ink, stripe by stripe, link by link, stain by stain, and blood by blood.

Do you worry that you've lost patience for anything longer than a tweet? If so, you're not alone. Digital-age pundits warn that as our appetite for books dwindles, so too do the virtues in which printed, bound objects once trained us: the willpower to focus on a sustained argument, the curiosity to look beyond the day's news, the willingness to be alone. The shelves of the world's great libraries, though, tell a more complicated story. Examining the wear and tear on the books that they contain, English professor Leah Price finds scant evidence that a golden age of reading ever existed.

From the author of 'Barry Braithwaite's Last Life', 'Upcote and Smythe', 'Caveman' and more, a hilarious blow-by-blow account of the life of an expatriate Englishman. Ernest Postlethwaite was a man embarking on a new life. No longer for him the routine and drudgery of the commuter. The first part of Ernest Postlethwaite's groundbreaking journal charters the course of a man on a mission to achieve cultural and linguistic integration in a small village in southern Spain. This unadulterated manuscript will bring tears to the eyes of the most hard-hearted among us, as we follow his footsteps ...

Roots Matter A Baptist’s Interpretation of Church history Learn: The consequences of right and wrong thinking concerning church history What we believe about the beginning and development of church history dramatically influences how we behave as Christians. It also impacts the testimony we have to the world around us. The worldwide influence of the Apostles With the supernatural enabling of the Lord these twelve turned more than the Middle East upside down for Christ. It is very possible that, by the end of the first century, much of the known world at the time, including Africa, India, ...

Perhaps not surprisingly given how advanced they were in comparison to contemporaries, the Egyptians invented one of the first writing systems ever, and for centuries, people thought these ancient texts held some sort of secret, be it aliens, advanced technology lost to the world, or mystical cures for all of the world’s ills. Even the ancient Egyptians saw their writing systems as full of mystery and hidden knowledge - according to Egyptian mythology, writing was invented by the ibis-headed god Thoth, the most intellectual of the gods.

This extraordinarily wide-ranging work represents a new departure for contemporary literary theory. Author of Beginnings and the controversial Orientalism, Edward Said demonstrates that modern critical discourse has been impressively strengthened by the writings of Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault, for example, and by such influences as Marxism, structuralism, linguistics, and psychoanalysis.

"Matar una cucaracha de Osvaldo Calixto Amador es una memoria evocadora y profundamente introspectiva que captura el turbulento viaje del autor a través de importantes desafíos personales e históricos. Esta poderosa narrativa tiene como telón de fondo la Revolución Cubana, el exilio y la devastación provocada por la epidemia del SIDA. Amador entrelaza su odisea personal con temas más amplios extraídos de Matar a un ruiseñor de Harper Lee, utilizando la metáfora del ruiseñor para explorar la inocencia y los dilemas morales inherentes a su propia vida. Las memorias profundizan en ...

Have you ever seen a Shakespeare play and come away without fully understanding it? Or wished you had known the basis of the plot before seeing a play by Shakespeare? Are you studying Shakespeare? Would you like to increase your knowledge of the plays without reading the originals? Then these are the recordings for you!

The Language of the Game is a passionate and engaging introduction to soccer's history, tactics, and human drama. Filled with perceptive insights and stories both legendary and little known, The Language of the Game is a rewarding listen for anyone seeking to understand soccer better.

We all learn at least one language as children. But what does it take to learn six languages...or seventy? In Babel No More, Michael Erard, "a monolingual with benefits," sets out on a quest to meet language superlearners and make sense of their mental powers. On the way he uncovers the secrets of historical figures like Italian cardinal Giuseppe Mezzofanti, who was said to speak seventy-two languages; Emil Krebs, a pugnacious German diplomat, who spoke sixty-eight languages; and Lomb Kat, a Hungarian who taught herself Russian by reading Russian romance novels.

In its long history, the English language has had many lawmakers - those who have tried to regulate or otherwise organize the way we speak. The Lexicographer's Dilemma poses a pair of questions: What does proper English mean? And who gets to say what's right? Our ideas of correct or proper English have a history, and today's debates over the state of the language - whether about Ebonics in schools, the unique use of language in a South Park episode, or split infinitives in the Times - make sense only in historical context.

Embark on a journey through the heart of Scottish Gaelic culture with Celtic Wisdom and Wit. This captivating collection of proverbs offers a window into the rich traditions, humor, and wisdom of the Celtic people. Each proverb, lovingly translated into English, reveals the timeless values and keen insights that have shaped generations, making this book a treasure trove of cultural heritage. But this is more than just a collection of sayings—it's an immersive experience. Accompanied by beautifully crafted illustrations, each proverb comes with detailed notes that explore the cultural and ...

Join the Journey of Human Progress: "Nukes Jets and Chips" - A Thrilling History of Global Enlightenments!Imagine a world where human ingenuity and curiosity have propelled us from the dawn of civilization to the threshold of a utopian solarpunk future. Nukes Jets and Chips takes you on a breathtaking ride through the epic story of global enlightenments, from the earliest sparks of innovation in pre-history to our present day to understand what causes enlightenments and dark ages. This inspiring narrative weaves together the threads of science, technology, and humanism, revealing how our ...

Who knew that the great country of Canada is named for a mistake? How about "bedswerver", the best Elizabethan insult to hurl at a cheating boyfriend? By exploring the delightful back stories of the 250 words in Wordcatcher, listeners will be lured by language and entangled in etymologies. It takes a special wordcatcher to create a treasure chest of remarkable words and their origins, and any word lover will relish the stories that Cousineau has discovered.

When it comes to mastering a foreign language, learning around your interests makes all the difference. But finding books designed for language learners can be hard! This book fixes that. For the first time, you’ll learn to improve your Spanish while learning about the history and theory of rock’n’roll.

We think of Alexander Graham Bell as the inventor of the telephone, but that’s not how he saw his own career. As the son of a deaf woman and, later, husband to another, his goal in life from adolescence was to teach deaf students to speak. Even his tinkering sprang from his teaching work; the telephone had its origins as a speech reading machine. The Invention of Miracles takes a new look at an American icon, revealing the astonishing true genesis of the telephone and its connection to another, far more disturbing legacy of Bell’s.