Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Casual Lex: An Informal Assemblage of Why We Say What We Say
    Unavailable
    Casual Lex: An Informal Assemblage of Why We Say What We Say
    Unavailable
    Casual Lex: An Informal Assemblage of Why We Say What We Say
    Ebook280 pages4 hours

    Casual Lex: An Informal Assemblage of Why We Say What We Say

    By Webb Garrison

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Are you a lover of language?

    Awaken your passion for words, and savor the sheer deliciousness of the things people say!

    Casual Lex holds the hidden pleasures found in our usage of words. This fresh edition of the classic Why You Say It will turn you on to the fascinating?and often surprising?stories behind everyday words and phrases. Experience Casual Lex and discover:

    • The phrase hell on wheels comes from the early American practice of renting railway flatcars to create rolling casinos and brothels bound for the Wild West.
    • Gibberish was the word coined by English villagers to describe the hard-to-understand dialects of certain bands of Gypsies.
    • Gymnasium comes from the Greek word gymnos, which means "naked"?Greek athletes trained and competed in the nude.

    If your joy of language has been aroused, then many more surprises await you. After all, even the most formal users of our language can benefit from a little Casual Lex.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThomas Nelson
    Release dateMay 9, 2005
    ISBN9781418557935
    Unavailable
    Casual Lex: An Informal Assemblage of Why We Say What We Say

    Read more from Webb Garrison

    Related to Casual Lex

    Related ebooks

    Language Arts & Discipline For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      I Am Taught By Towels

      Sep 19, 2018

      It’s impressive how educational hand-drying the dishes can be. Almost without knowing it, one may absorb a range of more or less useful information as the cutlery gets drier and the dishcloth damper. I am thinking in particular of two literary dish t

      3 min read

    • Article

      Michael Wood On...

      Jan 21, 2021

      I’m reading Camilla Townsend’s Fifth Sun, which won the 2020 Cundill Prize, the biggest literary prize anywhere for history. A boldly imaginative attempt to tell the story of the Aztecs from indigenous sources, it raises fascinating issues. The Spani

      3 min read

    • Article

      The 2020 veggie Awards

      Mar 31, 2020

      The 2020 veggie Awards
      6 min read

    • Article

      Surfspeak

      Nov 17, 2017

      Surfspeak
      3 min read

    • Article

      The State Of It

      Sep 12, 2021

      The State Of It
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Beauty Of LANGUAGE

      Feb 4, 2021

      What does a Jerusalem artichoke have to do with Jerusalem? Why do we fall head over heels when that’s the right way up? And doesn’t having your cake and eating it make total sense? If you’ve ever pondered any of these linguistic curiosities, the answ

      3 min read

    • Article

      50 Writing Events Happening This Season

      Jun 19, 2021

      Writing conferences, retreats, and festivals are some of the best places to hone your craft and learn from some of the top names in the field, but they also offer the unique opportunity to meet fellow writers. In what can often be a solitary career,

      10 min read

    • Article

      Foreign Languages

      Feb 25, 2021

      Parla Italiano? You will after these classes taught by Indy Italian. Cristiana Thielmann leads private lessons with an emphasis on pronunciation. Cost: $200 for six 90-minute virtual classes Dates: Year-round Where: 317-581-1340, facebook.com/indyita

      1 min read

    • Article

      What If Better Penmanship Could Make You a Better Person

      Aug 14, 2019

      That's the premise behind Uruguayan author Mario Levrero's first novel, sure to enhance his reputation as a cult figure of Latin American literature. The post What If Better Penmanship Could Make You a Better Person appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Poetic Asides

      Dec 21, 2020

      The viator is a form invented by poet Robin Skelton, author of The Shapes of Our Singing. Here are the basic rules: • The first line is a refrain.• The refrain appears as the second line of the second stanza, third line of the third stanza, and so on

      1 min read

    • Article

      Oxygen In Ash

      Dec 15, 2021

      IN OUR first COVID summer, the fires outside Fort Collins, Colorado, burned so close that ash would fall from the sky—gentle as snowflakes, gentle as the dying leaves of the honey locust tree. All the clouds were smoke, a sulfur yellow and deep purpl

      4 min read

    • Article

      Write What You (Don’t) Know: Graduate School, Research, and Writing a Novel

      Apr 30, 2018

      By the end of my first semester of a PhD in history, I was sure I was going to drop out. I felt out of place, as if I were a student who, for weeks, sat in on the wrong class and decided to play along, the inertia of a decision keeping me from findin

      6 min read

    • Article

      Edwardian

      Dec 31, 2019

      Edwardian
      5 min read

    • Article

      Required Reading

      Sep 3, 2019

      Required Reading
      17 min read

    • Article

      The Tyranny of the Verb To Be

      Jun 13, 2022

      The Tyranny of the Verb To Be
      9 min read

    Reviews for Casual Lex

    3.5/5

    4 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words