Eric Partridge - A Dictionary of Cliches [2005, PDF]

A Dictionary of Cliches

Год выпуска: 2005
Автор: Eric Partridge
Издательство: Taylor & Francis e-Library
ISBN: 0-203-37996-9
Формат: PDF
Качество: eBook (изначально компьютерное)
Количество страниц: 549
Описание: This work is full of things better left unsaid: hackneyed phrases, idioms battered into senselessness, infuriating Gallicisms, once-familiar quotations and tags from the ancient classics. It makes a formidable list, amplified as it is with definitions, sources, and indications of the cliches, venerability in every case.
Cliches, the "coin(s) so battered by use as to be defaced," are anathema to Eric Partridge. He says, "their ubiquity is remarkable and rather frightening," and while he likens proverbs to expressions of wisdom, he says, cliches are instances of "inanition." They all sound familiar, for such is the nature of the cliche. What, for example, does "in the event of an emergency" add, beyond verbosity, instead of "in an emergency"? And so, from "abject apology" to "your guess is as good as mine," he lists, explains, and categorizes more than 2,000 trite and tired phrases to avoid "at all costs."

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