Why Do We Say it?: The Stories behind the Words, Expressions and Cliches We Use

I was disapointed by this book, i can find more information with a 20 second search on google than i could plodding through this book looking for something even similar to what i wanted to know.

I do not recommend this book as a reference it is poor and seems to be sadly lacking in alot of common phrases which really should have been included.

I found this book very disappointing. It was far from comprehensive, missing out many phrases and sayings I was interested in, and also included a lot of single word definitions that could be obtained from any good dictionary. Beware that it is published in the USA, and consequently is heavily biased towards Americanisms.

This book is briliant. It gives good descriptions of the origins of words and phrases. I found quite a few phrases I didn't even know exsisted. Every phrase that I wanted to know about was in there. This would be a great book for anyone with an interest in the english language.