Author: Dhirendra Verma
Publisher: Sterling
Year: 1999/2004
Language: English
Pages: 426
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8120719301
Description
This book, the lifetime enterprise of an avid and enthusiastic researcher, endeavors to provide a delightful and enlightening glimpse into the mysteries and romance surrounding the origin of such words and phrases.
Verbal, vocal or written. Words determine our lives and enhance our skills of loquaciousness. And, of course, underline the gift of gab.
That's precisely why words are an adventure, words are fun. We cannot live without them,. But what do we really know about them?
The derivation of words can be very exciting, for many words are alive with history. Do you know where the word 'sandwich' comes from? All of us savor sandwiches at some point or the other without ever giving a thought to their noble inventor, the Earl of Sandwich, who refused to take time off from the gambling table to eat a regular meal. We have to thank another Earl for the word 'cardigan'. It was the Earl of Cardigan who popularized the style of woolen jacket which he wore during the Crimean War.
Words are often woven into popular phrases, most of which have an interesting legacy behind them. One such example is the 'hat trick' . This is a cricket phrase for taking three wickets with three successive balls. It is sometimes used outside cricket with reference to a triple success. In the early days of cricket the players used to wear top hats and a bowler performing the feat was entitled to a new hat at the expense of his club - hence, a 'hat trick'.
THE AUTHOR
DR DHIRENDRA VERMA has a masters Science from Agra University. He had been a Rockefeller Foundation Research Fellow at the National Institute of Virology in Pune before he left for Canada in 1962 on a scholarship to pursue studies at the doctoral level. He has also published numerous research articles in some of the leading international journals of education, and his book on Educational Administration has won wide critical acclaim.