Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable Book

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable is one of the world's best-loved reference books. First published in 1870, this treasury of 'words that have a tale to tell has established itself as one of the great reference classics-the first port of call for tens of thousands of terms, phrases and proper names, and a fund of fascinating, unusual and out-of-the-way information.

At the heart of the dictionary lie entries on the meaning and origin of a vast range of words and expressions, from everyday phrases to Latin tags. Alongside these are articles on people and events in mythology and religion, and on folk customs, superstitions and beliefs. Major events and people in history are also treated, as are movements in art and literature, famous literary characters, and key aspects of popular culture, philosophy, geography, science and magic. To complete this rich mix of information, Brewer and his subsequent editors have added an extraordinary and enticing miscellany of general knowledge-lists of patron saints, terms in heraldry, regimental nicknames, public house names, and famous last words.

For the sixteenth edition of Brewer's the entire existing text has been revised and updated and over 1000 new articles added. These include:

• recent expressions (the full monty, couch potato, bit the ground running, Montezuma's revenge)
• recent events and organizations (Black Wednesday, Taliban)
• famous nicknames (Fab Four)
• historical and fictional characters (Attila the Hun, Anne Frank).

Brand-new articles on hurricane names, celebrated place-names in literature, and frequently mispronounced words continue the century-old Brewer's practice of recording unexpected and fascinating information that is not available in other general reference books.

About the Authors:

Dr. Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, the son of a Norwich schoolmaster, was born in 1810. He graduated in Law from Cambridge in 1836 and two years later was ordained, before returning to teach at his father's school. There he compiled his first major work, A Guide to Science. It proved immensely popular, perhaps funding the extensive European travels he subsequently undertook.

Returning to England in 1856, he slowly put together the work that was to become Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Much of the nucleus of the dictionary derived from correspondence with readers of his earlier works, beginning a tradition of readers' involvement with the new book that continues today. The first edition was published by Cassell in 1870 and sold over 100,000 copies. In 1894 Brewer compiled a completely revised and substantially enlarged edition. He lived for another three years, long enough to see sales of the revised edition 'far exceed our utmost expectations'.

Adrian Room, who has revised the Sixteenth Edition of Brewer's, is the author of over fifty popular reference books, mainly on the origins of words, and, in particular, names. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a member of the English Place-Name Society and American Name Society. He was a Senior Lecturer in Russian with the Ministry of Defence until 1984, when he took up full-time writing.