Includes more than 7500 words, idioms, catchphrases, slogans, names, nicknames, 'named' events and book, film and TV-programme titles - all defined and fully explained Includes definitions and etymologies of new words and phrases, including the language of computer technology Blends scholarly authority with a generous helping of sheer serendipitous fun

About the Author

Adrian Room is an established writer of reference books, mainly on the origins of words and 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 Senior Lecturer in Russian with the Ministry of Defence until 1984, when he took up full-time writing.