Bum Fodder

Bum Fodder
Author: Richard Smyth
Publisher: Souvenir Press
Total Pages: 112
Release: 2012-10-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0285641204

This is the hidden history of an invention that we use every day but seldom dare to speak of. In medieval China it was cutting-edge technology. For 19th-century Americans it was a newfangled alternative to dried corncobs and the Sears & Roebuck catalogue. Wits in Georgian London preferred pages of bad poetry. The sages of ancient Athens were content to wield the xylospongion instead. It's the tale of toilet paper; the biography of bumfodder. From its origins at the Imperial court of Emperor Hongwu to its reinvention as a quack remedy for haemorrhoids in 1870s New York city; from the Dutch and their mussel-shells to Henry VIII and his Groom of the Stool; from Madame de Prie's pioneering bidet to the space-age Washlet; from leaf-wielding chimpanzees to Mr Thirsty Fiber and the world's first three-adjective loo-roll - it's a story of necessity and invention, luxury and squalor, experiment and tradition. What does a submarine crew do when it runs out of toilet paper? Who stole the Pope's loo-roll? Does printer's ink cause piles? How do you fold a sheet of toilet paper in half more than seven times? What did 'bumphleteers' do, and why? Richard Smyth answers the questions you never thought to ask about the product we can't live without.

The Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang

The Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang
Author: Eric Partridge
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 6031
Release: 2003-09-02
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1135795428

Drawn from the Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, with the emphasis on the expressions used or coined before 1914.

A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English

A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English
Author: Eric Partridge
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 1426
Release: 2006-05-02
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1134963653

The definitive work on the subject, this Dictionary - available again in its eighth edition - gives a full account of slang and unconventional English over four centuries and will entertain and inform all language-lovers.

To End All War

To End All War
Author: Nicholas Lambros
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 575
Release: 2014-08-28
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1491743840

It is 1916 and twenty-six-year-old John Morris cannot ignore the Great War anymore. Despite his fathers objections and the fact that America has not even entered the war yet, John leaves Maryland for France where he hopes to fulfill his mission of becoming a flyer in the Lafayette Escadrille. He leaves behind not only his parents, but also his surgeon brother, Michael, and sister, Catherine, who are quietly nurturing their own dreams to play a part in the war. Over two years later, Johns father is dead, his mother is in Arizona, and Michael and Catherine are heading to New York. Michael is soon assigned to an aid station in France while Catherine translates French documents for the State Department. But after she is supposedly sent to Paris to work at the United States Embassy, Catherine is made a counterspy in a French town near the Swiss border. As John, Michael, and Catherine each do their best to help in a war that stretches from the skies to the Western Front, none of them realize that only two of them will return home. In this historical novel, three young Americans drawn into the Great War bravely battle seemingly insurmountable challenges while attempting to survive loss, find love, and pursue their dreams.

Shorter Slang Dictionary

Shorter Slang Dictionary
Author: Paul Beale
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2003-09-02
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1134879520

From abdabs to zit From pillock (14th century) to couch potato (20th century) From She'll be apples (Australia) to the pits (USA) This new collection brings together some 5,000 contemporary slang expressions originating in all parts of the English-speaking world. It gives clear and concise definitions of each word, supplemented by examples of their use and information about where and when they came into being. This entertaining reference work will be of use to students of English at all levels and a source of fascination to word-lovers throughout the world.

The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English

The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English
Author: Tom Dalzell
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 15065
Release: 2015-06-26
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1317372514

Booklist Top of the List Reference Source The heir and successor to Eric Partridge's brilliant magnum opus, The Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, this two-volume New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English is the definitive record of post WWII slang. Containing over 60,000 entries, this new edition of the authoritative work on slang details the slang and unconventional English of the English-speaking world since 1945, and through the first decade of the new millennium, with the same thorough, intense, and lively scholarship that characterized Partridge's own work. Unique, exciting and, at times, hilariously shocking, key features include: unprecedented coverage of World English, with equal prominence given to American and British English slang, and entries included from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, South Africa, Ireland, and the Caribbean emphasis on post-World War II slang and unconventional English published sources given for each entry, often including an early or significant example of the term’s use in print. hundreds of thousands of citations from popular literature, newspapers, magazines, movies, and songs illustrating usage of the headwords dating information for each headword in the tradition of Partridge, commentary on the term’s origins and meaning New to this edition: A new preface noting slang trends of the last five years Over 1,000 new entries from the US, UK and Australia New terms from the language of social networking Many entries now revised to include new dating, new citations from written sources and new glosses The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English is a spectacular resource infused with humour and learning – it’s rude, it’s delightful, and it’s a prize for anyone with a love of language.