"balderdash and piffle: one sandwich short of a dog's dinner"

[niyad]

(oh, look, it's a television programme as well!!)


Balderdash & Piffle: One Sandwich Short of a Dog's Dinner
by Alex Games

Published by BBC Books

Balderdash & Piffle: One Sandwich Short of a Dog's Dinner is also available as:





Synopsis

Balderdash & Piffle: One Sandwich Short of a Dog's Dinner is a thrilling ride through the provocative, bewildering and often downright bizarre world of language and etymology. From the brash jargon of celebrity magazines to the delicacies and feints of the euphemism, author and word-sleuth Alex Games has uncovered the remarkable stories that lie behind some of our best-loved words and expressions.

By grouping words into distinct themes - such as put downs and insults, the vocab of fashionistas and the lingo of dodgy dealings - Balderdash & Piffle looks at the English language in a fresh and revealing light.

Who was the original Jack the Lad? What is the tragic story behind the expression Sweet F.A.? Balderdash & Piffle will show you where thugs come from, why 'barmy' once had more to do with your beer than your brain, and how a little bit of 'hanky-panky' could literally work magic. From the 'Cloud-cuckoo-land' of Aristophanes to the town of Balaclava, this is a funny but rigorously researched account of English words and their origins.

Drawing together sources as diverse as William Shakespeare, David Cameron and the Burnham-on-Sea Gazette, Alex Games recalls the trends, innovations and scandals that have produced some of our most familiar but least explored words and phrases. Accompanying a brand new series of the hit BBC television programme Balderdash & Piffle - and containing all the results of the 'Wordhunt' from the first series -this entertaining book is a treasure trove for English-language lovers everywhere.

http://www.eburypublishing.co.uk/editions/balderdash-piffle-one-sandwich-short-of-a-dogs-dinner/9781846072352

[malthaussen]

1. The GOP's manual of rhetoric.

Sorry, couldn't resist. I wonder if the show/book accounts for the many words/phrases that the English language inherited from colonies and imperially exploited territories. I was always amused, for example, to find that "The Almighty Dollar" had nothing to do with the U.S. dollar.

-- Mal

[Sentath]

2. good spot to drop a favorite quote

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that the English language is as pure as a crib-house whore. It not only borrows words from other languages; it has on occasion chased other languages down dark alley-ways, clubbed them unconscious and rifled their pockets for new vocabulary."
—James Nicoll, can.general, March 21, 1992

[niyad]

4. you nearly owed me a keyboard. love that quote, and going to share it with friends, so thank you!

[niyad]

3. bad mal!!!!!! true, that!! and you bring up some excellent points. since the book is a brit

pub. . . . going to take a few days to get it.

will let you know if the book answers your question.