Black Sheep and Lame Ducks: The Origins of Even More Phrases We Use Every Day

Good book and well written for any age. Explains were many of our everyday phrases come from. Even after years of using some I never knew their origin. Good for anyone with a curious mind about words

I did not like Michael Chiarello's book. I is sitting on my shelf and will never again be touched but for dusting and when I get rid of it.Black Sheet etc. is on, although not as good as Red Herrings and White Elephants.

My 15 year old son really enjoyed this book. We sat around as a family talking about each story. A book like this might be what it takes to get a person reading.

I bought this for my aunt after we had a discussion about the origins of sayings. She has enjoyed it very much.

if you like reading a thesaurus, murphy's laws or a slang dictionary then you will like enjoy this little book.

This was a pretty interesting read. Many of the "every day phrases" it includes I had never heard of before, but I think it may be due to them being mainly sayings from England. I did find most of the explanations to be a bit ubiquitous. The author gives many takes on the same phrase, so it's difficult to come up with a true origin story. With that said, it did seem like the author spent time researching the origins and gave some pretty interesting information nonetheless.

I am a language buff. I love knowing the roots of expressions. Some of these seem more believable than others, but on the whole it makes for fascinating, light reading.

Not much New that you could not find out on the internet by yourself. About a third are sayings you never heard of. Most of the rest are self explanatory. Maybe 10 percent are interesting. And the author injects his own kettle jokes and jabs, which are not very witty or funny. Good for reading in the bathroom.

This is exactly the same book as "Shaggy Dogs and Black Sheep" first published in 2005, only the sleeve is different.

Good Fun

Interesting book on how these things were created

Right-hand manは「右腕、腹心」と訳される。「利き腕」と関連が濃いが、英語のright-hand manは「利き腕」に加えて、「（要人の）右側にいる人」の意が濃厚である。右側にいる人は短剣を抜いて要人を刺し殺すことが容易である。故に信頼のおける人であらねばならない。また一方で、右側にいる人は攻撃を受けたとき剣を抜いて要人を守りやすい位置にある。「信頼が置けて腕の立つ人」である。こういった句源情報はどうして得るのであろうか。著者によると、ちょっと一般では手に入れられない風変わりな文献、参考書、多くの図書館の歴史書を読みあさり、さらに上院下院にある蔵書にアクセスして初めて得られるものだという。日本にも類書は出ているが、本書のような書をつまみ食いして日本語に訳したものに過ぎない。英語の句源辞典は英語で読むべきである。（ちなみに、right-hand man はセクシズムである。しかしコーパスCOCAではright-hand man 243, right-hand person 3である。成句やことわざでは簡単にman→personとならないようである）