The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, Second Edition (Facts on File Writer's Library) (repost)

In this entertaining compendium, Robert Hendrickson, author of numerous popular works on language and literature, traces the sometimes bizarre and always fascinating origins and developments of more than 9,000 words and phrases, including slang, proverbs, animal and plant names, place names, nicknames, historical expressions, foreign-language expressions, and more. The emphasis throughout is on words and expressions with origins that are not adequately explained-or not addressed at all-in standard dictionaries. This greatly expanded and revised version of the critically acclaimed 1987 original offers more than 2,000 new entries, including: