A figure of speech is an expression in which the words are used, but not in their literal sense, to create a more forceful or dramatic meaning. They are often in the form of metaphors, similes and hyperbole. “A fountain of knowledge,” is a good example. “Stretching the truth,” is another. With Figuratively Speaking, we finally have a thesaurus to discover these phrases’ origins and the sources of their meanings. Categories include: Attitudes Body Types Competition Creature Comforts Letting Loose Ethics Influence Life, Health, & Death Money Personal Space Personality Types Speech Thinking Power Time Trouble, Turmoil, & Commotion The World of Work Whether reading it for fun, researching phrases you use, or studying the symbolic foundations of our language, Figuratively Speaking is the resource you’ll reach for time and again.

A Practical and Invaluable Guide to Clear and Precise Diction for Writers, Speakers, Students, Business and Professional. The English language is peculiarly rich in synonyms, as, with such a history, it could not fail to be. From the time of Julius Caesar, Britons, Romans, Northmen, Saxons, Danes, and Normans fighting, fortifying, and settling upon the HOI! of England, with Scotch and Irish contending 1 for mastery or existence across the mountain border and the Channel, and all fenced in together by the sea, could not but influence one another's speech. English merchants, Bailors, soldiers, and travelers, trading, warring, and exploring in every clime, of necessity brought back new terms of sea and shore, of shop and camp and battle-Held. English scholars have studied Greek and Latin for a thousand years, and the languages of the Continent and of the Orient in more recent times, English churchmen have introduced worda from Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, through Bible and prayer-book, sermon and tract. Prom all this it results that there is scarcely A language ever spoken among men that has not omo representative in English speech. The spirit of the Anglo-Saxon race, masterful in language as in war and commerce, han subjugated all these various elements to one idiom, making not a patchwork, but a composite language. An^lo-Saxon thrift, finding often several words that originally expressed the same, idea, has detailed them to different parts of the common territory or to different service, so that we have an almont unexampled variety of words, kindred in meaning but distinct in usage, for expressing almost every shade of human thought.

Peter Mark Roget (1779-1869), physician and author, published this first edition of his most famous work in 1852.

Mention the name Josef Stalin and all you will hear are epithets like “brutal dictator” or “mass murderer” or “Communist reactionary.” And these are not untrue descriptions. But they don’t tell the whole story. Every terrible person in history was also just an ordinary person too. In The Red Poppy, we behold the man and not the monster. In these seven scenes, we see the human side of the Soviet leader in a myriad of ways never before portrayed. We see his humanity, his personal philosophy, his anger, his sense of guilt and his endearing playfulness, all against the backdrop of Mao tse-Tung’s impending visit to Moscow in 1949. The playwright has done a masterful job of transforming Yuri Krotkov’s intimate knowledge of Stalin into a fascinating, poignant, and at times hilarious collection of vignettes that is as entertaining to read as it is to watch it on stage. The Red Poppy is truly a revelation.

Few men have endured the indignity of having their very existence challenged as thoroughly as William Shakespeare, late of Stratford-upon-Avon. From scholars to amateur enthusiasts, many cannot bring themselves to believe he wrote his own body of work. Playwright J. Ajlouny presents the arguments for and against, all statements and proofs drawn from the historical record. Everybody must decide for himself, but The Trial of William Shakespeare makes the controversy both intriguing and fun.