An illustrated survey of the origins, evolutions, and meanings of thousands of phrases, and expressions unique to American English adds up to an entertaining, reliable history of modern American idioms and speech.

"What do unicorns, law, love, and hell all have in common? They are all unfortunate words of the BIble. Through mistranslation, cultural shifts, anachronisms, and misguided intentions, this book traces several key words whose meaning is commonly misunderstood in our world today. If the blatant mistranslation of unicorns could survive in the Bible for thousands of years, securing their place in our cultural imagination to this day, what would happen...

The English language is made up of words from different places, events, and periods of time. Each of those words has an exciting story to tell us about where, when, how, and why they came about. Once Upon a Word is packed with easy-to-understand definitions and awesome word-origin stories. Here, you can understand the history and meaning of English words, improve your vocabulary and spelling, and learn to play with language.

CD-ROM contains: Program that assists with word building and definition.

When editors of the "Oxford English dictionary" put out a call during the late 19th century for "men of letters" to contribute entries, hundreds of responses came forth.