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Best of
Words

1989

Wicked Words: A Treasury of Curses, Insults, Put-Downs, and Other Formerly Unprintable Terms from Anglo-Saxon Times to the Present

reference

writing

language

non-fiction

Hugh Rawson - 1989

The author of Crown's A Dictionary of Euphemisms and Other Doubletalk has fun at the other end of the language spectrum in this witty, anecdote-filled guide to the many impolite, insulting, and just plain "bad" words with which the English language is blessed.

Line drawings.

Beasts and Birds of the Middle Ages: The Bestiary and Its Legacy

medieval

history

øø

Willene B. Clark - 1989

The medieval bestiary, or moralized book of beasts, has enjoyed immense popularity over the centuries and it continues to influence both literature and art.

This collection of essays aims to demonstrate the scope and variety of bestiary studies and the ways in which the medieval bestiary can be addressed. The contributors write about the tradition of one of the bestiary's birds, Parisian production of the manuscripts, bestiary animals in a liturgical book, theological as well as secular interpretations of beasts, bestiary creatures in literature, and new perspectives on the bestiary in other genres.

The Story Behind The Word