Coming to Terms - Hardcover

In this seventh collection of his playful, witty, instructive "On Language" syndicated columns, Safire again reprints letters from members of the Gotcha Gang and the Nitpickers' League, and other readers who have their own two cents to add. Among his concerns in this batch, Safire explains why he hasn't used the phrase gilding the lily for 40 years ("Eschew certitude," he warns in this connection). He comments on the trend toward mispronunciation, giving ek-setera and reckonize as examples; looks into the origins of such words as bimbo and roundheels ; examines such euphemisms for lover as significant other , special friend and main squeeze ; pays tribute to Yogi Berra's mastery of the "bonaprop"; and reports what happened when the management of a San Francisco hotel adopted Safire's recommendation of putting a dictionary in every room. For those who care about language, or who just want to have fun, Safire delivers.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Compiled from Safire's 1988-89 New York Times Magazine columns "On Language," this book contains about 160 essays along with many letters commenting on them. The topics cover locutions and circumlocutions from government ( misinformation and disinformation ), grammar (relative pronouns, restrictive clauses, it's and its ), origins of expressions ( Locust Valley lockjaw, the New York minute ), usage ( like in place of as ), and many oddities of the English language. The book is fun for language mavens and for those who didn't know what they didn't know about English. Safire is a popular writer, as seen by the success of his previous compilations of his column (e.g., Language Maven Strikes Again , LJ 7/90), so this book will be in demand.
- Kitty Chen Dean, Nassau Coll., Garden City, N.Y.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.