The Penguin Dictionary Of Cliches

The cliche has a long, if not exactly illustrious, pedigree, stretching from the appearance of 'hither and thither' in the eighth century AD to the establishment of 'sick as a parrot' as a fully-fledged cliche of the 1990s. This informative and wonderfully entertaining dictionary takes the lid off many hundreds of tired and hackneyed expressions, exploring their history, showing who used them and when, and demonstrating just how deeply rooted many of them have now become. The Penguin Dictionary of Cliches looks at 1500 cliches - ancient (add insult to injury), modern (girl power), and vogue (let's do lunch). It tracks down the origins of such phrases as back to the drawing board, kindred spirit and double whammy, and pinpoints when they can be said to have become overused. Included are many illustrative quotations from the famous and the infamous.