An Exaltation of Larks: The Ultimate Edition Paperback - 1993
by James Lipton
For word lovers everywhere, a classic anthology of collective nouns--now vastly expanded and with a new introduction. Infectious in spirit, beautifully illustrated with over 250 witty engravings by Granville, Durer, and other artists, this work is a word lover's garden of delights.
Summary
An "exaltation of larks"? Yes! And a "leap of leopards," a "parliament of owls," an "ostentation of peacocks," a "smack of jellyfish," and a "murder of crows"! For those who have ever wondered if the familiar "pride of lions" and "gaggle of geese" were only the tip of a linguistic iceberg, James Lipton has provided the definitive answer: here are hundreds of equally pithy, and often poetic, terms unearthed by Mr. Lipton in the Books of Venery that were the constant study of anyone who aspired to the title of gentleman in the fifteenth century. When Mr. Lipton's painstaking research revealed that five hundred years ago the terms of venery had already been turned into the Game of Venery, he embarked on an odyssey that has given us a "slouch of models," a "shrivel of critics," an "unction of undertakers," a "blur of Impressionists," a "score of bachelors," and a "pocket of quarterbacks." This ultimate edition of An Exaltation of Larks is Mr. Lipton's brilliant answer to the assault on language and literacy in the last decades of the twentieth century. In it you will find more than 1,100 resurrected or newly minted contributions to that most endangered of all species, our language, in a setting of 250 witty, beautiful, and remarkably apt engravings.
First line
Most introductory chapters are written in the well-grounded expectation that they will be blithely ignored.
From the rear cover
An "exaltation of larks"? Yes! And a "leap of leopards", a "parliament of owls", an "ostentation of peacocks", a "smack of jellyfish", and a "murder of crows"! For those who have ever wondered if the familiar "pride of lions" and "gaggle of geese" were only the tip of a linguistic iceberg, James Lipton has provided the definitive answer: here are hundreds of equally pithy, and often poetic, terms unearthed by Mr. Lipton in the Books of Venery that were the constant study of anyone who aspired to the title of gentleman in the fifteenth century. When Mr. Lipton's painstaking research revealed that five hundred years ago the terms of venery had already been turned into the Game of Venery, he embarked on an odyssey that has given us a "slouch of models", a "shrivel of critics", an "unction of undertakers", a "blur of Impressionists", a "score of bachelors", and a "pocket of quarterbacks". This ultimate edition of An Exaltation of Larks is Mr. Lipton's brilliant answer to the assault on language and literacy in the last decades of the twentieth century. In it you will find more than 1,100 resurrected or newly minted contributions to that most endangered of all species, our language, in a setting of 250 witty, beautiful, and remarkably apt engravings.
Details
- Title An Exaltation of Larks: The Ultimate Edition
- Author James Lipton
- Binding Paperback
- Edition Reprint
- Pages 336
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Penguin Books, E Rutherford, New Jersey, U.S.A.
- Date November 1, 1993
- Illustrated Yes
- Features Bibliography, Illustrated, Index
- ISBN 9780140170962 / 0140170960
- Weight 0.93 lbs (0.42 kg)
- Dimensions 9.28 x 6.11 x 0.87 in (23.57 x 15.52 x 2.21 cm)
- Ages 18 to UP years
- Grade levels 13 - UP
- Library of Congress subjects English language - Terms and phrases
- Library of Congress Catalog Number 90050425
- Dewey Decimal Code 428.1
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