A Dictionary of Cliches: With an Introductory Essay

by Eric Partridge

Book Overview

This work is full of things better left unsaid: hackneyed phrases, idioms battered into senselessness, infuriating Gallicisms, once-familiar quotations and tags from the ancient classics. It makes a formidable list, amplified as it is with definitions, sources, and indications of the cliches, venerability in every case.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0710000499
• ISBN13: 9780710000491
• Release Date: January 1978
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 261 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A more comprehensive title to consider

I haven't read Partidge's "Dictionary of Cliches" (the four stars is for the concept), but I just ordered a more comprehensive similar book called "The Facts on File Dictionary of Cliches" by Christine Ammer. Partridge cites 2,000 examples. By contrast, Ammer lists twice as many. No matter which book you choose, such a dictionary is indispensable to anyone who loves words, cares about the language, writes or edits for a living or has aspirations to write the Great American Novel. I spent the last 14 years as a professional copy editor and am now engaged in writing a first novel. I am meticulous to the point of anal-retentiveness, but cliches still creep into my writing -- so surreptitiously that they sometimes slip past me. I would speculate that every writer has exactly the same problem. A dictionary like Ammer's or Partridge's is the equivalent of a can of Raid to ferret out those miscreants and kill them dead. In answer to the earlier reviewer, even smart people can lapse into falling back on cliches. Because they are so insidious and widespread, they are at the forefront of our minds whenever we write just about anything. A dictionary of cliches can help keep you vigilant and on your guard.