Poplollies & Bellibones/Tenderfeet & Ladyfingers: A Celebration of Lost Words/A Compendium of Body Language

Poplollies & Bellibones/Tenderfeet & Ladyfingers: A Celebration of Lost Words/A Compendium of Body Language by Susan K. Poering. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781572154773.

Together for the first time in one volume are Susan Kelz Sperlings delightful excursions into the English language: Poplollies & Bellibones and Tenderfeet & Ladyfingers. Poplollies & Bellibones is a rollicking entertainment. The authors longtime passion has been collecting forgotten gems of our language and she displays her word finds in context, staging them in short stories, rounds, verses, and dialogues. These words are much too good to be lost--words like hum, a strong liquor made by combining ale and beer with spirits. And did you know that too much hum may cause ones head to quop--throb or ache of course. A mans heart may quop with longing for his true-loves feat. Not feet--her dangling curls. Merry-go-sorry, thrip, faffle, fleak, eventide, chantpleure, greedygut, draggle-tail--hundreds of these obsolete words are given new life by Ms. Sperling, defined and annotated with their histories and derivations. A complete glossary is also included. Tenderfeet & Ladyfingers is an absolute delight for all word buffs--a compendium of some one hundred words and phrases incorporating the various parts of the human body. Arranged from head to toe, and peppered with fascinating allusions, Tenderfeet & Ladyfingers delves into the origins of such expressions as kowtow, spitting image, the walls have ears, and to give someone the cold shoulder. Though may of the phrases in this book are in common use, their derivations, their surprising histories, and their underlying natural relationship to our anatomy are little-known facts that the author explores with wit and insight. To quote Willard Espy: Susan Sperling "will hit your funny-bone--warm the cockles of your heart--go to your head. And Im not pulling your leg."