Deaver Brown - 1500 American Idioms, Phrases & Slang: Best Test Prep

1500 Most Popular American Idioms Simply Media has the best and most affordable series of audiobooks and eBooks on language, words, writing, punctuation, and more. Tom Johnson, Principal Chicago Public Schools A perfect book on a great subject. Very helpful to our ESL students who need to learn American slang as well as classic English. Tom Fitzgerald, LA Public Schools. I read some serious positive reviews. Enjoy. Enjoy.

Oh, and the price is right too! Bobby Henderson, New York. A nice cheap reference book for American idioms and slang. Maybelle Lee, Houston Public Schools. Deaver Brown, AuthorHarvard CollegeMagna Cum Laude Simply Media POB 481 Lincoln, MA 01773-0481 simplymedia is a trademark of Simply Media Inc. Copyright 2016 by Deaver Brown 01. Introduction Idioms and slang give most of us a pick me up in conversation.

They are warm comfortable reminders of the best of our language. They step back from the formal and create a bit of down home excitement. Local idioms, phrases, and slang have not only entertained in everyday life but have been profoundly moving in great novels such as Huckleberry Finn, considered perhaps the best work in American literature, and also in The Great Gatsby, Moby Dick, Hemingway, and Nabokov. Also, of course, many of these idioms reach back to Ancient Greece and Rome, the Middle Ages, Shakespeare, Dickens, the great authors of all cultures, and the largest source, the Bible. As an entrepreneur in the 1970s running several factories, I found Black talk remarkable, almost as interesting as Black Jazz. I was not alone because this evolved into the amazing Rap music explosion.

The whole movement was based on idioms, phrases, slang, and intonation of an American culture much as Maine dialect was fascinating in the Bert & I record series I sold in a summer after high school. Anything this profoundly interesting, widespread, and exciting repays study. This is especially true because the American language reflects the remarkable American culture, attitude, and influence upon world life. As Steve Jobs said about Bill Gates, when asked what Microsoft could have done to be as exciting as Apple, Jobs said, Bill should have traveled around the world to far off places and heard the music of the language and, probably done the same thing in America. There is a lot to hear out there. He would have been better off if he had heard it.

Closer to me was a few days on the road with Jack Kerouac, the famous beat writer and poet. He bubbled over with American idioms, phrases, and great slang. He loved hearing others talk and hear their local idioms, phrases, and slang. He would comment upon them and bring out more. This may have been the best part of the trip listening to a man who adored Eliot and Keats yet was fascinated by local American language. He drilled me on my selling Bert & I records and I finally saw that it was going to Maine and hearing local people, not the summer ones, that illuminated the records I was selling.

Jack said I was just doing what I saw him doing: starting with their words and seeking more. In short it took him to mine from me what I already knew, or at least had a memory of, and bring it productively to the surface to engage my thoughts and those of others whom I had read and heard. That got me started. Nothing herein can be blamed on Kerouac; but, without him, I would not have sought out these American Idioms, Phrases & Great Slang that are as important I think as other standardized words in our language. At a minimum, you should find them interesting and thought provoking. A classic modern example of the power of the idiom is beck and call.

Used famously by Julia Roberts, the prostitute in Pretty Woman, saying with a smile she would be mogul Richard Geres beck and call girl in contrast to an earlier phone scene when Geres live in girlfriend disparaged being considered his beck and call girl. An interesting example about the power of idioms to convey differing messages succinctly. Note: this is not meant for academics seeking citations but for people interested in learning more about our language. As a result, for example, footnotes are not used, like phrases are put together to assist you in remembering them, and a lighter touch is employed versus a strictly academic approach. Remember that the best of them usually have irony, fun, and a light touch, with alliteration helping sustain them. Enjoy them.

Listen or read a letter at a time. Enjoy them as you would a long book, chapter by chapter, rather than trying to rush through. These idioms repay patience and being savored by the listener or reader. Specifics Each idiom, phrase, or slang is listed first in bold followed by the meaning and then the origin. In this area much has emerged from the culture with no clear background such as with Latin based words with a clear origin. Some can be identified as to a racial, religious, geographic area, or an area of thought such as the movies, literature, music, and the playground.

Some meanings are so clear we simply say Clear after the meaning. Some origins are so vague we almost trip over ourselves saying we dont know. The important thing is for you to read and hear these idioms, phrases, and slang and enjoy whatever illumination we can give you and add to it from your own knowledge. This is all something of a treasure hunt which adds to the fun of it all. And, of course, new idioms, phrases, and slang emerge every day as our language evolves. Most of these phrases contain the particularly American humor, starting with Mark Twain and his Southwestern humor and the famous story of The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.

Irony, fun, laughter, with a strong touch of gotcha, is core to the American language. Some of our terms have been simplified such as white, black, Indian, and Spanish culture. In America these different races have blended from all over the world and are mixed racially, but still often have the dominant personality and cultural impact of one of these cultures. In simpler terms, we have taken the five dollar words of Caucasian, African-American, Native-American, and Hispanic, and boiled them down to their basic nickels of white, black, Indian, and Spanish. In fact, this is what idioms, phrases, and slang do: they take the pomp and circumstance out of these forms and boil them down. If we have been politically insensitive, we have tried to be uniform about it in the spirit of idioms, phrases, and slang that do so as a matter of practice.

Most of these terms have survived because they combine humor and irony to inform or warn, as well as are fun to listen to and just say. In other words, these are anything but boring unlike so many words. They light up a sentence or a whole conversation and are memorable to boot. Some will find these to be clichs, which means they are overused. But overused suggests they are popular, effective, and poignant. The verb to be is used frequently but escapes being considered a clich.

Should it? I think one might consider lightening up on writing off words and phrases as clichs because they are overused. Did you note the idiom in the last sentence? Writing off? From the accounting profession that has made its way into the overall culture. If accountants can have magic words, one might think any group can and that is exactly true. Groups from mechanics to pilots, lawyers to doctors, business people to entertainers have all contributed their fair share. As you can see from that segway from clichs to accountants, there is great fun in this subject and wandering around is highly recommended. Bounce around this audiobook or eBook; enjoy the here and there of it.

Stop and reflect about those words that fascinate you and think about others. Let them stir your imagination--the point of it all. Remember this is for practical usage not research. Many of the origins are hazy and a few unknown entirely. Relax, enjoy, and welcome to the wonderful world of language once again. A few notes.