Dictionary of Proverbs and Their Origins - Softcover

In Dictionary of Proverbs Linda and Roger Flavell trace the origins and histories of over 400 proverbs, detailing the changes of meaning and usage that have occurred throughout each proverb's life and offering literary examples dating back over 2000 years. Entries have been selected because they have a tale to tell and because they are pithily, even wittily phrased, offering, as Cervantes put it, 'short sentences drawn from long experience'.

Linda Flavell holds a degree in modern languages and qualifications in primary and secondary teaching. Roger Flavell's Master's thesis was on the nature of idiomaticity, and his doctorate on idioms and their teaching in several European languages. He has recently retired from the University of London Institute of Education, where he was head of the department of English for Speakers of Other Languages. Their other books for Kyle Cathie are The Chronology of Words and Phrases, Dictionary of Idioms and Dictionary of Word Origins, which is being reissued at the same time as Dictionary of Proverbs.