How would you respond if a New Zealander invited you to a "leg-in"? Would you know what to do if someone told you to pull up a "browser"? Without some assistance, most foreigners would indeed be baffled by the intricacies of the Kiwi tongue. Now, however, help is available as Louis S. Leland Jr., a professor of psychology at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, unravels the mysteries of this colorful language. Composed in equal parts of fact and hilarity, this specialized dictionary will aid the traveler, amuse the linguist, and delight even the casual observer. This book is a perfect companion volume to Pelican's comprehensive Maverick Guide to New Zealand, widely acclaimed as the best guidebook on the subject.

How would you respond if a New Zealander invited you to a "leg-in"? Would you know what to do if someone told you to pull up a "browser"? Without some assistance, most foreigners would indeed be baffled by the intricacies of the Kiwi tongue. Now, however, help is available as Louis S. Leland Jr., a professor of psychology at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, unravels the mysteries of this colorful language. Composed in equal parts of fact and hilarity, this specialized dictionary will aid the traveler, amuse the linguist, and delight even the casual observer. This book is a perfect companion volume to Pelican's comprehensive Maverick Guide to New Zealand, widely acclaimed as the best guidebook on the subject.

Fairness and Freedom compares the history of two open societies--New Zealand and the United States--with much in common. Both have democratic polities, mixed-enterprise economies, individuated societies, pluralist cultures, and a deep concern for human rights and the rule of law. But all of these elements take different forms, because constellations of value are far apart. The dream of living free is America's Polaris; fairness and natural justice are New Zealand's Southern Cross. Fischer asks why these similar countries went different ways. Both were founded by English-speaking colonists, but at different times and with disparate purposes. They lived in the first and second British Empires, which operated in very different ways. Indians and Maori were important agents of change, but to different ends. On the American frontier and in New Zealand's Bush, material possibilities and moral choices were not the same. Fischer takes the same comparative approach to parallel processes of nation-building and immigration, women's rights and racial wrongs, reform causes and conservative responses, war-fighting and peace-making, and global engagement in our own time--with similar results. On another level, this book expands Fischer's past work on liberty and freedom. It is the first book to be published on the history of fairness. And it also poses new questions in the old tradition of history and moral philosophy. Is it possible to be both fair and free? In a vast array of evidence, Fischer finds that the strengths of these great values are needed to correct their weaknesses. As many societies seek to become more open--never twice in the same way, an understanding of our differences is the only path to peace.

Booklist Top of the List Reference Source The heir and successor to Eric Partridge's brilliant magnum opus, The Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, this two-volume New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English is the definitive record of post WWII slang. Containing over 60,000 entries, this new edition of the authoritative work on slang details the slang and unconventional English of the English-speaking world since 1945, and through the first decade of the new millennium, with the same thorough, intense, and lively scholarship that characterized Partridge's own work. Unique, exciting and, at times, hilariously shocking, key features include: unprecedented coverage of World English, with equal prominence given to American and British English slang, and entries included from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, South Africa, Ireland, and the Caribbean emphasis on post-World War II slang and unconventional English published sources given for each entry, often including an early or significant example of the term’s use in print. hundreds of thousands of citations from popular literature, newspapers, magazines, movies, and songs illustrating usage of the headwords dating information for each headword in the tradition of Partridge, commentary on the term’s origins and meaning New to this edition: A new preface noting slang trends of the last five years Over 1,000 new entries from the US, UK and Australia New terms from the language of social networking Many entries now revised to include new dating, new citations from written sources and new glosses The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English is a spectacular resource infused with humour and learning – it’s rude, it’s delightful, and it’s a prize for anyone with a love of language.

Entry includes attestations of the head word's or phrase's usage, usually in the form of a quotation. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

Entry includes attestations of the head word's or phrase's usage, usually in the form of a quotation. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).