Adjacent or adjoining? Abuse or misuse? Consist, comprise, constitute, or compose? Guarantee or warranty? Pose, propose, or propound? Stationery or stationary? The Dictionary of Confusable Words aims to clear up the confusion in such cases. In more than 1,100 entries, the meaning of 3,000 individual words are given,the difference between them is explained, and an illustrative example showing the correct usage is provided. The book also includes specific examples to show past and present usage of words, and words occuring as the second or subsequent in a group are cross-referenced to ther head word in the appropriate alphabetical place. Editor Adrian Room has also included some familiar proper names that are sometimes confused, such as Liberia and Libya (countries), Monterey and Monterrey (towns), and Lloyds and Lloyd's (financial institutions). Classic or classical? Discreet or discrete? Continual or Continuous? Principle or Principal? Confused? Be confused no longer, with this handy book as your user-friendly guide.

A day-by-day journey through 366 delightfully archaic words and quirky historical trivia. Open The Cabinet of Linguistic Curiosities and you’ll find both a word and a day to remember, every day of the year. Each day has its own dedicated entry, on which a curious or notable event—and an equally curious or notable word—are explored. On the day on which flirting was banned in New York City, for instance, you’ll discover why to “sheep’s-eye” someone once meant to look at them amorously. On the day on which a disillusioned San Franciscan declared himself Emperor of the United States, you’ll find the word “mamamouchi,” a term for people who consider themselves more important than they truly are. And on the day on which George Frideric Handel completed his 259-page Messiah after twenty-four days of frenzied work, you’ll see why a French loanword, literally meaning “a small wooden barrow,” is used to refer to an intense period of work undertaken to meet a deadline. The English language is vast enough to supply us with a word for every occasion—and this linguistic “wunderkammer” is here to prove precisely that. So whatever date this book has found its way into your hands, there’s an entire year’s worth of linguistic curiosities waiting to be found.

Etonians aren't exactly noted for their grey matter, but I've always found them perfectly adjusted to society. Jack, a possible paranoid schizophrenic with a Messiah complex, inherits the title of the 14th Earl of Gurney after his father passes away in a bizarre accident. Singularly unsuited to a life in the upper echelons of elite society, Jack finds himself at the centre of a ruthless power struggle as his scheming family strives to uphold their reputation. Bubbling with acerbic wit and feverish energy, Olivier Award-winning and Oscar-nominated-writer Peter Barnes's razor-sharp satire combines a ferocious mix of hilarity and horror whilst mercilessly exposing the foibles of the English nobility. This edition of the play is published to coincide with the first-ever revival of this classic cult comedy at the Trafalgar Studios, London, on 16 January 2015.

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE This landmark case study of three schizophrenic patients offers a “rare and eccentric journey” into madness, shining a light on the ethical dilemmas of institutionalized care in the mid-20th century (Slate) On July 1, 1959, at Ypsilanti State Hospital in Michigan, the social psychologist Milton Rokeach brought together three paranoid schizophrenics: Clyde Benson, an elderly farmer and alcoholic; Joseph Cassel, a failed writer who was institutionalized after increasingly violent behavior toward his family; and Leon Gabor, a college dropout and veteran of World War II. The men had one thing in common: each believed himself to be Jesus Christ. Their extraordinary meeting and the two years they spent in one another’s company serves as the basis for an investigation into the nature of human identity, belief, and delusion that is poignant, amusing, and at times disturbing. Displaying the sympathy and subtlety of a gifted novelist, Rokeach draws us into the lives of three troubled and profoundly different men who find themselves “confronted with the ultimate contradiction conceivable for human beings: more than one person claiming the same identity.”

Remember the time when a relative coined a new word at a family occasion or under some unusual circumstance? Such expressions are passed down across generations, enriching the lore and joy of family life. Paul Dickson has amassed 750 of these words from families all over the country to compile this delightful, one-of-a-kind dictionary.