The Oxford Library of Words and Phrases

This volume combines three reference works, "The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations", "The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs" and "The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins". The dictionary of quotations has been revised and updated, maintaining extensive coverage of literary and historical quotations. It contains over 9000 quotations from nearly 2000 authors; new appendices have been added on Sayings of the Nineties, Slogans and Popular Misquotations, bringing the dictionary fully up to date. A useful keyword index helps the reader to trace quotations and their authors. The dictionary of proverbs covers sayings from "the more the merrier" to "there's no such thing as a free lunch", with over 1000 of the best-known English proverbs from around the world. For this second edition, many new quotations have been added to illustrate the proverbs, and over 100 proverbs are included for the first time. A new thematic index helps you find proverbs on subjects ranging from bee-keeping to stress. The dictionary of word origins is Based on "The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology" in a concise edition comprising over 17,000 entries.
It contains a wealth of information about our language and its history, including the origins for "assassin" (from the Arabic for hashish-eater), "nice" (which meant foolish or stupid in the 13th century, and coy or shy in the 15th) and "shrapnel" (named after its inventor, General Henry Shrapnel).