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Tables of Contents for Word Myths
Chapter/Section Title
Page #
Page Count
Acknowledgments
ix
Introduction
1
1
What Is a Linguistic Urban Legend?
2
1
Where Do They Come From?
3
3
How Do They Vary?
6
1
Why Do We Tell Them?
7
3
How Are They Told?
10
4
Who Tells Them?
14
1
Are We Being Spoilsports?
14
2
How Do We Ferret Out the Truth?
16
7
Debunking the Big Boys
23
38
Ring Around the Rosie
24
4
OK
28
6
The Whole Nine Yards
34
4
Rule of Thumb
38
6
They Speak Elizabethan English in the Appalachians
44
6
500 Eskimo Words for Snow
50
4
Windy City
54
4
Hot Dog
58
3
The Elizabethan E-mail Hoax
61
18
Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater
66
1
Raining Cats and Dogs
67
2
Dirt Poor
69
1
Threshold
70
1
Pease Porridge
70
2
Bring Home the Bacon
72
1
Chew the Fat
72
1
Trencher / Trench Mouth
72
1
Bed and Board
73
1
Upper Crust
74
1
Wake
74
1
Graveyard Shift
75
1
Saved by the Bell and Dead Ringer
76
3
Posh, Phat Pommies
79
24
Ichthys
83
1
Cabal
83
1
Awol
84
3
Fuck
87
5
News and Tips
92
1
Golf
93
1
Spud
94
1
Wog
95
1
Nylon
96
1
SOS
97
1
Pommy
98
1
Phat
99
1
Posh
100
3
Canoe
103
26
Devil to Pay
104
1
Let the Cat Out of the Bag
104
2
Cold Enough to Freeze the Balls off a Brass Monkey
106
2
Over a Barrel
108
1
Mind Your Ps and Qs
108
3
Under the Weather
111
1
Knock Off
112
1
Son of a Gun
112
1
Railroad Origins
113
2
Balling the Jack
113
1
Balls to the Wall
114
1
Ethnic Origins
115
14
Lynch
115
1
Jazz
116
7
America
123
6
Hookers, Harlots, and Condoms
129
26
Hooker
130
1
Harlot
131
2
Condom
133
4
Crap
137
2
In Like Flynn
139
2
Real McCoy
141
4
Dixie
145
3
Upset
148
2
Pumpernickel
150
1
Ellis Island Name Changing
151
4
The Perils of Political Correctness
155
30
Picnic
157
2
Nitty Gritty
159
1
Jimmies
160
3
Indian / In Dios
163
3
Indian Giver
166
2
Squaw
168
2
Hip / Hep
170
2
Gay
172
3
Faggot
175
2
Handicap
177
2
Politically Correct
179
3
Tinker's Damn
182
3
Wax Tadpoles and Jelly Doughnuts
185
13
I Am a Jelly Doughnut
186
2
Chevy No Go
188
2
Bite the Wax Tadpole
190
3
Turn It Loose and Fly Naked
193
2
Kangaroo
195
1
Gringo
196
2
Conclusion
198
3
Notes
201
16
Selected Annotated Bibliography
217
2
Index
219