FOR GENERATIONS English-speaking people have been pulling to
pieces the words of their language and refitting them into other
words explanatory of some current event; displaying in so doing an
impish wit, a clever cynicism, or a delightful turn of improvisation.
A generation passed away, but the new words remained. A new
generation practiced their use in the circumstances for which they
were designed, without appreciating the reason for the coining. In
time the words, frequently corrupted in spelling as the result of
phonetic handing-down, became part of the colloquial language.

Then, the inevitable happened. Inquiring minds began to wonder
why their tongues used the phrases; they wondered why, as a matter
of course, someone was "as mad as a hatter." Why should a good
honest hatter be regarded as more prone to mental deficiency than,
say, a tailor? Of recent years the demand for knowledge of the
origin of the host of phrases which are now a part of the language,
and of the many single words which seem outré in use, has grown
enormously.

For some years the author has edited that popular feature-
column of the Daily Mirror, titled Live Letters. During that time
thousands of letters demanding "origins" have been answered, and
are still being answered daily.

The object of the present work is to make available to the book-
shelves of people of ordinary means an arranged collection in a
single volume of the principal proverbial "tags," phrases and words
which have formed the subject of inquiries of the author over a
space of years, together with their origins or derivations.

The explanations given have been penned only after the most
complete research; a reference library of some two thousand volumes
forming in itself a complete story of the customs, speech, life and
anecdotal history of the English-speaking people over six centuries,
has gone into the searching. No attempt has been made to include
those numerous phrases and words in common usage which have
merely grown into the language as slang, without any etymological
foundation; explanations of such words and phrases already exist