I Never Knew There Was a Word for It - Adam Jacot De Boinod [0]
I NEVER KNEW THERE WAS A WORD FOR IT
Adam Jacot de Boinod, hunter of perfect and obscure bon mots, is a true linguistic bowerbird (a person who collects an astonishing array of – sometimes useless – objects). He trawled the languages of the world for exotic specimens in his bestselling books The Wonder of Whiffling, The Meaning of Tingo and hit follow-up Toujours Tingo.
In memory of my father
I Never Knew There
Was a Word For It
ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD
With illustrations by Sandra Howgate
PENGUIN BOOKS
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
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The Meaning of Tingo first published in Penguin Books 2005
Toujours Tingo first published in Penguin Books 2007
The Wonder of Whiffling first published in Particular Books 2009
Published under this title with a new Introduction in Penguin Books 2010
Copyright © Adam Jacot de Boinod, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010
Illustrations copyright © Samantha Howland, 2005, 2007, 2009
The moral right of the author has been asserted
All rights reserved
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-0-14-196353-2
Contents
Introduction
Acknowledgements
The Meaning of Tingo
Meeting and Greeting
From Top to Toe
Movers and Shakers
Getting Around
It Takes All Sorts
Falling in Love
The Family Circle
Clocking On
Time Off
Eating and Drinking
Below Par
From Cradle to Grave
Otherworldly
All Creatures Great and Small
Whatever the Weather
Hearing Things
Seeing Things
Number Crunching
What’s in a Name?
Toujours Tingo
Getting Acquainted
The Human Condition
Emotional Intelligence
Social Animals
Having an Argument
The Rules of Attraction
Family Ties
Kids
Body Beautiful
Dressed to Kill
Stretching Your Legs
Upping Sticks
Home Sweet Home
Dinner Time
One for the Road
All in a Day’s Work
Game Theory
Animal Magic
Climate Change
The Root of All Evil
The Criminal Life
Realpolitik
From Better to Hearse
The Great Beyond
The Wonder of Whiffling
Clatterfarts and Jaisies
Stickybeak
Going Postal
Twiddle-diddles
Prick-me-dainty
Going West
Slapsauce
Crambazzled
Footer-footer
Muttoners and Golden Ferrets
Rubby-dubby
Madhouse
Mush Fakers and Applesquires
Bulk and File
Bunting Time
Wittols and Beer Babies
Oyster Parts
Dimbox and Quockerwodger
Scurryfunge
Aw Whoop
Swallocky
Feelimageeries
Introduction
My name is Adam Jacot de Boinod and I’m hopelessly addicted to strange words. I’ve spent the last six years compulsively hunting down unusual vocabulary and now have written three books collecting my very best and most unusual discoveries.
All three are included in this volume, which I’ve called I Never Knew There Was a Word For It, because I didn’t. My vocabulary is now ten times richer than it was six years