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106th out of 206 books
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The Deeper Meaning of Liff
Does the sensation of Tingrith(1) make you yelp? Do you bend sympathetically when you see someone Ahenny(2)? Can you deal with a Naugatuck(3) without causing a Toronto(4)? Will you suffer from Kettering(5) this summer?
Probably. You are almost certainly familiar with all these experiences but just didn’t know that there are words for them. Well, in fact, there aren’t—or ra...more
Probably. You are almost certainly familiar with all these experiences but just didn’t know that there are words for them. Well, in fact, there aren’t—or ra...more
Paperback, 192 pages
Published
April 26th 2005
by Three Rivers Press
(first published 1983)
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A very clever idea to use place names to describe things for which no word exists. Not an original idea but the results are amusing and sometimes inspired e.g. taken at random:
Eads: The sludgy bits at the bottom of the dustbin, underneath the actual bin liner.
Patney: Something your next door neighbour makes and insists that you try on your sausages.
My favourite one isn't in the book though. Risca: Something white and gooey found at the back of the fridge that might be o.k. ...more
Eads: The sludgy bits at the bottom of the dustbin, underneath the actual bin liner.
Patney: Something your next door neighbour makes and insists that you try on your sausages.
My favourite one isn't in the book though. Risca: Something white and gooey found at the back of the fridge that might be o.k. ...more
I didn't think that a mock dictionary would be something you could sit down and read through in one sitting... but - at least with this one - you can. Douglas Adams is brilliant, and at least 1/3 of the words in this book I felt I should scribble down and use immediately.
I really want to keep this book, but I know deep in my heart that if this vocabulary hasn't caught on in the past 30 years, nothing I can do will make it. So I have to pass it on for the next person to enjoy. It is quite th...more
I really want to keep this book, but I know deep in my heart that if this vocabulary hasn't caught on in the past 30 years, nothing I can do will make it. So I have to pass it on for the next person to enjoy. It is quite th...more
This book is full of rather witty reassignments for place names that aren't being used for much anyway. How often have all of us wished there was a good word to describe a thing, a phenomenon, or a feeling? Isn't the world a better place now that we have Douglas Adams's answer to this puzzling problem? Isn't it nice to know that a grimsby is a lump of gristle that is either in your food through careless cooking or sometimes placed there deliberately by Freemasons? Or that a sidcup is one of ...more
A birthday present from my sister, The Meaning of Liff is a dictionary of words you didn't know about. Each word is actually a place name (mostly in the UK) and a humorous explanation is provided for each.
Some of them I had already known for some time - my favourite is still Wimbledon - which as we all know describes "That last drop which, no matter how much you shake it, always goes down your trouser leg."
Some of them I had already known for some time - my favourite is still Wimbledon - which as we all know describes "That last drop which, no matter how much you shake it, always goes down your trouser leg."
Richard
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
anyone who loved other Douglas Adams books or who has a sense of humour.
Shelves:
comedy
We all know them... The things in life that we all experience, but which don't necessarily have a name.
This is a dictionary of those things.
Ely: The feeling that something, somewhere has just gone horribly wrong.
As an added twist, each of the words defined in the meaning of Liff is actually a placename somewhere in the world. Many of them are actually various odd village names from the UK (there are plenty, I live about five miles from 'Six Mile Bottom'!), b...more
This is a dictionary of those things.
Ely: The feeling that something, somewhere has just gone horribly wrong.
As an added twist, each of the words defined in the meaning of Liff is actually a placename somewhere in the world. Many of them are actually various odd village names from the UK (there are plenty, I live about five miles from 'Six Mile Bottom'!), b...more
Very much the sort of Douglas Adam's humor we've all grown to know and love. It's a spoof dictionary of things for which words don't exist, together with various place names. The sort of book you take to bed to relax with, but then keep yourself awake by laughing too much. Not the sort of book to read from cover to cover, but more the sort of book you dip into when you need cheering up.
It's a good translation of Douglas Adams' original "the deeper meaning of Liff" into German, using mostly German cities. It's not a direct translation, but includes words that aren't featured in the original, which makes it good to read in addition to the original.
The book itself is built like a Longman's dictionary and includes both the German and the original English version of the book.
The book itself is built like a Longman's dictionary and includes both the German and the original English version of the book.
Reads like a Dictionary becuase it is a dictionary. "A dictionary of things there aren't any words for yet - but there ought to be"
A funny read but, not one I'd advise to sit down and read cover to cover. Great book to have sitting out to pick up and read a few random entries from.
A funny read but, not one I'd advise to sit down and read cover to cover. Great book to have sitting out to pick up and read a few random entries from.
In ‘The Meaning of Liff’ Douglas Adams and John Lloyd have expanded the English language by noting down the meaningless names that lie underused on signpost and attribute new purpose to them covering the common experiences we have yet to assign a word to.
Depford(n).
The Disappointment one feels when our favourite author puts out a book not worthy of their name.
Twinning(n).
The nagging sensation the reader feels that he has been swindled out of five pounds that w...more
Depford(n).
The Disappointment one feels when our favourite author puts out a book not worthy of their name.
Twinning(n).
The nagging sensation the reader feels that he has been swindled out of five pounds that w...more
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A very clever book unlike any other I've ever seen. Filled with sharp observations and one of the only few books that can, again and again, make me literally laugh out loud. Too bad I once lend someone my copy and never got it back...
Extremely funny little book by one of the funniest authors ever. I wish there were more books like this and there certainly are many more situations that call for words to describe them.
Just reread the book again. Very funny book, from the prefaces all the way to the appendix. Love DNA and the unique way he and John Lloyd have used their imagination.
Find words for those strange everyday things that you struggle to describe - e.g. Lusby - the overflow from a bra
Loads of great words for situations that are immediately recognisable. I only wish I could remember some of them.
So much a part of my daily vocabulary that I often get very very odd looks and don't know why. A must have.
ok, some things are spot on but despite being a small book it drags on.
This book is a wonderful piece of comedy. Some of the words will have you laughing very hard. Adams and Loyd take definitions that are without words, and using the names of places, finally gives them the words they deserve. Not only is this a fun read, but it does get the reader thinking about what in their world they cannot describe in one word, and ways to do just that. It has been said that a great writer can say a sentence in a page, or a page in a sentence, and with the words in this bo...more
really a reference I suppose, but a can't-put-it-down reference
Laugh out loud book. Don't read on public transport.
Kinda pointless. Reads like a phonebook.
Heaps of fun, endlessly re-readable.
FOLLOWS ON FROM LIFF (PB)
'Alltami (n.)
The ancient art of being able to balance the hot and cold shower taps.'
The ancient art of being able to balance the hot and cold shower taps.'
Brilliant, obviously.
I picked this up because it's the only book by Douglas Adams that I hadn't read. As "a dictionary of things there aren't any words for yet" it is great. You will find yourself laughing at a shared human experience, for example a Deventer- a decision that's very hard to make because so little depends on it. But it can be hard to read more than few pages at a time.
A hilarious book that puts words to use that are just lying around, mostly names of towns ,some usual such as Vancouver. That is the technical name for those huge trucks with whirling brushes on the bottom used to clean streets. My favourite is Abilene which describes the pleasant coolness on the reverse side of the pillow
Dalfibble (DAL-fib-ul) vb.
To spend large periods of your life looking for car keys.
Memus (MEE-mus) n.
The little trick people use to remind themselves which is left and which is right.
Smyrna (SMUR-nah) n.
The expression on the face of one whose joke has just gone down rather well.
To spend large periods of your life looking for car keys.
Memus (MEE-mus) n.
The little trick people use to remind themselves which is left and which is right.
Smyrna (SMUR-nah) n.
The expression on the face of one whose joke has just gone down rather well.
They're just like sniglets, but a thousand times funnier, because Douglas Adams wrote them.
I can't say I've read them all (yet), but I get going and within a few I'm laughing so hard, my sides hurt.
As one might expect, the extra stuff--maps, index, etc.--to this book are hilarious as well.
I can't say I've read them all (yet), but I get going and within a few I'm laughing so hard, my sides hurt.
As one might expect, the extra stuff--maps, index, etc.--to this book are hilarious as well.
Adams' review of a lexicon of made-up words and terms, with many handy usable phrases that I would have never thought of for myself. Best of all, it drove me to start finding names for things there weren't a name for, like the pit formed on the underside of where your elbow is. Bowpit.
I think I have the earliest version of this book which was co-written with Frank Lloyd. It's a little black book published in 1983 in which the authors take the names of places (most of them bizzare) and assign meaning to them. Hilarious
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Douglas Noël Adams was an English author, comic radio dramatist, and musician. He is best known as the author of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Hitchhiker's began on radio, and developed into a "trilogy" of five books (which sold more than fifteen million copies during his lifetime) as well as a television series, a comic book series, a computer game, and a feature film tha...more
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“Ahenny (adj.) - The way people stand when examining other people's bookshelves.”
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“Ballycumber (ba-li-KUM-ber) n.
One of the six half-read books lying somewhere in your bed.”
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60 people liked it
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One of the six half-read books lying somewhere in your bed.”
