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The Meaning of Liff

 
The Meaning of Liff

 
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The Meaning of Liff
 
 
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The Meaning of Liff (UK Edition: ISBN 0-330-28121-6, US Edition: ISBN 0-517-55347-3) is a humorous dictionary
Dictionary

A dictionary is a book of Alphabetical order listed words in a specific language, with definitions, etymologies, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of alphabetically listed words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon....
 of toponomy and etymology
Etymology

Etymology is the study of the roots and history of words; and how their form and meaning have changed over time.In languages with a long detailed history, etymology makes use of philology, the study of how words change from culture to culture over time....
, written by Douglas Adams
Douglas Adams

Douglas Noel Adams was an England author, dramatist and musician. He is best known as the author of the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series....
 and John Lloyd
John Lloyd (writer)

John Hardress Wilfred Lloyd is a United Kingdom comedy writer and television producer. He is the great nephew of John Hardress Lloyd....
, published in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 in 1983, and first published in the USA in 1984.






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Meaning of Liff Front Cover
Deeper Meaning of Liff Front Cover
The Meaning of Liff (UK Edition: ISBN 0-330-28121-6, US Edition: ISBN 0-517-55347-3) is a humorous dictionary
Dictionary

A dictionary is a book of Alphabetical order listed words in a specific language, with definitions, etymologies, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of alphabetically listed words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon....
 of toponomy and etymology
Etymology

Etymology is the study of the roots and history of words; and how their form and meaning have changed over time.In languages with a long detailed history, etymology makes use of philology, the study of how words change from culture to culture over time....
, written by Douglas Adams
Douglas Adams

Douglas Noel Adams was an England author, dramatist and musician. He is best known as the author of the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series....
 and John Lloyd
John Lloyd (writer)

John Hardress Wilfred Lloyd is a United Kingdom comedy writer and television producer. He is the great nephew of John Hardress Lloyd....
, published in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 in 1983, and first published in the USA in 1984. A revised and expanded edition of the original book, with about twice as many definitions, was more broadly published in 1990 as The Deeper Meaning of Liff (UK Edition: ISBN 0-330-31606-0, US Edition: ISBN 0-517-58597-9), though the original remains in print. Some of the new words in Deeper had previously appeared in a Liff piece by Adams, Lloyd and Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry

Stephen John Fry is an England actor, comedian, author and television presenter. With Hugh Laurie, as the comedy double act Fry and Laurie, he co-wrote and co-starred in A Bit of Fry and Laurie, and the duo also played the title roles in Jeeves and Wooster....
 in The Utterly Utterly Merry Comic Relief Christmas Book
The Utterly Utterly Merry Comic Relief Christmas Book

The Utterly Utterly Merry Comic Relief Christmas Book was a fundraising book issued on behalf of Comic Relief in 1986. It was edited by Douglas Adams and Peter Fincham and contained contributions from many of the leading comedy writers and performers of the day....
 (1986). The main differences between the two editions (for either version of the book) are simply those of American English vs. British English spellings, though The Deeper Meaning of Liff contains different definitions for both the word "glossop" and the titular word "liff".

It is a "dictionary of things that there aren't any words for yet"; all the words listed are place names, and describe common feelings and objects for which there is no current English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 word. Examples are Shoeburyness
Shoeburyness

Shoeburyness is a town in southeast Essex, England, situated at the mouth of the river Thames. It is within the borough of Southend-on-Sea, and is situated at the far east of the borough, around east of Southend town centre....
 ("The vague uncomfortable feeling you get when sitting on a seat which is still warm from somebody else's bottom") and Abinger ("One who washes up everything except the frying pan, the cheese grater and the saucepan which the chocolate sauce has been made in").

It should be noted that the cover of the book usually bears the tagline "This book will change your life!", either as an integral part of its cover or as an adhesive label. Liff is then defined in the book as "A book, the contents of which are totally belied by its cover. For instance, any book the dust jacket
Dust jacket

The dust jacket of a book is the outer cover, which is often detachable and often illustrated. This outer cover has folded front and back flaps, by which it attaches to the front and back book covers themselves....
 of which bears the words, 'This book will change your life'." (In The Deeper Meaning of Liff, Liff is defined as a phenomenon for which there is no word).

According to Adams' account in The Salmon of Doubt
The Salmon of Doubt

'The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time' is a posthumous collection of previously unpublished material by Douglas Adams. It consists largely of essays about technology and life experiences, but its major selling point is the inclusion of the incomplete novel on which Adams was working at the time of his death, The Salmo...
, the idea behind The Meaning of Liff grew out of an old school game, and started when he and Lloyd were on holiday together. The book is named after the village of Liff
Liff, Scotland

Liff is a small hamlet northwest of Dundee in Scotland.It is the site of Royal Dundee Liff Hospital, a large psychiatric institution situated in the grounds of an expansive estate....
 near Dundee
Dundee

Dundee is the fourth-largest City status in the United Kingdom in Scotland and, fully named as Dundee City, one of Scotland's 32 Local government in Scotland Council areas of Scotland....
 in Scotland
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
.

Some of the definitions originally appeared in the Not the Nine O'Clock News
Not the Nine O'Clock News

Not the Nine O'Clock News is a television comedy sketch show which was broadcast on BBC 2 from 1979 to 1982.Originally shown as a comedy "alternative" to the BBC Nine O'Clock News on BBC 1, it featured satirical sketches on current news stories and popular culture, as well as parody songs, comedy sketches, re-edited videos and spoof...
 spin-off book Not 1982 (ISBN 0571118534), where they were headed "Today's new word from the Oxtail English Dictionary".

A German adaptation was made by Sven Böttcher under the title Der tiefere Sinn des Labenz, published in 1992 (ISBN 3453879600). The meanings are translated from the original but are matched to place names in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The most recent edition includes both the German adaptation and the English original (ISBN 3-453-87960-0).

See also

  • Sniglet
    Sniglet

    A sniglet is a neologism defined as "any word that doesn't appear in the dictionary, but should". The term was created by writer/actor/comedian Rich Hall, who first created a series of Sniglets while he was a performer on the 1980s Home Box Office comedy series Not Necessarily the News....
  • Toponomy
  • Etymology
    Etymology

    Etymology is the study of the roots and history of words; and how their form and meaning have changed over time.In languages with a long detailed history, etymology makes use of philology, the study of how words change from culture to culture over time....
  • List of generic forms in British place names
    List of generic forms in British place names

    The study of place names is called toponymy; for a more detailed examination of this subject in relation to British place names, please refer to British toponymy....
  • The Devil's Dictionary
    The Devil's Dictionary

    The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce, is a satire book published in 1911. It offers reinterpretations of terms in the English language which lampoon Cant and political Doublespeak....
  • Daffynition
    Daffynition

    A daffynition is a pun format involving the reinterpretation of an existing word, on the basis that it sounds like another word . They are similar to transpositional puns, but often much less complex and easier to create....


External links