Reference Reviews

Reference for Students

Oxford Dictionary of Phrase, Saying, and Quotation, 3rd ed. Edited by Susan Ratcliffe. Oxford: Oxford Universty Press, 2006. 689 p. $39.95. ISBN 0-19-280650-5, ISBN-13: 978-0-19-280650-5.

Students will find links between 12,000 quotations from individuals to sayings and phrases from around the world. It is an interesting combination of things that can be traced and things that cannot be attributed such as the Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.” Also students will find the Russian saying, “We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us” alongside Dorothy Sayers, “I always have a quotation for everything---it saves original thinking.” The arrangement is alphabetical by themes with new themes added to the other volumes such as “Computers and the Internet.” “See also” references send the user to a closely related theme. Themes often have subdivisions such as “Proverbs and Sayings,” “Phrases,” and “Quotations.” Within each theme, the quotations are given in chronological order. If it is possible, they are dated. The almost 200-page index provides access to individual sayings by keyword. Students needing something to make their papers more interesting will enjoy your making this known to them.