23 April 2011

Things found in books

Found in a charity shop, this dictionary was published in Canada in 1948 -
It belonged to Christine Collins, who wrote below her name: "Most wonderful of all are words - and how they make friends one with another". (A quote from "Calloway's Code", a short story by the wonderful O.Henry.)

It's a dictionary with pictures, including maps.
On the page opened at random, as well as buttress, buzzard, and Byzantium, we find "butyraceous - of the nature of, resembling, or containing butter" and learn that one form (isomer) of butyric acid is the rancid liquid present in spoiled butter etc. "By-work" is a useful term - "work done in addition to one's regular work, as in intervals of leisure".

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