The Deeper Meaning of Liff A Dictionary of Things There Aren't Any Words for Yet--But There Ought to Be

Does the sensation ofTingrith(1) make you yelp? Do you bend sympathetically when you see someoneAhenny(2)? Can you deal with aNaugatuck(3) without causing aToronto(4)? Will you suffer fromKettering(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'tor rather there weren't, until Douglas Adams and John Lloyd decided to plug these egregious linguisticlacunae(6). They quickly realized that just as there are an awful lot of experiences that no one has a name for, so there are an awful lot of names for places you will never need to go to. What a waste. As responsible citizens of a small and crowded world, we must all learn the virtues of recycling(7) and put old, worn-out but still serviceable names to exciting, vibrant, new uses. This is the book that does that for you:The Deeper Meaning of Liffa whole new solution to the problem ofGreat Wakering(8) 1The feeling of aluminum foil against your fillings. 2The way people stand when examining other people's bookshelves. 3A plastic packet containing shampoo, mustard, etc., which is impossible to open except by biting off the corners. 4Generic term for anything that comes out in a gush, despite all your efforts to let it out carefully, e.g., flour into a white sauce, ketchup onto fish, a dog into the yard, and another naughty meaning that we can't put on the cover. 5The marks left on your bottom and thighs after you've been sitting sunbathing in a wicker chair. 6God knows what this means 7For instance, some of this book was first published in Britain twenty-six years ago. 8Look it up yourself. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Douglas Adams was the bestselling author of many works including The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, recently released as a major motion picture. He died in 2001.

John Lloyd is (he says) Britain’s most successful television comedy producer since Chaucer and is responsible for Not the Nine O’Clock News, Spitting Image, and Blackadder, among others.