“He’s sharp as the corner of a round table.” “She’s so sad she’s pulling a face as long as a fiddle.” If startling similes leaving you “grinning like a basket full of possum heads,” you’ll love the book Intensifying Similes in English, published in 1918. It’s available at no cost on the Internet Archive. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Intensifying Similes in English”
Here’s something you’ll love, Martha. There’s a great book on the Internet Archive that you should see.
It’s called Intensifying Similes in English, which I know is a really boring title.
Oh, but the movie was great.
Really? There was a movie. Who did it? Ingmar Bergman, right?
It was a Bollywood production.
No, it wasn’t. I say that because the author of this book, which was published in 1918, was a Swede, T. Hildings Vartengren.
It’s great. He’s gone through English, basically for his doctoral dissertation, and drawn out similes from a massive quantity of literature.
And he’s uncovered some gems that I think that you should start using.
And I’ll wait and see if they catch on and then I’ll follow your lead, okay?
Okay. All right.
So if someone’s not that bright, you would say they’re sharp as the corner of a round table, meaning not that bright at all.
-huh. Okay.
Or you could say that a sad person is pulling a face as long as a fiddle.
Oh, that is sad.
Or you could say somebody who is blunt spoken is as stunt as a hammer.
Stunt.
Yeah, stunt.
It’s just another way of saying blunt.
Okay.
Kind of short for stunted.
No, you don’t like that one?
Not as much as the long-faced fiddle.
Well, okay.
The book, again, is Intensifying Similes in English, which can be found at nocharge at archive.org.
Yeah, it sounds like fun.
I’ll have to check it out.
Well, if you’d like to talk with us about similes, metaphors, or other turns of phrase, give us a call. The number’s 1-877-929-9673 or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.
