Turning The Fables
DO YOU KNOW why the shark hunter from Jaws said he served on the USS Indianapolis? For the answer to this and thousands of other questions about anglophone culture, a new reference book has arrived. Oxford University Press has just published the Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.
Elizabeth Knowles, the new book's editor, explains that the dictionary covers words that have a "particular resonance" and are "likely to be used allusively".
While the dictionary certainly carries literary references - Hogwarts is in there - its remit covers much more besides. A third of the expressions are from outside the United Kingdom.
Keeping the dictionary current is likely to be a constant task. The Millennium Dome is another topical inclusion - though whether its notoriety will last a thousand years is another question.
For now, one of Elizabeth Knowles's favourite quotations concerns a recent reference to JFK's assassination. "Normally buttoned up investment analysts sat like conspiracy buffs surveying the Grassy Knoll". So are the words of one financial journalist immortalised, not for being unique, but for being ever so slightly mundane.
But what is the answer to the question about Jaws? The USS Indianapolis sank in 1945 - and many of the crew was devoured by sharks.
16th Nov 2000