Mind your language.

Publication: Spectator

Publication Date: 27-DEC-03

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COPYRIGHT 2003 The Spectator Ltd. (UK)

I've just looked up foxglove in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, not because I expected it to tell me the word's origin, but because I hoped it would give a false origin. I love Brewer, but it tells the reader not the facts of history and etymology but what the widely educated High Victorian thought were the facts. This is very useful in...

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