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COPYRIGHT 2003 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service
BOOKS
"Coined by God: Words and Phrases That First Appear in the English Translations of the Bible," by Stanley Malless and Jeffrey McQuain (Norton, 221 pages, $23.95)
You wouldn't be surprised to learn that "balm in Gilead," "born again" and "reap the whirlwind" are phrases that entered common English usage after first appearing in translations of the Bible. But would you feel as sure that "eat, drink and be merry," "busybody" and "ivory tower" are from the same source? The authors have confined their sources to translations between John Wycliffe in 1302 and the King James Version that appeared in 1611.
Phrases are more likely to catch the eye, but single words are often more loaded with history. "Shibboleth" was used in the Book of Judges by Gileadites because the enemy Ephraimites couldn't pronounce the word properly. It has now come to mean a word or phrase indicative of a person's origin.
The book gives which translation, with the quotation where the word or phrase first appeared, what other translators used, a history of how the meaning of the word has changed, then a modern example of usage. It's...
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