Book Review: A Book of English Idioms - V. H Collins

My mom is always encouraging us to speak idiomatic Afrikaans - quite a challenge! So I decided to do the same with English, and was delighted to find "A Book of English Idioms, by V H Collins" at a local charity shop.

It is fascinating to read about all the different idioms and where they come from, some even dating back to the 1500's! I just wish I could remember them better!

Interestingly there are a large number of idioms around 'squares'; I was intrigued as our logo has three of them, so was keen to learn more - here is what they have to say about squares:

...Squareness, in its usual meaning of 'four equal sided-ness, suggests regularity. A figurative extension of this is correctness, straightness, rightness... 



It is all square. It has been arranged so as to be fair to all sides.

I loved this, as it resonates so well with our reputation management building blocks and looking after reputations. "Correctness, straightness, rightness...all summed into one word - integrity, is what managing reputations is all about.  It is also so representative of our Repudometer®, where we focus specifically on the balance of all the dimensions within the organisation.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but will have to re-read it to remember all the wonderful expressions.