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“... of new words and phrases, including ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ and ‘focus group’), and Elinor Barber, a historian, set out to chart the picaresque career of ‘serendipity’ in the 1950s, when the word had crossed over from the realm of literary arcana to that of scientific buzzwords, but had not yet begun its steep ascent towards ...”

“... type of paper had caught on, which happened in the 1860s or thereabouts (when, we might gather, a barber had difficulty in distinguishing between his clients and his dinner). However tempting it is to view such material from the standpoint of the present – a practice geared to the arousal of merriment – Drotner believes it’s wrong to extract it from the ...”

“... is applied in Sense and Sensibility (1811) before it shifts to her prudent sister, Elinor. Boswell remarked that Johnson ‘had, from his early youth, been sensible to the influence of female charms’. That ‘sensible’ encompassed some pretty warm feelings, as Boswell knew: in 1762, Johnson allegedly told him that ‘the white bubbies and ...”