This concise format edition contains over 15,000 entries which give the meaning and origin of words, phrases and proper names not covered in conventional dictionaries. There is information on any topic from 'Auld lang syne to ZIP code; or an account of figures in myth and history, from Abdalla and Alberick to Zephyr and Zuleika; or an outline of the significance of historic terms in religion, magic, philosophy, literature, geography, mathematics and the sciences; from abracadabra, Albion and Avatar to Zen, zodiac and zombie. The dictionary also includes tables of animal cries, dwarfs and giants in myth, patron saints and wedding anniversaries. The original edition of this reference work was compiled by polymath, clergyman and scholar, Dr Ebenezer Cobham Brewer.