The Superior Person's Third Book of Well-Bred Words

If you seek the perfect insult, a means to impress or plain old inscrutability, look no further than The Superior Person's Third Book of Well-Bred Words by series author Peter Bowler (Human Remains), illustrated by Dennis Corrigan. At once flaunting and mocking a raunchy upper-crust sensibility, Bowler offers a lexicon devoid of practical value, but replete with entertaining possibilities. Readers will learn the definitions of nearly obsolete words like peascod-belly (""A false stomach worn under the clothing by Elizabethan men"") and musophobia (""The morbid dread of mice""), many of which won't be found in standard desktop dictionaries. Not for the faint of wit. ( Jan.)