The Meaning of Liff
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The Meaning of Liff (UK Edition: ISBN 0-330-28121-6, US Edition: ISBN 0-517-55347-3) is a humorous dictionary written by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd, published in Britain in 1983, and first published in the USA in 1984. A revised and expanded edition of the original book, with about twice as many definitions, was more broadly published in 1990 as The Deeper Meaning of Liff (UK Edition: ISBN 0-330-31606-0, US Edition: ISBN 0-517-58597-9), though the original remains in print. Some of the new words in Deeper had previously appeared in a Liff piece by Adams, Lloyd and Stephen Fry in The Utterly Utterly Merry Comic Relief Christmas Book (1986). The main differences between the two editions (for either version of the book) are simply those of American English vs. British English spellings.
It is a "dictionary of things that there aren't any words for yet"; all the words listed are place names, and describe common feelings and objects for which there is no current English word. For example:
- Shoeburyness (abs.n.)
- The vague uncomfortable feeling you get when sitting on a seat which is still warm from somebody else's bottom.
and
- Abinger (abs.n.)
- One who washes up everything except the frying pan, the cheese grater and the saucepan which the chocolate sauce has been made in.
It should be noted that the cover of the book usually bears the tagline "This book will change your life!", either as an integral part of its cover or as an adhesive label. Liff is then defined in the book as "A book, the contents of which are totally belied by its cover. For instance, any book the dust jacket of which bears the words. 'This book will change your life'."
According to Adams' account in The Salmon of Doubt, the Meaning of Liff grew out of an old school game, and started when he and Lloyd were on holiday together. The book is named after the town of Liff in Scotland.
