Weather Wisdom -

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Résumé :
This collection of 4.435 proverbs, superstitions, and signs concerning the weather is the most comprehensive survey ever put together for English and American weather wisdom. Included are figurative proverbs, predicative sayings, superstitions, and weather rules attached to particular dates. While they lack the scientific precision of modern meteorology, these proverbs contain the collective wisdom of generations of people who have depended on knowing at least to some degree of certainty what the weather might bring. The texts are based on oral and written sources, with each text and its variants being annotated by references to major collections of weather lore from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In addition to this comprehensive list of traditional meteorological sayings, the book also includes an introduction to the origin, history, dissemination, meaning, and value of these folk expressions. A bibliography for the large field of weather folklore and an index are provided to facilitate the use of this volume. Its content should be of interest to anybody interested in weather lore, both the general public and professional meteorologists.

Biographie:
The Editors: Stewart A. Kingsbury was Professor of English at Northern Michigan University, and his wife Mildred E. Kingsbury was the Director of the Marquette General Hospital Health Sciences Library.
Wolfgang Mieder is Professor of German and Folklore and Chairperson of the Department of German and Russian at the University of Vermont. Together they have published A Dictionary of American Proverbs (with Kelsie B. Harder) and A Dictionary of Wellerisms. Mieder is the author or editor of numerous books on proverbs, including International Proverb Scholarship: An Annotated Bibliography; Investigations of Proverbs, Proverbial Expressions, Quotations and Clich?s (Peter Lang, 1984); Ecyclopedia of World Proverbs; Yankee Wisdom: Proverbs of New England; American Proverbs: A Study of Texts and Contexts (Peter Lang, 1989); Proverbs Are Never Out of Season: Popular Wisdom in the Modern Age; Wise Words: Essays on the Proverb (with George B. Bryan) The Proverbial Eugene O'Neill and The Proverbial Winston S. Churchill. In addition, he is also the editor of Proverbium: Yearbook of International Proverb Scholarship.