The Deeper Meaning of Liff

The Meaning of Liff

The original 1983 UK cover of the book, with sticker.
Author	Douglas Adams John Lloyd
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Subject	Humour/Toponymy/Etymology
Publisher	Pan Books
Publication date	11 November 1983
Media type	Paperback
Pages	191
ISBN
Followed by	The Deeper Meaning of Liff

The Meaning of Liff (UK Edition: ISBN , US Edition: ISBN ) is a humorous dictionary of toponymy and etymology, written by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd, published in the United Kingdom in 1983 and the United States in 1984.

The book is a "dictionary of things that there aren't any words for yet". Rather than inventing new words, Adams and Lloyd picked a number of existing place-names and assigned interesting meanings to them, meanings that can be regarded as on the verge of social existence and ready to become recognisable entities.

All the words listed are toponyms and describe common feelings and objects for which there is no current English word. Examples are Shoeburyness ("The vague uncomfortable feeling you get when sitting on a seat that is still warm from somebody else's bottom") and Plymouth ("To relate an amusing story to someone without remembering that it was they who told it to you in the first place").

The book cover usually bears the tagline "This book will change your life", either as part of its cover or as an adhesive label. Liff (a village near Dundee in Scotland) 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, the idea behind The Meaning of Liff grew out of an old school game and started when he and Lloyd were on holiday together in Corfu in 1978 during the writing of the first Hitchhiker's novel. This idea was used as part of the Not the Nine O'Clock News spin-off book Not 1982 (ISBN ), where they were headed "Today's new word from the Oxtail English Dictionary". The suggestion of turning this into a complete book in itself came from Faber MD Matthew Evans. The bulk of the text was written by Adams and Lloyd in Summer 1982 in Malibu, California.