Cosmo Dictionary of Terms and Phrases

The Dictionary of Terms and Phrases is intended to bring together such words, expressions, quotations, etc., English or other, as are among the most uncommon in current literature, and require, for the ordinary reader, explanations, for the want of which the meaning of a sentence or a paragraph, even the drift of an argument, is often missed; explanations, moreover, not to be obtained without reference to, and perhaps tedious search among, a large and varied number of books, many of them not easily accessible.
Of these terms and expressions some are purely, some are more or less, technical and scientific; some are purely uncommon; some contain allusions mythological, geographical; and some belong to languages other than English.
This dictionary is designed, as a matter of fact, to supply all the information needed by the general reader who may wish to have a fair understanding of the text of any work in ordinary English literature.