Using several words instead of one means an attacker has to guess more letters, which creates more security but only if the phrase chosen is not one likely to turn up, through familiar usage, in a dictionary of phrases.
The four phrases corresponding to the single nucleotides 'C', 'C', 'G' and 'T' form the first entries in the dictionary of phrases.
The technical justification for the Lempel-Ziv algorithm in such contexts is provided by a fundamental convergence theorem: the superior limit of the ratio of the number of bits needed to describe the Lempel-Ziv dictionary of phrases to the length of the sequence almost surely bounds the entropy rate of any ergodic, stationary random sequence from below [ 50].
"Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable", first published in 1870, is by widespread consent the nonpareil of instructive digression.
Mr Gore, however, is now the single and clear leader of the Democratic Party.JOSHUA WISCHBethesda, MarylandSIR In "Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable" a "Bush lawyer" is "one who argues glibly on a slight or inaccurate basis".
According to Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (HarperCollins, 2000), "Smart Alec" was a real person, Alec Hoag, who lived in New York in the mid-19th century, although his noted intelligence was mostly focused on breaking the law.
In the field of literature, if Isaac Disraeli's Curiosities of Literature (1791) is ruled out, the first important handbook is the Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1870) by the English clergyman and schoolmaster Ebenezer Cobham Brewer (1810 97), supplemented with Brewer's Reader's Handbook (1879).
By the way - while I am panting - the Concise Oxford Dictionary says, very mildly, that the expression "start a hare" means "raise a topic of conversation"; but Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (revised edition, 1981) comes closer to the real meaning, in my opinion, by adding the usually relevant word "irrelevant" to the definition.
Words Fitly Spoken Looking for a good language aphorism in the new edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Phrase, Saying and Quotation, I found this from Proverbs 25:11 in the King James translation of the Hebrew Bible: "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver".
Look up "Pride comes before a fall" in any decent Dictionary of Phrase and Fable reprint next year and you'll find Haitian hurdler Jeffrey Julmis, giving the cameras some classic cool-as-ice posturing before the start of his 110m race – then going head over heels at the first hurdle.
Another explanation of the term comes from the Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898), which cited the proverb of "selling the skin before you have caught the bear," and referred to those who entered into contracts in the notorious South Sea bubble in the early 18th century, to transfer stock at a stated price.
