The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language
by:
Mark Forsyth (author)
Do you know why… …a mortgage is literally a death pledge? …why guns have girls’ names? …why salt is related to soldier? You’re about to find out… The Etymologicon (e-t?-‘mä-lä-ji-kän) is:*Witty (wi-te): Full of clever humor*Erudite (er-?-dit): Showing knowledge*Ribald (ri-b?ld): Crude, offensive...
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Do you know why… …a mortgage is literally a death pledge? …why guns have girls’ names? …why salt is related to soldier? You’re about to find out… The Etymologicon (e-t?-‘mä-lä-ji-kän) is:*Witty (wi-te): Full of clever humor*Erudite (er-?-dit): Showing knowledge*Ribald (ri-b?ld): Crude, offensive The Etymologicon is a completely unauthorized guide to the strange underpinnings of the English language. It explains: how you get from “gruntled” to “disgruntled”; why you are absolutely right to believe that your meager salary barely covers “money for salt”; how the biggest chain of coffee shops in the world (hint: Seattle) connects to whaling in Nantucket; and what precisely the Rolling Stones have to do with gardening.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780425260791 (0425260798)
ASIN: 425260798
Publish date: October 2nd 2012
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Pages no: 304
Edition language: English
TITLE: The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll through the Hidden Connections of the English Language AUTHOR: Mark Forsyth DATE PUBLISHED: 2011 FORMAT: Hardcover ISBN-13: 9781848313071 ____________________________ DESCRIPTION: "The Etymologicon springs from Mark Forsyth's Inky Fool blog...
This book took me FOREVER to finish, and not because it was bad, boring or dense. It took me forever because I couldn't read more than a paragraph without having to stop and read it aloud to MT, much to his amusement and increasing irritation, so I found myself avoiding it for stretches at a time s...
Mark Forsyth’s Etymologicon is exactly the kind of smart funny distraction I needed after wading through the romance novel box set from hell. I’ve read this before, and it’s followup, but there’s so very much packed into them, that I can and probably will read them a dozen more times. This is effe...
bookshelves: published-2011, radio-4, winter-20112012, nonfiction Read from December 21 to 23, 2011 THEME TUNE _ Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through The GrapevineAbridged by Jane Marshall.A circular stroll through the fascinating and amusing connections of the English language by the author of the...
Entertaining and informative, although someone that isn't interested in etymology might find it somewhat dull. It's not dry at all though, plenty of jokes and witty commentary throughout.
11 years ago
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