Word Histories and Mysteries: From Abracadabra to Zeus (American Heritage Dictionaries) |
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Word Histories and Mysteries: From Abracadabra to Zeus (American Heritage Dictionaries)
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by Editors of The American Heritage Dictionaries
Sales Rank: 186287
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Discount: 20 %
List Price: $12.95
$10.36
At Amazon
on 6-23-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 368 pages
Published by: Houghton Mifflin October 13, 2004
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0618454500
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0618454501
Book Dimensions:
8.1 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
Weighs: 14.4 ounces
From Publishers Weekly
English-speakers, especially Americans, are sometimes criticized because so many speak only one language, but in truth, English is a tongue composed of many others. Probably no one knows this better than those for whom etymology is their livelihood, such as these dictionary editors, and they draw on their collective experience of hunting down word origins, whether historical or linguistic, to produce this entertaining volume. Even those who arent wordy types may wonder where words like "namby-pamby," "milquetoast" and "hamburger" came from, and the explanations dont disappoint: poet Henry Carey first coined the term "namby-pamby" to make fun of 18th-century poet Ambrose Philips ("amby" standing for Ambrose); "milquetoast" derives from an English comic strip depicting a timid, retiring man named after a bland food; and "hamburger" comes from "a form of pounded beef called Hamburg steak" that people ate in (where else?) Hamburg, Germany. The brief introductory pages of general language history are somewhat dry, but the tone elsewhere is conversational and rarely technical. Some of the entries have straightforward histories that make one question their inclusion ("asparagus" and "iconoclast" are inherited from Latin and Greek respectively), or are hard to even really consider English (like "ciao" and "maharajah"), but often even then the editors include historical tidbits that add interest. Lovers of language, history and literature should appreciate this book, which is much easier to read and more intriguing than the etymological notes found in a regular dictionary.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Product Description
Did you know that cats are related etymologically to caterpillars? Or that Thomas Edison played a key role in popularizing the use of the greeting "Hello"? Or that muscles were originally mice, since a flexed biceps looks like a little rodent scurrying under the skin?
Word Histories and Mysteries provides a panoramic view of the unique richness of English, uncovering the origins of five hundred everyday words whose surprising and often amusing stories offer insights into the history of humankind. Arranged in convenient alphabetical order, the notes are written in a lively and entertaining style perfect for browsing. The reader can learn how some of the most recent words, such as the computer term wiki, were coined, or trace the origins of English back to the Indo-European language spoken long before the invention of writing.
A short introduction outlines the techniques linguists use to trace the history of words, and a handy glossary explains the linguistic terms that describe the ways in which language changes over time. Photographs and drawings help familiarize the reader with the ancient objects or cultural practices from which our words have sprung.
Fascinating and fun to read, Word Histories and Mysteries is an ideal gift for high school or college students interested in language and for anyone who wants to know more about the curious sounds we make to communicate every day.
Reader Reviews
This paperback compendium of articles on the origins of words has been compiled by the editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Among the oddities revealed by its writers are that average derives from an Old French word meaning "damage to shipping", that caprice comes by a devious route from an old Italian word for a hedgehog, that in medieval times deer was the name for any creature, that in Middle English dinner could mean breakfast, that fawn and fetus are etymologically connected, that garage is from a French word whose first sense in that language was a place where one moors one's boat, that junk originally meant old rope ... and so on. Its writers have not shied away from discussing features of some of the most common words, such as a, it and they. You will also be painlessly introduced to some of the terminology and ideas of etymology, such as back-formation (a word mistakenly formed from another by removing what looks like an ending), folk etymology (popular legends about word origins), metanalysis (a shift in the division between words, as a napron became an apron, metathesis (in which sounds are transposed inside a word, as wops turned into wasp), and melioration (in which over time a word becomes more elevated or positive in meaning). Though not all these terms are explained in the text, there is a glossary at the end of the book.
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Word Histories and Mysteries: From Abracadabra to Zeus (American Heritage Dictionaries)
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Price: $10.36
Updated on 6-23-2008.
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