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Author
Language
English
Description
This extensive reference volume presents the etymological history of thousands of English words.
The story of how words come to be is the story of how humans think, and how we fashion our civilizations. Words can be the product of long and intertwining histories, migrations from other languages, or new coinages of science or slang. This diversity of origins is part of what gives the English language its beauty and power.
In Dictionary of Word Origins,...
Author
Language
English
Description
The word bitch conjures many images for many people, but it is most often meant to describe an unpleasant woman. Even before its usage to mean a female canine, bitch didn't refer to gender at all--it originated as a gender-neutral word meaning genitalia. A perfectly innocuous word devolving into a female insult is the case for tons more terms, including hussy--which simply meant housewife--or slut, which meant an untidy person and was also used to...
Author
Publisher
John Murray
Pub. Date
2008.
Language
English
Description
Words are essential to our everyday lives. An average person spends his or her day enveloped in conversations, e-mails, phone calls, text messages, directions, headlines, and more. But how often do we stop to think about the origins of the words we use? Have you ever thought about which words in English have been borrowed from Arabic, Dutch, or Portuguese? Try admiral, landscape, and marmalade, just for starters.
The Secret Life of Words is a wide-ranging...
Author
Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
"In Around the World in 80 Words, Jones tells the story of eighty English-language words that are specially related to a place. He tells us, for example, where the name for the Canary Islands came from, the relationship between the town of Jáchymov in the Czech Republic and the word "dollar," and he dispels the myth that the term "limerick" comes from the last name of Edward Lear. Throughout this engaging journey, the reader gains valuable insights...
