Mark Forsyth e book, The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll through the Hidden.. £1.09
By Thomas Cunliffe TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on 2 Dec. 2011 Format: Hardcover Like many people I am mildly interested in where words come from and I've occasionally read books like David Crystal's By Hook Or By Crook: A Journey in Search of English which looks at where English place-names come from. Unless books like these are skilfully written they can quickly become tedious and its usually best to get this sort of information in smallers chunk from newspapers or magazines. Mark Forsyth publishes the Inky Fool blog in which he looks at the derivation of words, but links one to another in a humorous ramble through the English language. Mark is one of those lucky bloggers who's blog has now become a book, The Etymologicon, and I have to say, it makes for a very good read which I've been dipping into over the last week. Its probably better to illustrate Mark's methods with an example than to describe them. For example, in a chapter headed A Game of ...