Overview

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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9781469090948

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Reviews

"""Crikey...this is addictive!"" -- ""Times (London)"" ""Mark Forsyth is clearly a man who knows his onions."" -- ""Daily Telegraph (London)"""

Crikey...this is addictive! -- Times (London) Mark Forsyth is clearly a man who knows his onions. -- Daily Telegraph (London)

""Crikey...this is addictive!"" -- ""Times (London)"" ""Mark Forsyth is clearly a man who knows his onions."" -- ""Daily Telegraph (London)""

Author Information

Born in London in 1977, Mark Forsyth (a.k.a The Inky Fool) was given a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary as a christening present and has never looked back. His book The Etymologicon was a Sunday Times Number One Bestseller and his TED Talk ""What's a snollygoster?"" has had more than half a million views. He has also written a specially commissioned essay ""The Unknown Unknown"" for Independent Booksellers Week and the introduction for the new edition of the Collins English Dictionary. He lives in London with his dictionaries, and blogs at blog.inkyfool.com. Don Hagen has been behind the microphone since fifth grade. He is a nine-time winner of the Peer Award for narration/voice-over and twice winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award. He has also been heard in radio and television commercials and documentaries. In addition to his freelance voice work, he is a member of the audiobook narration team at the Library of Congress.

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