The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll through the Hidden Connections of the English Language

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Why when you desperately try and fail to connect your speakers to your phone, do you try to activate blue teeth? So many authors try to make a serious academic subject funny, but few succeed as admirably as Mark Forsyth. The two armies would face each other, draw their ancient swords, and charge, whilst shouting over and over again their army-cry or slua-gairm. It’s an occasionally ribald, frequently witty and unerringly erudite guided tour of the secret labyrinth that lurks beneath the English language, taking in monks and monkeys, film buffs and buffaloes, and explaining precisely what the Rolling Stones have to do with gardening.

The Etymologicon is an occasionally ribald, frequently witty and unerringly erudite guided tour of the secret labyrinth that lurks beneath the English language. The TfL production is a more diagrammatical version based on the design by Underground electrical draughtsman, Harry Beck in 1933, which was done in the same form as circuit diagrams he drew for his day job.

Apart from the health warning that this book will inhibit your ability to have normal conversations, The Etymologicon is quite a delightful read.

The English used to use the word alcatras, largely because pelicans aren't native to Britain so we might as well use the Spanish word. A word of warning though: if you're not interested in the subject, you'll probably find it boring; if you're an etymological buff with heaps of knowledge, you'll probably find it a little light on detail and explanation. Some people, rather foolishly, think that seven days is a quarter of the lunar cycle: seven days from new moon to half full, another week to full, another week waning to half, and another week until it disappears. This book is a lovely, meandering journey through the history of the English language and I recommend it to any word nerd.

The place name literally means 'Wemba's clearing in the forest' - and the football chant about 'We're going to Wemberley' is therefore the correct original pronunciation. Other unusual names are 'Sacred Place that Welcomes Strangers Central' for Walthamstow Central, 'Horse Pond' for Bayswater, 'Skin Farm Corner' for Hyde Park Corner and 'Stream in a Sacred Wood' for Waterloo. Small boys would collect their autographs, and the moment a fire broke out they would rush across town to cheer on their favourites. It became customary for nobles and chieftains to put this motto on their coat of arms, and so, in heraldry, those words written on the ribbony thing under the shield became known as the slogan.

This means that the two systems go out of sync very quickly, and after only seven months they are as far as could possibly be. Another one I liked: the term "Nazi" was a German insult long before any Nationalsozialisten showed up. His book The Etymologicon was a Sunday Times Number One Bestseller and his TED Talk 'What's a snollygoster? Mark Forsyth is not an authority on the subject in the way some others are, though he does deserve great credit for writing a book that is likely to keep people interested where many of the other books on etymology that you are likely to take as a first dip into the area, are far too scholarly and intellectual to enjoy on the tube, or in a park.Mix that with a heap of intelligence and some really fascinating history that goes all the way back to before time began (or maybe not quite that far), and you've got a book that is not only entertaining but educational too - I've certainly learned some interesting titbits. Why is it that we are much more likely to guess the word zizek belongs to the sharp object and bomba to the soft one? Definitions and other text are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. The answer is that it’s named after Harald Bluetooth the 10th-century Viking king of Denmark, who did actually have blue teeth, for reasons lost to both history and dentistry.

I started with the word book and kept going for 60,000 words until I ended up back at the word book. That will entail that they are from the beginning build as to attract attention and to amuze the reader.His posts often involve an exploration of words; where they come from and how they relate to each other. Unlike me," he says, "a book could be left snugly on the bedside table or beside the lavatory: opened at will and closed at will. But John got away with it and, if you can believe it, was considered rather holy for all his attempted drowning. Small fry compared to Jamie Oliver perhaps, admits Icon MD Philip Cotterell, but significant for an independent publishing house.