Bloomsbury dictionary of word origins - Hardcover

Ayto, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0747507414 ISBN 13: 9780747507413

Publisher: Bloomsbury, 1990

Synopsis

The average English speaker knows 50,000 words in contemporary use - 25 more words than there are stars in the night sky visible to the naked eye. Yet stripped down to its origins, this apparently huge vocabulary is in reality a much smaller number of words from Latin, French and the Germanic languages. It is estimated that every year, 800 neologisms are added to the English acronyms - 'yuppie', blended words - 'motel', and those taken from foreign languages - 'savoir-faire'. The Bloomsbury Dictionary of Word Origins provides a concise history of over 8,000 of the most commonly used words. The range of information spans from derivations as simple as 'a' and 'one' from 'an', to historical relations between words which would be obscure to all but the most lexically-minded. For instance 'vice' with its several uses in English - a wickedness, a holding tool - is derived via Old French from two separate Latin 'vitium' (defect, offence), and 'vitis' (vine) which gave 'viticulture'. The Bloomsbury Dictionary of Word Origins demonstrates how the diverse influences on English have given rise to some unlikely but fascinating lexical relations. 'Bishop' had no ecclesiastical origins, but was in fact derived from the Greek 'episkopos', meaning 'overseer', and shares origins with 'spy'. In strict etymological terms, a 'dairy' should employ a female kneader of bread. Laid out in an A-Z format with detailed cross references, written in a style that is both authoritative and accessible, the Bloomsbury Dictionary of Word Origins is a valuable historical guide to the English language.

About this title

From Library Journal

An alphabetical listing of some 8000 English words with their histories, this book omits other dictionary features such as pronunciation, part of speech, and, in most cases, definitions. It is interesting to explore the sometimes surprising groups of related words; under doctor , for example, we are referred to 11 other entries, ranging from dainty to paradox . The date of a word's first appearance in the language is indicated by century or by "OE" for Old English. The author is English, so Americans will miss some typically American words such as raccoon , ranch , or stoop (porch). Like Craig M. Carver's recent (and smaller) History of English in Its Own Words ( LJ 6/15/91), this book is not a reference acquisition for any library owning the OED or Webster's unabridged, but it makes interesting reading for the public library patron or the linguistics or English student.
- Catherine V. von Schon, SUNY at Stony Brook
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0747507414
• ISBN 13: 9780747507413
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 582