The Etymologicon
Ratings21
Average rating3.8
Fun, but British English. I had never heard of several of the phrases used in the book, but the writing style was a level of snark I can truly appreciate.
Interesting and full of cocktail-party-friendly tidbits. But generally tedious. It's the same joke over and over. Witty, yes. Pedantic, absolutely. Dots well-connected? No. It's etymology without the ology. Not systemic. Simply a barrage of facts confused by word play. Read only with care.
Loved rereading this, but this time as the audiobook. The narrator got the tone perfectly and I burst out laughing several times (not ideal when walking along the street...)
A breathtaking ride through the origins of words we use every day and don't even suspect what they really mean.
If you're seriously interested in etymology, this is not a good book for you. But for a curious layman this possibly is the best choice.
The subtitle sums it up pretty nicely: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language. Forsyth, the man behind the blog Inky Fool, is obsessed with where words come from and with wit takes you on a roundabout journey through his obsession. I started reading this fully thinking that I'd pick it up here and there when I needed a break from my current fiction in progress. But I pretty much read this book straight through and enjoyed it very much. The target audience is definitely word nerds, though. One chapter I enjoyed was titled “Concealed Farts.” In a nineteenth-century dictionary, the author found this definition for fice:
A small windy escape backwards, more obvious to the nose than ears; frequently by old ladies charged [blamed] on their lap-dogs.
He continues:
And fice itself comes from the Old English fist, which likewise meant fart. In Elizabethan times a smelly dog was called a fisting cur, and by the eighteenth century any little dog was called a feist, and that's where we get the word feisty from. Little dogs are so prone to bark at anything that an uppity girl was called feisty, straight from the flatulent dogs of yore. This is a point well worth remembering when you're next reading a film review about a ‘feisty heroine.'
You can also find some corrections at this link.