The word bitch conjures many images for many people, but it is most often meant to describe an unpleasant woman. Even before its usage to mean a female canine, bitch didn't refer to gender at all--it originated as a gender-neutral word meaning genitalia. A perfectly innocuous word devolving into a female insult is the case for tons more terms, including hussy--which simply meant housewife--or slut, which meant an untidy person and was also used to...

Words are essential to our everyday lives. An average person spends his or her day enveloped in conversations, e-mails, phone calls, text messages, directions, headlines, and more. But how often do we stop to think about the origins of the words we use? Have you ever thought about which words in English have been borrowed from Arabic, Dutch, or Portuguese? Try admiral, landscape, and marmalade, just for starters. The Secret Life of Words is a wide-ranging...

Where do our everyday words come from? The bagel you eat for breakfast, the bumf you have to wade through at the office, and the bus that takes you home again: we use these words without thinking about their origins or how their meanings have changed over time. Simon Horobin takes the reader on a journey through a typical day, showing how the words we use to describe routine activities - getting up, going to work, eating meals - have surprisingly...

"The book is for those who take joy in the boundless eccentricities of language. The book's daily entries of obscure words are each linked to a quirk, anecdote, or commemoration that tie them to history."--Provided by publisher.

Brilliant philologist and sexy YouTube sensation Marina Orlova is Hot For Words-and you will be too when you join her on a titillating journey through the origins and meanings of words and phrases. Combining fascinating philology and etymology with provocative, full-colored photos of the alluring author, Hot For Words makes intelligence almost unbearably sexy…and lots of fun!

THEREBY HANGS A TALE Stories of Curious Word Origins Charles Earle Funk, Litt. D. PERENNIAL LIBRARY Harper Row, Publishers New York, Cambridge, Philadelphia, San Francisco London, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Sydney To B. M. F. Who patiently and often has listened to many of these tales, this book is lovingly dedicated. PREFACE THIS book Is the outcome of a collection of material that has been slowly accumulating over the past thirty years or...

Eddie and MJ use their awesome enchanted book to journey to Mexico, discover how Mexican culture has influences the English language, learn about local customs, and solve an exciting mystery.

"From aardvark to zombie, from ogre to gargoyle, every word in our language has its story to tell. Words take an amazing journey from their earliest origins to the meaning they have today. Allow Tom Read Wilson to be your passionate guide and explore with him through entertaining rhymes and fascinating facts the etymology of more than one hundred of his favorite words in this sumptuous anthology illustrated with wit and charm by Ian Morris."--Page...

" Do you wake up feeling rough? Then you're philogrobolized. Find yourself pretending to work? That's fudgelling. And this could lead to rizzling, if you feel sleepy after lunch. Though you are sure to become a sparkling deipnosopbist by dinner. Just don't get too vinomadefied; a drunk dinner companion is never appreciated. The Horologicon (or book of hours) contains the most extraordinary words in the English language, arranged according to what...