Customer Reviews

I Always Look Up the Word "Egregious"

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Rather than being a cute book about words (c.f. Richard Lederer), this book is as elitist and erudite as its title suggests. It reaches beyond its analogues with exercises, for example: given English synonyms in Latin and Greek, what is the English synonym with an Anglo-Saxon root? If you're interested in the English language, grab this book if you can find it. (It defines zeugma, after all - how can you live without a book that does that?)

I bought this book for someone else and had to return to buy a copy for myself ! It is definitely for anyone who is interested in the origins of words and the games words play !

Picked up a reprint of this book, and it's wonderful! It's interesting, and not as pretentious as I thought it might be. Lots of words that you might've recognized but didn't know the exact definition of. Highly recommended.

I agree with the other review. This is a very entertaining and valuable read for anyone who loves the English language. I also agree that pronunciations should have been included because, let's be realistic, these are mainly words we will NEVER hear in normal conversation.

I have a small library of this kind of book, but this is the one I always keep by my side whenever I'm reading a book or a more erudite magazine. I gave it a rating of only four stars because I think the author should have included the pronunciation of each word, especially of the more obscure words. I do, however like his style and have found his book to be very helpful without being pretentious.

I got this book thinking to increase my vocabulary, but it was too advanced when I first got it. I bought an easier book on vocabulary building, then used this one. I think it's great, it has all sorts of words. My only problem with this book is that it gives a word, but doesn't provide you with how to pronounce it or how to change it from noun to verb to adjective, etc.