Customer Reviews

A Century of New Words (Oxford Paperback Reference)

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This is yet another fun read from one of my favorite publishers on language. If you're a fan of books like "Weird and Wonderful Words", or of dictionaries and histories of slang (a subject with which the author is well acquainted), this will probably appeal to you.

Its decade-by-decade format makes a fun, accessible browse-- definitely as good for the layperson as for the scholar. I found myself opening it at random during my commute to learn about the history of various terms, but I also enjoyed reading the introductory essays that track the major trends in each decade (terminology from Freudian analysis seeping into popular discourse in the 1910s, computer terminology through the 1980s). The range of terms from fashion, politics, technology, and beyond was impressive, and each entry is given a definition and shown in context via quotations from publications of the era.

If, like me, you're interested in modern history, but you do better understanding it through a linguistic lens, I would strongly suggest taking a look at this book.