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Et Cetera, Et Cetera: Notes of a Word-Watcher

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Learning about word origins is one of the most interesting hobbies that one can have, in that most of the time you are also tracking the development and movement of ideas. Two of the most astonishing scientific theories that have arisen lately involve the appearance of modern humans. The first is that all of humanity can trace their origin back to a single female. By tracking differences in mitochondrial DNA, which is passed only from the mother, researchers have argued that the evidence points to a single original mitochondrion that begat us all. This spontaneous development of the human ancestor has enormous consequences to the theories of human development.
The second is that nearly all human languages arose from an original language. This idea is just as astounding as the first. By analyzing the patterns of root words, the theory is that most languages are offshoots of a single one designated as Indo European. Stretching the idea even further, as some have done, the argument goes back to a single "point" of origin for language. The idea that communicating via structured grammatical sounds arose in one location and moved outward is amazing. However, it is not implausible by any means. The competitive advantage of any group that could pass ideas quickly and accurately would be enormous.
In this book Thomas traces the origin of many words, with interesting results. For, if we know the origin of a word, we can make an accurate estimate concerning where the idea expressed in the word originated. Furthermore, in some cases, the growth of culture is demonstrated in a word. For example, the word conversation is from a root meaning to move around a neighborhood. Not the telling of a story common to nomadic cultures but the moving from dwelling to dwelling typical of a settled community.
Lewis Thomas is an excellent writer and he handles this topic very well. New ideas pop into human minds all the time and sometimes, the only way we can track them is by following the trail of the words that describe them. This book is a combination of anthropology, history and linguistics and well worth reading.

Ever wonder the origin of the words you use every day? No? Well then this book wouldn't be for you. In fact it's hard to imagine how wide an appeal this book might have. Of course Lewis Thomas is a brilliant thinker and a gifted writer. The Medusa and the Snail is a thrill. So are The Lives of a Cell and The Fragile Species. But this one hops from one educated guess on a word's Indo-European origin to another, with little in the way of organization. It's hard to remember any of it and there are no lessons to take away. Dr. Thomas has approached this book the way a new stamp collector does: one stamp here, another there, and soon enough the page is full and you flip it and start over.

Taken in small doses (the chapters average four pages) it's a fun little compendium of miscellaneous etymology, and the old Lewis humor is omnipresent, but even an unshakable fan of Lewis Thomas's writing will find this book a slog.