25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A worthy successor to "Forgotten English", December 21, 2000
This review is from: The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten (Paperback)
Kacirk once again delves into the dusty attics and musty cellars of the English language and comes up with hundreds more antiquated words to amuse and enlighten you. The only disappointment for me is that he doesn't delve at length into the curious folklore surrounding each word and its origins, unlike his first book, "Forgotten English." However, you're given enough interesting factoids to chew on, and are further compensated by the fact that less folklore leaves more room for more oddball words!
A must for any avid reader, writer, or anyone interested in the history of the English language.
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nothing Faffle About It, March 5, 2003
This review is from: The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten (Paperback)
Jeffrey Kacirk dedicates "The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Ever Forgotten" to Lewis Carroll because of the delectable verbiage introduced in "Jabberwocky." This seems right, as Kacirk's choice of words here are as fun, unique and rarely use Carroll's.
This is not an etymological study, but an comfortable overview of antiquated words.
He start off with 'abbey-lubber,' which is a pretentious loiterer in a religious house. I am unsure how I'll tastefully work this into a sentence next Sunday at church, but I am glad to have such a word in my quiver should the occasion arise.
Don't dismay if, while reading this, you feel you are seeing words new to you. Most of these words haven't escaped rare book rooms in 200 years. For example, we prefer, 'librarian' over 'bibliothecary' and children tend to choose 'sleepy' instead of 'Billy-wink.'
As Kacirk defines words, he slips in a number of woodcut illustrations, adding to the appeal. They are always somehow correlated with a word on that page.
Grab a glass of something cold, and thoughtfully stroke your 'ziff' (beard) while reading this in a 'zypthesary' (brewhouse). It may be 'faffle' (work occupied requiring much labor with non-commensurate results), but maybe not.
I enjoyed "The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Ever Forgotten" by Jeffrey Kacirk.
Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A little disappointing, May 21, 2001
This review is from: The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten (Paperback)
I thought that there would be more information about the origin and usage of the words. I was expecting something more along the lines of "the Professor and the Madman"---something that gave a historical view of why words stopped being popularly used. However, it's interesting to look over the lists of definitions---you can almost hear how people used to talk.
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