Customer Reviews

Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book deserves a wide reading. Its central lesson, as that of the more popular series on urban legends, is this: Don't believe everything you hear (or see) regarding the origins of words and phrases. I learned from this book that there were (a) false origins; things I thought I knew but didn't; (b) words whose origin I correctly understood, but about which others are mistaken, and (c) words whose origins I didn't know (and was thus unaware that others held false opinions about). Both humbling and instructive is category (a). Included here for me is "Ring around the Rosie," which I have read in countless reputable texts started its career as a sort of macabre humor for children singing and dancing their way through Europe's 14th century plague. And, equally unsettling, was the realization that the Chevy "NOVA" was not a botched marketing campaign by GM in Mexico, and that a guy named Crapper did not in fact invent the toilets we daily flush. At least, I got "google" right. This is a well-written, easily digested romp through the history of words misunderstood by many. It underscores the continuing importance of scepticism, perhaps especially in this, the information age.

Word Myths, as its title suggests, is in the debunking business. Mr. Wilton populates this book with popular explanations for the origin of common words and phrases which turn out to be wrong.

For example, he argues that "SOS" never stood for anything like Save Our Ship or Save Our Souls -- "SOS", as it turns out, was just easy to tap out in Morse Code.

Another example: he demonstrates that Coca Cola never translated the name for their trademark drink as "bite the wax tadpole" in China.

I learned quite a few etymologies reading through this book. It's carefully researched and thoughtfully organized.

If I have one criticism of the book, it's that some of the explanations drag on for much longer than they need to. Where Mr. Wilton faced a decision between academic completeness and a brief witticism, he too often decided on the former. This is a book that begs to be written playfully (the cartoons which open each chapter set the visual tone perfectly), but for some reason just isn't.

Still, the book is worth a quick read to discover that the things you thought you knew turn out to be, as the author calls them, linguistic urban legends.

We have all heard stories of where different words and phrases originated. Some are quite fascinating and most are at least somewhat logical. The problem is that many of these legends are simply wrong. With a long list of word myths that include "dirt poor", "devil to pay", "under the weather", "real McCoy", "squaw", and "kangaroo" it is a fascinating read that not only debunks the traditional myths but also, where possible, supplies the correct origin of the word or phrase. Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends is hard to put down once you get started and thoroughly entertaining from beginning to end - highly recommended.

This book is a good collection of research on the actual origins of many words and phrases which many people only think that they know. It will be entertaining and informative to anyone who has any interest in language, so it could appeal to a rather wide audience. I would recommend it to anyone, with the following single caveat:

The writing in this book is surprisingly poor. Many other reviewers have pointed this out, and I can confirm their observations. The information in the book is very good, but the way in which it is expressed is not. I don't know if it's the principal fault of the author or the editor, but most likely both of them dropped the ball here. Perhaps if you aren't overly critical about grammar you won't even notice, but if you're interested in this book in the first place, chances are good that you have at least dabbled in linguistics. The only thing stopping me from giving a more positive review is that this book is one of the worst I've ever read, not in terms of content but in terms of its language.

I don't know if the title is an intentional play on words (wordsmiths in this case) but I found "Word Myths, debunking linguistic urban legends" by David Wilton a delightful and easy read.

Wilson begins by explaining how word myths come about and that they are really a significant subset of all urban legends and e-mail hoaxes which themselves come from a line of tall tales and Xerox fables. He also explains that debunking word myths is a thankless task since so many of the tales we hear, we WANT to believe and do not easily forgive those who attempt to correct our beliefs.

"Word Myths" covers such diverse topics as whether picnic refers to a Southern lynching party, whether pumpernickel has something to do with Napoleon's horse, and whether a tinker's damn should really be spelled ticker's dam. Most cases in the book are selected because they are wrong or highly suspect. But a few are verified as possible or even probable. Like a good scientist, Wilson doesn't like to ever conclude that something is definitely proven. He does feel that some word myths can definitely be disproven -usually because the chronology of when it first shows up in the language.

This would be a fun coffee table or back of the toilet type of book. But it even makes for good armchair reading.

I'm pursuing a Master's degree in Language and Literature. One of our assignments was to find an unusual linguistic book. I found this book at Borders and thought it would be great.... I was wrong.

This book, at first glance, looks to be a fun little trivia book on language myths. I studied urban legends for my undergrad in cultural studies; this book should have been right up my alley. Instead, I found myself laughing out loud at the poor rationalizations for debunking myths. I was actually offended by the poor sentence structure, unfortunate grammar usage, and sloppy research. Note to David Wilton: a dictionary and a Google search do NOT equal extensive or scholarly research! And fire your editor.

Wilton's analytical skills leave a lot to be desired, and it is obvious that he has not taken many writing classes. This book can BY NO MEANS be used as a scholarly source. If you have 2 minutes to kill, maybe this book is worth glancing at, but avoid it for anything more substantial. And don't believe what you read; the research is even sloppier than the writing.

Many of these debunkings are ones you have heard before. Some are not and are mildly interesting, but most of the time the author cannot give sure explanations for the "real" origins, just what he thinks are "most likely". In addition, the explanations start out with a long-winded description of what the myth is and how many sources he found with it wrong, to the degree that I lose interest and start skimming, looking for the real origin, (the reason for the book in the first place!) which is often easily missed in the long narrative. Better to just glance at the phrases he addresses and assume that whatever you thought you knew about them is probably wrong and save your time.

Have you heard that Eskimos have 500 words for "snow"? What does the international distress signal "SOS" mean? Do you know what an "aptronym" is? Have you noticed that some nautical enthusiasts attribute a maritime origin to nearly every word or phrase? This observation prompted one participant of an online discussion group to use the acronym "CANOE" to mean the "Conspiracy to Attribute Nautical Origins to Everything"! You'll discover that many etymologies you thought you "knew," you really didn't know at all. This little 200-page book was just great fun and most enlightening to read. I've referred to it often in my university communication classes -- a great resource for anyone interested in the origins and use of English words and phrases -- well researched and well written. Kudos to author David Wilton!

Wilton has a lively writing style, his research is impeccable, and his choice of topics is interesting. I particularly liked the article on which the clever cover is based. He is the author also of A Way With Words, an electronic newsletter that presents linguistic facts and debunks factoids, a word probably related to truthiness, a recent entry.

It's interesting to find out just how little we know about something so intimate in our lives as the words we use.

In this excellent little book, you learn the true stories behind a lot of words and phrases like...

"It's raining cats and dogs"...a reference to the violence of the storm that it sounds like cats and dogs fighting.

"Not worth a tinker's damn"...a really old expression refering to the frequency and little value of the scorn (the damn part) heaped on various things by pots and pans repairmen (the tinker's part).

The true story behind the "ring around a rosie" song. Hint: It does NOT come from the Black Plague.

The truth behind the assertion that Eskimos have more words for snow (they don't).

Though you can easily find many more serious tomes than this little book, this one is both appropriately detailed and of an appropriate length to deal with its subject.