Dictionary of Word Origins: Histories of More Than 8,000 English-Language Words (Paperback)

by John Ayto (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Learn about the hidden and often surprising histories of and connections between English words and their non-English ancestors. Perhaps the best inexpensive etymological dictionary available today.

From Library Journal
An alphabetical listing of some 8000 English words with their histories, this book omits other dictionary features such as pronunciation, part of speech, and, in most cases, definitions. It is interesting to explore the sometimes surprising groups of related words; under doctor , for example, we are referred to 11 other entries, ranging from dainty to paradox . The date of a word's first appearance in the language is indicated by century or by "OE" for Old English. The author is English, so Americans will miss some typically American words such as raccoon , ranch , or stoop (porch). Like Craig M. Carver's recent (and smaller) History of English in Its Own Words ( LJ 6/15/91), this book is not a reference acquisition for any library owning the OED or Webster's unabridged, but it makes interesting reading for the public library patron or the linguistics or English student.
- Catherine V. von Schon, SUNY at Stony Brook
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing (November 23, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559702141
• ISBN-13: 978-1559702140
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #421,269 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I broke this book in two...., January 20, 2000

By	David Oaks (Eugene, Oregon, USA) - See all my reviews

... because I use it so often. That's right, there are so many fascinating, helpful word origins in this book that due to over-use and laying the book out flat to read it (over breakfast, etc.), it's the first book I actually split in two down the binding. So now I'll need to get another one. I read a few word origins from this book almost daily, it's my favorite word book. These word origins reveal twists, turns and reverses of the human mind, history and culture over the ages. Mr. Ayto doesn't just pick a few of the most interesting words; I like that a wide variety of words -- including mundane -- can be found here. The author is candid (marking with an asterisk) about which pre-literate word origins involve guess work. At the end of entries you'll often find cross-referenced words.

70 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow, February 22, 2001

By	absent_minded_prof (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

I think this book may hold the record for most quickly becoming indispensible to me. It contains concise, single paragraph histories of the backgrounds of 8,000 words in our language. One thing I really enjoy about it is the way it combines presentations of the most common, everyday words with the coolest, most interesting ones.

Offhand, one of my favorite words would have to be the word "guitar." Did you know that the word guitar started out as the Greek word "kithara," and came to English by means of two separate routes? On the one hand, it passed directly through Europe, by way of the Roman Empire, becoming "cithara" in Latin and then "citole" in Middle English. On the other hand, it went through North Africa with the Muslims as a "qitar" in Arabic, then into Spanish by way of the Moors as "guitarra," then into French as "guitare," then finally into English as "guitar." (A citole, by the way, for all you non-Chaucer fans out there, was a medieval stringed instrument that we no longer have with us.)

That's just one word. There are 7,999 more entries like that, and all of them are amazing. This book is so worth the money it isn't even funny. Two million thumbs up.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If the OED seems to obtuse for you..., October 23, 2004

By	T. Burger (Chicago) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Dictionary of Word Origins: The Histories of More Than 8,000 English-Language Words (Hardcover)

...Then this is the book you want. Outside of the Oxford English Dictionary, it's the best (and least expensive) etymological reference I've come across, even better than The Oxford Dictioary of Word Histories, published by Oxford University Press.

Here's an example of a terrific entry:

PREY Prey comes via Old French prei from Latin praeda 'booty' (from which was derived the word paredari 'plunder', source of English depradation and predatory). This was a contraction of an earlier praeheda, a noun formed with the prefix prae-'before' from the same base (*hed- 'saize', source also of English get) as produced the verb praehendere 'seize'. This has been a rich source of English vocabulary, contributing through different channels such a varied assortment as prehensile, prison, and prize 'something seized in war', not to mention prefixed forms like apprehend, comprehend, comprise, impgregnable, reprehensible, reprieve, and surprise. It is also the ancestor of French prendre 'take'.

Here's the Oxford Dictionary of Word Histories entry for the same word:

PREY [Middle English] Early noun use included the sense 'plunder taken in war' (=that which is 'seized'); it comes from Old French preie, from Latin praeda 'boot'. The verb is from Old French preir, based on Latin praedari 'seize as plunder', from praeda. The verbal phrase prey upon is found from early times.

Both are complete entries, but one is obviously more complete than the other.