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Word Fugitives: In Pursuit of Wanted Words (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "In a sense, this whole book is about our unruly inner lives..." (more)
Key Phrases: style invitational, word fugitives, word coining, New York City, The Deeper Meaning of Liff, The Word Museum (more...)
4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
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  • This item: Word Fugitives: In Pursuit of Wanted Words by Barbara Wallraff

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A delightful book on an entertaining and fascinating topic: how we coin words." -- Steven Pinker, Professor, Harvard University, and author of The Language Instinct, Words and Rules, and How the Mind Works.

"Barbara Wallraff proves herself to be a wise, witty, and marvelously entertaining guide through the jungle of English usage." -- Francine Prose, author of A Changed Man and Blue Angel

"No fugitive word, however crafty or devious, can escape the clutches of that peerless lexical sleuth Barbara Wallraff." -- Patricia T. O'Conner, author of Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English

"Read it alone. It might be embarassing to chortle so much in public." -- Merl Reagle, Sunday Crossword Puzzle Creator, The Los Angeles Times

"There is a discovery and a smile on every page." -- James Fallows, National Magaazine Award-winning correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly

"This book should carry a warning sign...it contains several hundred seriously twisted puns." -- Charles C. Mann, author of 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus


Review

Her approach to language is a beguiling mix of charm and research. (USA Today )

"...achieved with as much wit and tact as earnestness and wisdom (Booklist )

...an up-to-date guide to usage that can be both pleasurably browsed and quickly consulted... (Kirkus Reviews )

"Barbara Wallraff proves herself to be a wise, witty, and marvelously entertaining guide through the jungle of English usage." (Francine Prose, author of A Changed Man and Blue Angel )

"There is a discovery and a smile on every page." (James Fallows, National Magazine Award-winning correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly )

"No fugitive word, however crafty or devious, can escape the clutches of that peerless lexical sleuth Barbara Wallraff." (Patricia T. O'Conner, author of Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English )

"This book should carry a warning sign...it contains several hundred seriously twisted puns." (Charles C. Mann, author of 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus )

"Read it alone. It might be embarassing to chortle so much in public." (Merl Reagle, Sunday Crossword Puzzle Creator, The Los Angeles Times )

"A delightful book on an entertaining and fascinating topic: how we coin words." (Steven Pinker, Professor, Harvard University, and author of The Language Instinct, Words and Rules, and How the Mind Works. )

Wallraff picks her way through language thickets with a sure step and a generous attitude. (Boston Globe )
See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 208 pages
  • Publisher: Harper (February 28, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0060832738
  • ISBN-13: 978-0060832735
  • Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #697,662 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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More About the Author

Barbara Wallraff
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

› Visit Amazon's Barbara Wallraff Page
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:
Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
In a sense, this whole book is about our unruly inner lives. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
style invitational, word fugitives, word coining, family words
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York City, The Deeper Meaning of Liff, The Word Museum, Wanted Words, Los Angeles, Burgess Unabridged, The Style Invitational, Word Court, San Francisco, British Columbia, Volley of Words, Angry Young Sniglets, Oxford English Dictionary, All Things Considered, Charles Harrington Elster, Michael Fischer, Montgomery Village, New Orleans, Paul Dickson, San Diego, The Washington Post's Style Invitational, Tom Witte, Unexplained Sniglets of the Universe, United States, Word Ways
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Citations (learn more)
This book cites 37 books:
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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.9 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Machete, March 25, 2006
Every language in the world has the capability of producing an infinite number of words. Just think of constructions like "anti-ballistic missile" or "anti-anti ballistic missile" or "anti-anti-anti ballistic missile" and so on. After awhile, making them up becomes a bore. Not so in "Word Fugitives." Here the trick is to come up with words to name situations as yet unnamed. What do you call the feeling, for example, just after you thought you had stepped off the curb and suddenly realized you were falling? Bad news? "Word Fugitives" does much better than that. It is a funhouse of a book, finding new words for old situations in clever, amusing and quite unexpected ways. This book is first and foremost fun to read. Then it will provoke you. And finally, it will enlighten you. For those of you lost in the thicket of lexicography, this book is a machete.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars word fugitives, March 13, 2006
By wordophile (Redlands, CA usa) - See all my reviews
I thought that English was a rich language, with special terms for everything, until I read Word Fugitives, having heard about it on NPR. There are so many missing terms - holes in the language, as Barbara Wallraff calls them - and so many ways to plug them. This book is full of the solutions, all wonderful and funny. One favorite: getting in one line at the supermarket only to find another moving faster - what is it? Misalinement. How can I get my favorite new word to stick? Umm...that's another matter, and Word Fugitives has some tips.
All in all, really amusing.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Wide world of words gets wilder !, October 12, 2006
By Omar Ishmail (Washington DC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This fantastic mind expanding book has grown out of Ms.Barbara Wallraff's column in The Atlantic Monthly. Something that I have followed for years. It overflows with diversions, (e.g. "English hasn't had a new pronoun for about a thousand years, and there is no sign it will acquire one any time soon") quizzes, contributions and comments from people who are authorities, linguists, authors and plus the fact that it is made sprightly cheerful by supplications from people who are groping for words that remain to be found. Quoted as "English at a Loss for Words",even when Global Language Monitor, an organization estimates there are more than 900,000 words in the English language, and more are being added every day.

To explain about this book, even when we know that feeling it is often that we are not able to find the exact word that defines it - often that word does not exist, (Or it is a sniglet - "word that should be in the dictionary, but isn't) - despite the exuberant and extravagant richness of our language. This endeavor by Ms. Wallraff proves, and I am beginning to be convinced that perhaps even language such as English is dismayingly inadequate. This book comes to rescue providing hundreds of words minted, coined, redefined or delimitated. Just like when you're looking for a word that can mean either "a phantom" or "an ideal" -- eidolon would come handy.

- People who blabber loudly and annoyingly on cell-phones in public? Yakasses.

- Disposable plastic bags caught in trees? Fouliage.

- And when look up a word in a dictionary, and get distracted by something totally off the subject, on the other side of the page? This is called double-entry-bookpeeping. Or is it lexploring?

- What would you say of the times your car or washing machine or TV breaks down, and you pay a repairman to take a look at it, but when he or she - turns it on , IT WORKS ! you can call it deus hex machine. Or how about? Hocus operandi?

Another example to serve the purpose - like what would you call the experience of having recently heard about something for the first time and then starting to notice it everywhere? How are toujours vu, newbiquitous or coincidensity.

What would you call the feeling when you revisit the same refrigerator you had left disappointed few minutes ago, hoping to find - this time, the perfect snack -- which you overlooked before. Well that's leftoveractive imagination. Other choices such as Cold comfort, refrigerator magnetism, smorgasboredom, and freonnui have also been suggested. Somebody has even called it stirvation another one terms it as procrastifrigeration.

Would it be handy to use a word for that momentary confusion everyone experiences when they hear a cell phone ringing and wonder if it is theirs? There - fauxcellarm, phonundrum, pandephonium , phonundrum , ringchronicity , ringmarole or ringxiety are the suggested choices.
And what would like to call your offspring who are adults? (Try unchildren or offsprung.) Or the word for the irrational fear when you're throwing a party that no one will show up? (That might be guestlessness, empty fest syndrome, or fete alism.)

Again what is a word to describe the process of going through the dirty-clothes hamper to find something clean enough to wear? which one would you like to take skivvy-dipping snifferentiate, brainwashing or laundry composting. Or even the laundry alternative is known as dry gleaning.

This book captivates and inspires. I cannot say any further, lest you call it Fullabullacolumnia - some description that goes on and on and on
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars If you can't find the right word---make up one!

My daughter wanted to give me a book for Christmas.But what to buy the "ole fellow", who already has over 7,000 of them? She came up with a real winner with this one. Read more
Published 10 months ago by J. Guild

5.0 out of 5 stars Clever and funny
All wordsmiths, and even those who just like to laugh, will enjoy this very clever and funny book which is, in many ways, a good-natured spoof on our culture, values and outlook.
Published 17 months ago by Carole Rutter

4.0 out of 5 stars Neo-Natal Vocabulary
It's not so much that the words in Word Fugitives are in flight, but rather they are waiting to be created. Ms. Read more
Published 22 months ago by One-eyed Teacher

5.0 out of 5 stars Word Fun at its Finest
Barbara Wallraff has written one of the most fun word books I have yet to read. We are always looking for new ways to express ourselves and she not only acknowledges the wisdom... Read more
Published on May 12, 2006 by Adam Gordon

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