The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll through the Hidden Connections of the English Language

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The Unknown Unknown, by Mark Forsyth, book review: Where to find answers to questions you didn't ask". The Independent. Independent.co.uk. 9 January 2015. Archived from the original on 6 July 2014 . Retrieved 9 January 2015. Forsyth is a "person who trumpets minor points of learning" and makes it fun and educational and interesting. I want more. I wish this book was twice as long, or there were a series of them. He is the author of best-selling [4] books The Etymologicon, The Horologicon, and The Elements of Eloquence, as well as being known for his blog The Inky Fool. [5] [6] [7] [8] Forsyth's earlier work was based around the meaning of words and more specifically, obscure and out-of-use words. His first two books were featured on BBC Radio 4's series Book of the Week. [9] [10] a b Forsyth, Mark (29 June 2014). "Where to find answers to questions you didn't ask". The Independent. London (UK): Independent Print Ltd. p.18. So silly is the pelican idea, that flying saucer enthusiasts coined the term pelicanist for those who would explain away all sightings with unlikely substitutes. By extension the word can be used for anybody who proposes a preposterous but naturalistic explanation for an inexplicable event.

Horologicon: A Day's Jaunt Through the Lost Words of the English Language (Icon Books, 2012) ISBN 978-1-848-31415-3 and (Berkley Trade, 2013) ISBN 978-0-425-26437-9Well, not quite. But it was a small contributing factor. America was a lot more puritan and anti-catholic that Britain was. So if you were a Puritan farmer in Massachusetts, and you were alreadyannoyed about being ruled by people thousands of miles away, forcing silly laws on you without so much as a 'by your leave', then it didn't help. And it was, for years, a contentious bone. The question as to who first called these thingummybobs flying saucers is rather vexed. Kenneth Arnold says that he didn't use the term, that he only said that the motion of their flight resembled a saucer being skipped across the surface of a lake. However, there was a journalist who insisted that Arnold said the objects looked like saucers, and the term could have been invented by any of a hundred headline writers who wrote about the Great Event. Then you've got people who use the word gift as a verb, as in "I gifted it to him." That's a bit odd because it's verb to noun to verb again. But it's still pretty obvious.

Pancallism is the belief that everything is beautiful, or at least everything that exists, which is quite a lot of things. In The Etymologicon, Forsyth cautions against what he calls "the danger of inductive reasoning" [16] when determining the commonality among diverse languages. Some patterns in language, he asserts, are mere coincidence and linguists meticulously document specific examples of word and sound changes to determine whether or not disparate languages are, indeed, connected. [16] You would have fun reading this book. Really. If it helps, the book was composed by more posts made by the author on his blog. That will entail that they are from the beginning build as to attract attention and to amuze the reader. Not to say that the non-fiction books are purposefully build to bore one to sleep. I am just saying that they are not really a read to be taken to the beach (not that there are many occasions left to go to the beach, now with the dear old pandemy). K. Alpers (2001), ‘Lexicographie (B.I-III)’ in G. Üding and W. Jens (eds.), Historisches Wörterbuch der Rhetorik 2 (Tübingen) 194-210. pedant (n.) 1580s, "schoolmaster," from Middle French pédant (1560s) or directly from Italian pedante, literally "teacher, schoolmaster," of uncertain origin, apparently an alteration of Late Latin paedagogantem (nominative paedagogans), present participle of paedagogare (see pedagogue). Meaning "person who trumpets minor points of learning" first recorded 1590s.]A Christmas Cornucopia: The Hidden Stories Behind Our Yuletide Traditions was published on 3 November 2016. Incidentally, the mini in miniature has nothing whatsoever to do with the mini in minute or minimum or miniskirt. In Medieval illuminated manuscripts there were little pictures painted by little monks. These pictures were often painted using red lead or minium. Because of that the verb for painting little pictures was miniare. And because of that the little pictures were called miniatures. The word then got applied to anything small. Stevens, Heidi (26 September 2012). "Etymology, the mystery of Spam and other deep questions: Mark Forsyth's 'Etymologicon' explores roots and connections of phrases". Chicago Tribune . Retrieved 18 January 2015. Some people, rather foolishly, think that seven days is a quarter of the lunar cycle: seven days from new moon to half full, another week to full, another week waning to half, and another week until it disappears. But there's a problem. This system is two days out. Four weeks is 28 days, and a lunar cycle lasts 30 days.