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Anonyponymous: The Forgotten People Behind Everyday Words (2009)

by John Bemelmans Marciano(Favorite Author)

3.48 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1596916532 (ISBN13: 9781596916531)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Bloomsbury USA

review 1: This is a great little book for all the word nerds like myself who are fascinated with how words came to be. It is written in a very casual, wryly humorous style that meanders through its collections of words whose origins came from names of people. Each entry, however, gives more than just a standard etymology. It describes the history of the person and the word and how the word came into being. And several of the words are very surprising. Gerrymander? Maverick? Pants?! Oh yes, they are all in there along with several more.
review 2: This started out as very interesting...word origins can be quite fascinating. However, I soon got a little irritated by some of the author's interjections...I should have already known from the title, though, that this was an "o... morepinionated dictionary", not just an educational one. I don't know whether lots of words that come from people just tend towards adult topics, or if this author just liked those best, but this is NOT a book I would recommend for the young student of etymology. Interesting and sometimes quite fun, but not going on my favorites list. less

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