1. Edition - October 2005
11.90 Euro
2005. 240 Pages, Softcover
ISBN-10: 0-471-71845-9
ISBN-13: 978-0-471-71845-1 - John Wiley & Sons






Sample Chapter

Short description
In 1994, Anu Garg began A Word A Day (AWAD), a free e-mail service that delivers a new word every weekday, accompanied by a definition, etymology, sample usage, and commentary. Each week has a different theme, and at the end of the week, Garg sends out a newsletter with enthusiastic feedback from the more than half-million AWAD subscribers around the world. Now, in this encore to the national bestseller A Word A Day, Garg offers 52 new delightfully themed chapters-ranging from "Words Formed Erroneously" and "Words of Horse-related Origins" to "Words Borrowed from Yiddish" and "Red-Herring Words." In them, readers will discover a treasure trove of 260 curious and compelling new words, including agelast, bissextile, cockamamie, cumshaw, disembogue, dragoman, fartlek, manitou, mittimus, nyctalopia, quacksalver, scission, sennight, tattersall, yegg, zaftig, and zugzwang. For A Word A Day subscribers and word buffs everywhere, this book will make the perfect gift.

From the contents
Acknowledgments.

Introduction.

1. Words to Describe People I.

2. Earls Who Became Words (or Places That Became Words).

3. Words Having Origins in Chess.

4. Words That Appear to Be Misspellings of Everyday Words I.

5. Archaic Words.

6. Toponyms.

7. Words about Books and Writing.

8. Words Borrowed from Yiddish.

9. Terms from the World of Law.

10. Words That Appear to Be Misspellings of Everyday Words II.

11. Words Borrowed from Arabic.

12. Words Formed Erroneously.

13. What's in a Name?

14. Words from Poetry.

15. Fishy Words.

16. Discover the Theme I.

17. Terms Employing Various Nationalities.

18. Words with Double Connections.

19. Words Related to the Calendar.

20. False Friends.

21. Red-Herring Words.

22. Words Related to the Human Body.

23. Words Related to Buying and Selling.

24. Miscellaneous Words.

25. Words That Have Changed Meaning with Time.

26. Words about Words.

27. Anglo-Saxon Words.

28. Words Borrowed from Other Languages.

29. Words from Medicine.

30. Numeric Terms.

31. Kangaroo Words.

32. What Does That Company Name Mean?

33. Words with Interesting Etymologies.

34. Words to Describe People II.

35. Words about Collecting and the Study of Things.

36. Words from the World of Law II.

37. Words Derived from Other Languages.

38. Words about Words II.

39. Words Borrowed from African Languages.

40. Metallic Words Used as Metaphors.

41. Words Related to Movies.

42. Discover the Theme II.

43. Miscellaneous Words II.

44. Words That Aren't What They Appear to Be.

45. Words of Horse-Related Origins.

46. Words of Horse-Related Origins II.

47. Words with Origins in War.

48. Words from Latin.

49. Words to Describe Your Opponents.

50. Discover the Theme III.

51. Words Borrowed from Native American Languages.

52. Loanwords from Spanish.

Answers.

Web Resources: More Fun with Words.

Index of Words.