The Merriam-Webster New Book of Word HistoriesMerriam-Webster, 1991 - 526 pages A gold mine of fascinating word histories! This engaging and informative book reveals the origins of 1,500 words from "abigail" to "zombie", tracing in terms from the mythology of ancient Greece to the comic strips of the 20th century. This delightful volume will help you discover how a skimpy bathing suit came to be called a "bikini" and what "serendipity" has to do with Horace Walpole. |
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Page viii
... took inflectional endings for gender , case , and number but also had different sets of endings depending on whether a word like that or your preceded them or they stood alone . To get a sense of how far evolution has taken us from the ...
... took inflectional endings for gender , case , and number but also had different sets of endings depending on whether a word like that or your preceded them or they stood alone . To get a sense of how far evolution has taken us from the ...
Page ix
... took on the now familiar sense ' a series of thoughts , images , or emotions occurring during sleep ' because its Scandinavian cognate draumr had that meaning . A considerable number of common words , like cross , fellow , ball , and ...
... took on the now familiar sense ' a series of thoughts , images , or emotions occurring during sleep ' because its Scandinavian cognate draumr had that meaning . A considerable number of common words , like cross , fellow , ball , and ...
Page 6
... took it from St. Paul's mention of the altar to ' the Unknown God . ' " The Greek form of the altar inscription given in Acts 17:23 is agnōsto theō . The Metaphysical Society held an organizational meeting on 21 April 1869 , and the ...
... took it from St. Paul's mention of the altar to ' the Unknown God . ' " The Greek form of the altar inscription given in Acts 17:23 is agnōsto theō . The Metaphysical Society held an organizational meeting on 21 April 1869 , and the ...
Page 20
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Page 34
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Common terms and phrases
adjective akin to Gk akin to OHG alter American ancient animal appeared applied assumed attested back-formation became began bird borrowed into English called Church cognate common compound denote developed dialect Dictionary diminutive Dutch earlier earliest early eighteenth century England English borrowed English word etymology fascism fifteenth folk etymology fourteenth century French word gave rise German glish Gmc origin Goth Greek horse influenced Italian known language Late Latin later Latin verb Latin word LIEBFRAUMILCH literally meaning meant Medieval Latin Middle English Middle French Modern English neut nineteenth century noun Old English Old French Old High German Old Norse perh person phrase plural popular prob pronunciation refer Roman semantic seventeenth century Shakespeare similar sixteenth century song sound Spanish spelling synonym teenth century term tion trans translation turn verb Vulgar Latin WGmc writing
Popular passages
Page 6 - So I took thought, and invented what I conceived to be the appropriate title of " agnostic." It came into my head as suggestively antithetic to the " gnostic " of Church history, who professed to know so much about the very things of which I was ignorant...