The Story of English in 100 WordsThe world's foremost expert on the English language takes us on an entertaining and eye-opening tour of the history of our vernacular through the ages. In The Story of English in 100 Words, an entertaining history of the world's most ubiquitous language, David Crystal draws on one hundred words that best illustrate the huge variety of sources, influences and events that have helped to shape our vernacular since the first definitively English word—"roe"—was written down on the femur of a roe deer in the fifth century. Featuring ancient words ("loaf"), cutting edge terms that reflect our world ("twittersphere"), indispensable words that shape our tongue ("and," "what"), fanciful words ("fopdoodle") and even obscene expressions (the "c word"), David Crystal takes readers on a tour of the winding byways of our language via the rude, the obscure and the downright surprising. "From pre-eminent British linguist Crystal . . . comes this delightful history of the words we use (and some we've forgotten) and how we came to use them. . . . Crystal's enthusiasm for—and wealth of knowledge about—the ever-evolving English language makes this a must-read for word lovers." — Publishers Weekly (starred review) |
Contents
| 2 | |
And An Early Abbreviation 8th century | 3 |
Loaf An Unexpected Origin 9th century | 4 |
Out Changing Grammar 9th century | 5 |
Street A Latin Loan 9th century | 5 |
Mead A Window into History 9th century | 5 |
Merry A Dialect Survivor 9th century | 8 |
Riddle Playing With Language 10th century | 9 |
Bonehouse A WordPainting 10th century | 11 |
Brock A Celtic Arrival 10th century | 14 |
English The Language Named 10th century | 17 |
Bridegroom A Popular Etymology 11th century | 22 |
Arse An Impolite Word 11th century | 25 |
Swain A Poetic Expression 12th century | 6 |
Pork An Elegant Word 13th century | 8 |
What An Early Exclamation 10th century | 10 |
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Common terms and phrases
20th century abbreviations adjective ain’t alphabet American English Anglo-Saxon appears arrived arse Australia Australian English Back-Formation became become began Bible bread Britain British English brunch called Chillax coinages coined described developed dialect dinkum Doublespeak dude early EBOOK England English vocabulary especially everyday example expressions fopdoodle French geocaching Google grammar happened headlines heard Hello idioms jazz kind King James Bible lady letters linguistic loaf loanwords mead meaning merry Middle Ages Middle English million muggle noun Old English Old Norse ology origins Oxford English Dictionary penny person phrase place-names political popular potato prefix pronounced pronunciation recorded reduplicated rhyming riddle robot sense Shakespeare Shibboleth shortened slang someone sometimes speech spelling standard English story street Strine suffix talk term There's things Tok Pisin translations Undeaf unfriend usage verb vowel Word 13th Word 20th century wordbook writing yogurt