‘If you like words, it’s for you.’

Posted on 2011/11/16 , tagged as

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Brian Clegg, author of Icon’s bestselling title this year so far, Inflight Science, has some nice things to say about The Etymologicon on his blog.

‘As the name sort of suggests,’ he writes ‘this is a book about where words come from, which as a writer I’m a sucker for – but anyone should find it fun. It’s light, entertaining and fascinating. Did you know for instance that ‘pool’ as in pooling resources and playing pool has nothing to do with water and everything to do with chickens (poulets en France).This is really one of those books where you have to fight hard to resist telling anyone in earshot little snippets every five minutes.’

And just to avoid any charges of nepotism, he adds ‘I ought to get a disclaimer out of the way – this title is published by Icon, the same people who publish my Inflight Science, but don’t worry, I’ve slagged off their books in the past.’ Just so that’s clear…

The full piece is here and there’s more about The Etymologicon here.