Who’s a snollygoster? The words of politics: Mark Forsyth at TEDxHousesofParliament

Posted on 2012/08/03 , tagged as

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Mark Forsyth, author of The Sunday Times Number One Bestseller The Etymologicon, participated in TEDxHousesofParliament on 22nd June 2012.

TEDx is ‘a programme of local, self-organised events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience’. This is the first time Parliament has been involved in the programme and the lectures were centered around the theme of Democracy.

Watch Mark Forsyth’s entertaining and witty lecture below on the origins of ‘as bold as brass’, the word for a ‘dishonest politician’, and why ‘President’ is a humble title…

To find out more about The Etymologicon go here. The Horologicon, which means ‘a book of things appropriate to each hour’, follows a day in the life of unusual, beautiful and forgotten English words, and is published in November. Find out more about the book here.