A light-hearted, humorous and irreverent look at the origins and history of a selection of words in the English language
The English language has a supremely rich vocabulary, with a documented history going back hundreds of years. Although by origin and nature a Germanic language, English has absorbed huge quantities of words from French and Latin, as well as from a wide variety of other languages, and made them its own. Many of these words have a long and checkered history, changing their pronunciation and meanings radically, with the result that their modern forms and meanings often bear little resemblance to their original ones.
This book takes a selection of these words and plays with them, tracing changes that have occured through history and imagining that their original meanings were still applicable today. It is said that every picture tells a story. The same is true of words - even more so. Each of these words carries within it a small but significant piece of the cultural, social, political, physical, psychological philosophical and religious history of Britain, Europe and much of the world. The aim of the book is to inform, entertain, intrigue and amuse. I hope you, the reader, will agree.