Alphabet Juice

http://us.macmillan.com/alphabetjuice

Alphabet Juice

The Energies, Gists, and Spirits of Letters, Words, and Combinations Thereof; Their Roots, Bones, Innards, Piths, Pips, and Secret Parts, Tinctures, Tonics, and Essences; With Examples of Their Usage Foul and Savory
Roy Blount Jr.

Roy Blount Jr. is the author of twenty previous books, covering subjects from the Pittsburgh Steelers to Robert E. Lee to what dogs are thinking. He is a regular panelist on NPR’s Wait, Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me! and is a member of the American Heritage Dictionary Usage Panel. Born in Indianapolis and raised in Decatur, Georgia, Blount now lives in Western Massachusetts with his wife, painter Joan Griswold.

Alphabet Juice
Roy Blount Jr.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: October 2008
ISBN: 978-0-374-10369-9
ISBN-10: 0-374-10369-0
Trim: 6 x 9 inches
384 pages

After hearing about this book on NPR, I had to get it. Author Ray Blount is a member of the American Heritage Dictionary usage panel. He is also a regular panelist on NPR's Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me! Amazon.com and http://us.macmillan.com/alphabetjuice show that he is the author of twenty previous books, covering subjects from the Pittsburgh Steelers to Robert E. Lee to what dogs are thinking. Born in Indianapolis and raised in Decatur, Georgia, Blount now lives in Western Massachusetts with his wife, painter Joan Griswold.

The full title of the book is Alphabet Juice: The Energies, Gists, and Spirits of Letters, Words, and Combinations Thereof; Their Roots, Bones, Innards, Piths, Pips, and Secret Parts, Tinctures, Tonics, and Essences; With Examples of Their Usage Foul and Savory. This full title reminded me of the kind of silliness and playing with language and words that I often hear on Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me.

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The Secret Life of Words

How English Became English

Henry Hitchings
Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Words are essential to our everyday lives. An average person spends his or her day enveloped in conversations, e-mails, phone calls,

The Secret Life of Words is a wide-ranging account not only of the history of English language and vocabulary, but also of how words witness history, reflect social change, and remind us of our past. Henry Hitchings delves into the insatiable, ever-changing English language and reveals how and why it has absorbed words from more than 350 other languages—many originating from the most unlikely of places, such as shampoo from Hindi and kiosk from Turkish. From the Norman Conquest to the present day, Hitchings narrates the story of English as a living archive of our human experience. He uncovers the secrets behind everyday words and explores the surprising origins of our most commonplace expressions. The Secret Life of Words is a rich, lively celebration of the language and vocabulary that we too often take for granted.

Henry Hitchings

Henry Hitchings was born in 1974. Educated at the universities of Oxford and London, he is the author of Defining the World and has contributed to many newspapers and magazines.