Hmm... how do I start? Well - maybe from the title. An etymologicon is a a book about etymology. And what is etymology, you may wonder? It's a branch of linguistics that deals with the history of words, their origin and development through time. As an English Language and Literature graduate I suppose I am technically, in the broad terms, a linguist. Therefore this is a part of what I studied. It was the initial reason for my purchasing this book - I had this vague idea that I should continue studying or else I'll forget even the things I had learned at university.
Anyway - this is not only a book for linguists. You don't even need to have studied English in college as there are no intimidating terms lurking around, waiting to trip you up and make you feel stupid. This is simply a book of stories (funny ones, at that) that illuminate the origins of the words we use daily.
And - there's not much else I can say. It's not a novel, there is no single cohesive storyline, but it still reads as a series of short stories and may flow one into another. I really recommend this if you like learning obscure facts, love language in general or the hodge-podge that is the English language specifically.
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