The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language

· Ascent Audio · Narrated by Don Hagen
5.0
1 review
Audiobook
7 hr 1 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook

Do you know why...

...a mortgage is literally a death pledge? ...why guns have girls’ names? ...why salt is related to soldier?

You’re about to find out...

The Etymologicon (e-t?-‘mä-lä-ji-kän) is:
*Witty (wi-te\): Full of clever humor
*Erudite (er-?-dit): Showing knowledge
*Ribald (ri-b?ld): Crude, offensive


The Etymologicon is a completely unauthorized guide to the strange underpinnings of the English language. It explains: how you get from “gruntled” to “disgruntled”; why you are absolutely right to believe that your meager salary barely covers “money for salt”; how the biggest chain of coffee shops in the world (hint: Seattle) connects to whaling in Nantucket; and what precisely the Rolling Stones have to do with gardening.

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5.0
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About the author

Born in London in 1977, Mark Forsyth (a.k.a The Inky Fool) was given a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary as a christening present and has never looked back. His book The Etymologicon was a Sunday Times Number One Bestseller and his TED Talk "What's a snollygoster?" has had more than half a million views.

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Narrated by Don Hagen