"Word Histories and Mysteries explores the origins of hundreds of the most interesting words in the English language."

"Language aficionados will discover the unexpected links between such seemingly unrelated words as guest, hostility, and xenophobia - hidden connections often dating back over six thousand years ago to Proto-Indo-European, the ancestor of English spoken long before the invention of writing. English has also borrowed extensively from a veritable Babel of the world's tongues, both ancient and modern, and readers can trace here all the surprising twists and turns that words have made on their way into everyday use. The techniques that linguists use to follow the history of words are carefully explained along the way, and dozens of photographs and drawings illustrate the eclectic pleasures of English etymology."--Jacket.

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