In the week running up to Christmas 2011 The Etymologicon, by Mark Forsyth was the BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week and I remember listening to some of it. It so impressed me that I popped into Toppings in Ely to buy it as an extra present for my wife , because,  like me,  she loves language.

I’ve always been a bit of a one for words and the English language;  in fact I’m rather a stickler for spelling and syntax and could be accurately labelled a “grammar nazi”. And etymology has always fascinated me. Bill Bryson’s Mother Tongue is a favourite and this book ranks up there with it. Subtitled “A circular stroll through the hidden connections of the English language” this book is a fascinating tour of words,  their history and derivation , peppered with a sardonic wit that makes it an absolute joy. There are so many facts in here that were previously unknown to me that choosing which ones to illustrate this blog is really a matter of turning to any page and sticking in a pin,  but how about this beauty: there was a general on Union side in the American Civil War who was renowned for his vast moustache and the large quantity of hair than ran from his ears to meet it. His name was Ambrose Burnside, and such facial decoration was known as “burnsides”. The general vanished into history and his name became forgotten, but somewhere along the years the facial nomenclature became reversed, because these are on the side of the face and thus we now know them as “sideburns”.

The wit that Forsyth employs is wicked,  but extremely funny. In a discussion on Peter Pan he refers at one point to “W.E Henley (the poet who wrote Invictus and not much else)” with the footnote “Thank God!”

Can you tell that I really liked this book? If you can’t get hold it, then I strongly suggest that you turn to Forsyth’s blog, The Inky Fool (blog.inkyfool.com) where you can find much of the writing that this book came from.