175 ratings | 0 reviews | avg rating:4.62

Jess Zafarris’s Followers (77)

Jess’s Bookshelves

to-read (26)
currently-reading (1)
read (190)
did-not-finish (0)
for-the-young-and-the-young-at-hear (2)

Jess’s Friends (128)

Faith

1,075 books | 94 friends

Katie

774 books | 54 friends

Maddy Karpiuk

375 books | 156 friends

Anders Mickelson

258 books | 58 friends

Caitlin E.

298 books | 61 friends

Melissa Conner

1,231 books | 135 friends

Jessica

1,186 books | 121 friends

Rachael

438 books | 235 friends

More friends…

Jess Zafarris

Goodreads Author

Born

in The United States

Website

http://uselessetymology.com

Twitter

jesszafarris

Genre

Nonfiction, History, Children's

Member Since

September 2011

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/jzafarris

edit data

Jess Zafarris is an author and speaker whose work primarily addresses words and language, but also social media, advertising, communications, and TTRPGs. She’s the author of Once Upon a Word (2020), Words from Hell (2023), and Useless Etymology (2025). A former content director for Writer’s Digest, Adweek, and Ragan Communications, she now joyfully discusses word origins on TikTok and Instagram, cohosts the podcast Words Unravelled, and runs the blog Useless Etymology. She is an adjunct professor at Emerson College, Editor-at-Large for Ragan and PR Daily, a contributor and social media partner for Dictionarycom, a regular speaker for Writer's Digest, and a writer at Indie Agency News. She produces and hosts events including PR Daily’s Socia ...more

0 posts
Jess Zafarris's Blog

Jess Zafarris hasn't written any blog posts yet.

Combine Editions
Jess Zafarris’s books

Average rating: 4.25 · 563 ratings · 255 reviews · 7 distinct works • Similar authors

	Useless Etymology: Offbeat Word Origins for Curious Minds 4.23 avg rating — 263 ratings — published 2025 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Words from Hell: Unearthing the Darkest Secrets of English Etymology 4.21 avg rating — 175 ratings — published 2023	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Once Upon a Word: A Word-Origin Dictionary for Kids―Building Vocabulary Through Etymology, Definitions & Stories 4.33 avg rating — 122 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Game Master’s Book of Legendary Locations: 150+ mythic sites, fables ruins, cursed temples and forgotten lairs, plus dozens of random tables, BBEGs, ... RPG adventures (The Game Master Series) by Jeff Ashworth, Jess Zafarris (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), Colby Whittaker (Contributor) 4.67 avg rating — 3 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Miscellany of Weird and Wonderful Facts for Curious Humans Who Have Nothing Better to Do Than Read: (You know who you are.) by Jess Zafarris (Goodreads Author), Shannon Miller (Goodreads Author) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Into the Words: An Etymologist's Field Guide to Plants, Animals, and Nature 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Game Master's Box of Worldbuilding: Hundreds of random tables, towns, cities, lairs, factions, villains, mysteries and other tools for building ... for all of your 5th edition RPG adventures by Jeff Ashworth, Robert "Bob World Builder" Mason (contributor), Tristan Fishel (contributor) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Jess Zafarris…

Jess is Currently Reading

Jess Zafarris is currently reading

Persepolis Rising (The Expanse, #7)

by James S.A. Corey (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Feb 11, 2020 04:19AM

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Edelweiss & Netga...: * 5-Star Reads!!	29	24	Oct 13, 2025 01:55PM
Catching up on Cl...: Janelle’s 2025 Buffet	50	53	Jan 01, 2026 01:01AM
Aussie Readers: Annual Challenge 2025 - A-Z Road Trip!	234	171	Jan 01, 2026 06:54AM
Something Intelle...: 2026 JUN: post your book of the month suggestions here	4	2	Apr 11, 2026 01:54AM
NetGalley Readers: What NetGalley Book have you just read? Any recommendations? Jan 2024 on	7742	1158	5 hours, 0 min ago
The Reading For P...: What Do you Think? Book Reviews Centre	6036	475	2 hours, 11 min ago
Apocalypse Whenever: What are you reading? (Please use text book links.)	418	233	28 minutes ago