Ancient Rome in So Many Words

by Christopher Francese

The brief word-histories in this book are meant to provide background on some words that everyone learns when they study Latin, as well as some rarer terms that have interesting stories to tell about Roman culture. This book lists a new word or phrase that came into American English every year from 1975 to 1998, with a selection of early additions from 1497 to 1750, and discusses the history behind the adoption of each. Teachers and students of Latin can benefit from the slightly more formal, but still anecdotal, approach taken here to some key words in the Latin lexicon.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Language, Ebooks

248 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 30, 2007

Reviews

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The official blurb about this book is accurate. A series of one-page descriptions of important (and not so important) Latin words illustrating aspects of Roman life and also reminding us that our assumptions about the way things must always have been are not necessarily accurate. (What exactly was a pater familias? I thought I knew, but it's more nuanced than I realized.) A great book to keep by the bedside. Read just one page a night and in a few months become a Better Person!

[Kilian Metcalf · Rating 4 out of 5]

From childhood (crepundia) to death (monumentum), this book takes a look at ancient Rome one word at a time. Some words look familiar but have very different meanings for the Romans than they do for us. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Roman history or word origins.

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book. It's linguistically and culturally rich. It's a quick read and worthwhile, too.

[Dolores · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating little book on the origins and meanings of many words that have come down to us from Roman times. Roman history and word origins are two of my favorite things!!

[Anson Cassel Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

One detriment of pseudo-historical films like Gladiator is that the undereducated are encouraged to believe that Romans were “just like us.” Francese’s well-written study of more than ninety more-or-less important Latin words is a good antidote to such thinking.

In his preface, Francese confesses to making idiosyncratic decisions about which words to include; but he has made his choices thoughtfully and has well fulfilled his goal to use (sometimes secondary meanings of) Latin words to “tell some of the central stories of Roman history and culture.” This book can be profitably read by an educated general reader with no knowledge of Latin, but it is a gold mine of quotable material for both teachers of the language and professors of ancient history.

[Markus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has floated on my Kindle for a while. It's a good floater because it's a collection of short entries. So whenever I was deciding what to read next, I read this. It tells the origin and usage of Latin words in Ancient Rome. The book gives you a piece by piece picture of the culture of the Roman Empire. I would enjoy a sequel just as much.

[Elise · Rating 4 out of 5]

My friend Chris's book. He's super smart and cool, and I love Rome. The edition is coming out any day now.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting read, but a bit tedious at times.
I learned a lot about the Romans and their lives by looking at some of their words.

[Stephen Kibler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather interesting stuff.