It's a Wonderful Word: The Real Origins of Our Favourite Words

by Albert Jack

Did you know that an assassin is a hashish-eater and a yokel a country woodpecker? That Dr Mesmer mesmerized patients back to health or that Samuel Pepys enjoyed a good game of handicap? While we're at it, what have spondulics to do with spines or lawyers with avocados? Here Albert Jack collects more than 500 of the strangest, funniest-sounding, and most delightful words in the English language, and traces them back to their often puzzling origins. While brushing up on your gibberish or gobbledygook, discover why bastards should resent traveling salesmen, why sheets should remain on tenterhooks, and why you should never set down a tumbler before finishing your drink. From blotto to bamboozle and from claptrap to quango, Albert Jack's addictive anecdotes bring the world's most colorful language to life and are guaranteed to surprise and entertain.

Genres: Humor, Nonfiction, Reference

288 pages, Hardcover

First published November 3, 2011

About the author

Albert Jack, pen name for Graham Willmott, is an international best-selling author and historian. He is an expert in explaining the unexplained and has appeared on live television shows and has made thousands of radio appearances worldwide.

Reviews

[Dayang Mahani · Rating 3 out of 5]

enlightened by some info but in general, the info is vague. I'm unimpressed. it's a light reading

[A · Rating 1 out of 5]

I expected to enjoy this book because I love hearing the stories and histories behind the words. But unfortunately the author lost all credibility with me pretty much immediately.

I became somewhat doubtful coming to the end of the "Gollywog" section. The last paragraph says:

But we live in an age of political correctness gone mad in which even the innocuous children's nursery rhyme 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' has been banned in many schools and replaced with 'Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep'. I kid you not."

Now, this is not true. It's not true. It's so obviously a product of mass hysteria that you'd think only a total nitwit could believe it... a total nitwit like Albert Jack, apparently - who then has the temerity to add "I kid you not". An actual reporter, Nick Davies, traced this story's history in his book Flat Earth News :

"During the Thatcher years, the Mail joined other right-wing newspapers in exposing the 'political correctness' of the 'loony left councils' - Hackney, which said the word 'manholes' was sexist and renamed them 'access chambers'; [...] Haringey, which said the old nursery rhyme 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' was racist and banned it. All these stories were fiction. Which did not stop the Mail running the Baa Baa Black Sheep story again in March 2006, when a nursery class in Oxfordshire was said to have banned it as racist. That was fiction too."

So yes - fiction. Fiction that our dear guide Albert Jack has swallowed whole, despite offering us "The Real Origins of Our Favourite Words" on the cover.

Later on in the book, he notes that "barrack" could possibly come "from the ABORIGINE barak, 'banter'". There is no such thing as "the Aboriginal language" - there is no single language of the Aboriginal people of Australia, more like 150 different languages just at the start of the 21st century. It's as nonsensical as saying "the Asian language" or "the European language".

The final straw was when he states that Larrikin has taken on the meaning of "thug" in Australia and New Zealand. As an Australian and New Zealander, I can tell you this is a total crock.

So yeah, this author's credibility nosedived in a spectacular fashion. I didn't read further. These are just the things that I was able to spot because they happen to fall under the fairly small umbrella of things I know. Who knows what other falsehoods riddle this book?

If there's one thing I hate, it's people who spread lies and misrepresentations from a position of "expert" - and worse yet, make money off it. People are going to read this tripe and pass on that stupid "baa baa black sheep being banned" story - "But it's true! I read it in a book! They check this stuff before they let them publish, you know!" It's malice at worst, pure laziness and gullibility at best. I can only hope it was the latter - Albert Jack, if you're reading this, I've got a nice opera house I can sell ya mate.

PS: Albert Jack - did you seriously rate all of your own books 5 stars, but only gave Brave New World 4 stars??