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Carnal Knowledge: A Navel Gazer's Dictionary of Anatomy, Etymology, and Trivia
From head to toe to breast to behind, Charles Hodgson's Carnal Knowledge is a delightfully intoxicating tour of the words we use to describe our bodies. Did you
- eye is one of the oldest written words in the English language?
- callipygian means "having beautiful buttocks"?
- gam, a slang word for "leg," comes from the French word jambe ?
A treat for anyone who gets a kick out of words, Carnal Knowledge is also the perfect gift for anyone interested in the human body and the many (many, many) ways it's been described.
- eye is one of the oldest written words in the English language?
- callipygian means "having beautiful buttocks"?
- gam, a slang word for "leg," comes from the French word jambe ?
A treat for anyone who gets a kick out of words, Carnal Knowledge is also the perfect gift for anyone interested in the human body and the many (many, many) ways it's been described.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
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119 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 20, 2012
I literally just finished this book and I was nicely surprised! It's a great book to pick up at any page and read, or just read from start to finish. I've already started saying to my friends "did you know that...". When I first heard of the book I thought it would be slightly boring because it deals with the history/meaning of words but it's really interesting and sometimes downright funny.
This is a book that features almost every single word you can think of that is part of the human body (ie. ring finger, dimple, widow's peak, etc.) and details what it means and where it originated from. For instance, your Annulary is your ring finger, which was also known as a 'physician finger' because that's where they leeched blood from in the old days. They did this because the ring finger vein was thought to have a direct connection with the heat. "The supposed association between the heart and this finger is the reason that it is the finger we honor with our wedding rings." (p.9).
This is a fun read. I really enjoyed finding out why we call certain parts of our bodies certain things. Like where the word "adam's apple" came from. We take the words we use to describe body parts for granted and never really think of when/where the words originted and their significance or evolution. This is a great book for anyone who is interested in random trivia, the meaning of words, and anatomy.
This is a book that features almost every single word you can think of that is part of the human body (ie. ring finger, dimple, widow's peak, etc.) and details what it means and where it originated from. For instance, your Annulary is your ring finger, which was also known as a 'physician finger' because that's where they leeched blood from in the old days. They did this because the ring finger vein was thought to have a direct connection with the heat. "The supposed association between the heart and this finger is the reason that it is the finger we honor with our wedding rings." (p.9).
This is a fun read. I really enjoyed finding out why we call certain parts of our bodies certain things. Like where the word "adam's apple" came from. We take the words we use to describe body parts for granted and never really think of when/where the words originted and their significance or evolution. This is a great book for anyone who is interested in random trivia, the meaning of words, and anatomy.
April 16, 2014
Excellent bathroom reading as each entry is rarely more than half a page long and thus a few of them will suffice while one does one's "business". This is written with knowledge and wit each term (and they're all there)given its etymological derivation and changes in uses/meanings over the years and includes colloquial phrases in which the germ term appears. Funny and insightful. Highly recommended.
October 28, 2009
I <3 Charles Hodgson. I fell in love with him on podictionary.com (I subscribe to the podcast and get word-of-the-day e-mails in my inbox). I love his sense of delight and wonder at the etymology of words, and I get the sense that if I wasn't already a total logophile, he would make me one. You would be AMAZED where we get the names for different parts of our anatomy!
Examples to follow!
Examples to follow!
September 8, 2013
Very interesting.
April 9, 2016
slowly reading. A help for my yoga classes.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews