The African Svelte: Ingenious Misspellings That Make Surprising Sense

by Daniel Menaker, Billy Collins (Foreword), Roz Chast (Illustrator)

“For language lovers, this book, with all its verbal tangles and wit, is sure to, in its own words, ‘pass mustard’” (Poets & Writers).   Inspired by Daniel Menaker’s tenure at the New Yorker, this collection of comical, revelatory errors foraged from the wilds of everyday English comes with commentary by the author, illustrations by Roz Chast, and a foreword from Billy Collins.   During his time at the renowned magazine, Menaker happened across a superb spelling “The zebras were grazing on the African svelte.” Fascinated by the idea of unintentionally meaningful spelling errors, he began to see that these gaffes—neither typos nor auto-corrects—are sometimes more interesting than their straight-laced counterparts. Through examples he has collected over the course of his decades-long career as an editor and writer, he brings us to a new understanding of language—how it’s used, what it means, and what fun it can be.   Illustrated by the inimitable Roz Chast, with a foreword by former poet laureate Billy Collins, The African Svelte offers thoughtful and intelligent exit Jesus. With both uniquely happy accidents and familiar fumbles like “for all intensive purposes” and “doggy-dog world,” readers delighted by language will find themselves turning the pages with baited breath to discover fresh howlers that have them laughing off their dairy airs.  

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, Language, Writing

201 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 18, 2016

About the author

DANIEL MENAKER began his career as a fact checker at The New Yorker, where he became an editor and worked for twenty-six years. A former book editor, Menaker is the author of six books; he has written for the New York Times, the Atlantic, Parents, Redbook, and many others.

Reviews

[Ron Charles]

This witty little book is the perfect stocking-stuffer for the English major in your life.

I spoke with the author here:

https://www.facebook.com/poststyle/vi...

[Kirsti · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this because I was interested in Roz Chast's illustrations, which are nifty. The text is well-written but over-explains the jokes, I think. Also, the author misstates the title of a Sylvia Wright book: it is actually Get Away From Me With Those Christmas Gifts, and Other Reactions. I hope that my unenthusiastic review doesn't hurt the author's self of steam and that he continues to be a pillow of strength in his community.

[Marcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun, smart little book for language lovers. Menaker looks at what he calls sveltes: word use mistakes that actually make sense. I know I have said some of these (and others) as we so often have a disconnect between the auditory and print. So for all "intensive purposes" this is a great book.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phrases with misspelled words can make sense even if the misspelled word changes the meaning of the phrase. I'm vast asleep on the African svelte.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of our English spelling foibles. I giggled my way through this book, as while many of these examples of English abuse/mistakes/sveltes/gaffes/new words/phrases were not unknown to me, the author provided "inlightenment" on their origins/backstories and sometimes made cases for why these errors made "surprising sense".

[Anita · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book for word lovers. Menaker takes Charles Baxter's quote "There is such a thing as the poetry of a mistake." and makes it the theme for a wonderful trip through the world of misspellings. It is humorous (not humerus, though he would undoubtedly make the connection to the funny bone) and enlightening as he goes into great etymological detail (not entomological- though he could make a case for bookworm) for these amazing mistakes. I couldn't help adding my own svelte observations to the conversation:
It was reported in a local magazine that a BYU student's favorite book was Lame is Rob.
A student many years ago in music class wrote his favorite composer on the board: Rock Maninoff.
And one I received just last week in a student paper describing what he liked to do outside school: "playing video games, watching tv and generally waisting time."
I wish I had had the presence (presents) of mind to have written them all down over the years and written a book like this.

[Christa Van · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of unintentional mistakes, some of which make a lot of sense. As a person with poor spelling and editing skills, some of these are probably mistakes I've made or seemed just fine when I looked at them. However, there are some very funny examples here too. Lucky I'm able to "eek out a living" without having to be an editor or as "a last-stitch effort" I would be reduced to busking.

The illustrations by Roz Chast are wonderful. I only with there were more of them.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book that basically dealt with the grammatical and misspellings of the English language but in a way that allows the reader to understand the fun that the author is poking at these findings. And at the same time the book is also working on educating the reader in the right usage of the word and/or the right word to be used as well as the origins of the word or words that are being covered.

There are times throughout the reading that the writing and the telling of the information is a bit dry while hard to keep focused on. At other times the author most definitely has a fun time in using the entry of one to connect to the next entry, which I found to be really creative although by the end of the book it seemed the author was losing steam.

All in all it was pretty decent to read and interesting if one is interested in this type of reading, especially if you can get yourself to read the Introduction which has plenty of information on terminology found throughout the pages. Otherwise I would suggest avoiding the reading if it doesn't attract to you in the smallest.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Readers will sometimes use words in speech that they've never heard, and mispronounce them in logical ways. "Sveltes" are the opposite: misspellings of words only heard, yet the written mistake actually makes surprising sense. Example: handburgers rather than hamburgers (because you eat them with your hands), or "end-trails" instead of "entrails", because that's the end of the trail for what you eat, or "spreading like wildflowers" instead of "spreading like wildfire", because some wildflowers are really invasive and fast-growing. "eek out a living"? "vast asleep"? This is a highly amusing list of unintended word-play for the well-read and linguistically inclined, even if you skip over the derivations.

[Andrea Engle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clever and amusing little book ... shows some of the ins-and-outs of the human brain, and the intriguing near-misses of the English language ... entertaining read ...

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Roz Chast illustrations were my favorite part, but this was entertaining for certain.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting linguistic slips, but the book was kind of hard to read due to Menaker's insistence on connecting the last sentence of each explanation with the "svelte" on the following page. Chast's illustrations are very cute, but I wished there were more of them.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very witty!

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this delightfully funny, insightful, and witty book, Menaker explores a written phenomenon that transcends typical grammarian snobbery and instead celebrates the duality and complexity of the English language.

Simply speaking (and butchering), a "svelte" is a word that is not the word meant, but has a pleasurable or humorous meaning anyway. Perhaps my favorite example from the book is "lack-toes intolerant." Obviously the author meant lactose intolerant, but Menaker doesn't simply correct the mistake--he looks at the etymology behind the svelte used and the words intended, in a dry and hilarious way:

I don't know of a single person who is a toe-ist--intolerant of those untoed.

I like to think of this book as a series of micro-essays, mostly because I haven't ever seen anything quite like it. Annotated list? Collection of interconnected jokes? It's hard to be sure. Each svelte is listed with the source and given context and its etymology analyzed. Each analysis then bridges to the next svelte in generally amusing ways. One notable entry (#86) has a footnote at the bottom. I turned the page expecting the footnote to end and more discussion on the svelte itself to continue--only to find another three pages of footnote!

I wouldn't recommend this book to just anyone, although I think the layperson (myself included) can learn quite a bit from it--indeed, many of the sveltes were a mystery to me at first, because while I'd heard almost all of them before, I'd never read any of them on paper/screen. However, the discussions of word roots and origins, of complex etymological histories and connections make this book a bit of a challenging read, at least for me. I definitely enjoyed it, but I would probably only recommend to people who are intensely interested in and amused by language. Still, I wouldn't discourage anyone from giving it a shot: the illustrations are fantastic, it's a generally short read, it comes from a place of humor rather than superiority, and it's hilarious.

[Mac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recently on TV, a presidential spokeswoman, while emphasizing the president's commitment, said, "His efforts in this area will be tantamount." Perhaps those weren't her exact words, but they were paramount to them. Mixups like these are the subject of The African Svelte. The gaffes Daniel Menaker cites are "unintentionally meaningful spelling errors" that are sometimes more meaningful than their proper counterparts.

Because it's a carefully curated book, Menaker's examples are much more humorous than the one I've cited. For instance: "...let the customer know from the gecko..." "Your dairy air looks rather ravishing from this vantage point." "The terrorist was wearing a baklava." "...making an ad homonym attack..." "...cholesteroil fouling up your aorta..." "...a pillow of strength..."

And so it goes. The book's title comes from "The zebras were grazing on the African svelte," and some of the 101 examples are illustrated with delightful cartoon drawings by Roz Chast. Together Menaker and Chast have created a reading (and visual) treat for those who like to play with the English language. Occasionally, Menaker slows the pace for explanatory interludes, which taken together are enlightening and also good fun. Naturally, each interlude is called a "brake."

My only critique: There's a great deal of etymology here. To make this a book and not just a collection of one-liners and cartoons, Menaker includes numerous root words and detailed word history to explain his examples. It's interesting stuff but a bit too much. In the spirit of the book, I'll just say the entomology bugged me.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy wordplay, and in general I enjoyed this collection of plausible/implausible/and just plain weird versions of common phrases. We have all used (I am guessing) "To all intents and purposes," but often we hear or read this new twist of "to all intensive purposes." Wrong, but somehow, some way, still correct. This sort of word misuse is the topic of Menaker's book.

Sadly, it did not work well for me. Menaker wanted to say much more than the reader expected, so I felt bogged down by his lengthy etymologies and overlong explanations. Now, since I do like etymology, this is surprising. But in this offering, it really was not needed. He took an amusing subject and tried to make it scholarly. My second objection to the book was his segue style for introducing his next word misuse - which he calls a "svelte." I got used to them, but they were not a good method for the book.

Now I do not wish to condemn the book. I frequently found myself laughing out loud - almost to tears - as I read. I think my favorite svelte was the phrase from a recipe "kneed in the walnuts." The commentary on this svelte was hilarious. There were other gems in here as well.

While I can appreciate his desire for a more scholarly approach, if he had just stuck with humor, this book would have received another star.

[elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Needed more Roz Chast. Fun for word nerds, but explanations felt too long.

[Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Menaker's Sveltes might have made an amusing article, but it's the merest soap bubble of a book. Roz Chast's illustrations eek (svelte) out the text, but even they failed to enliven this effort.

[Maggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you like homonyms, you will like this. It is a little too precious at times, especially in that he's dubbed all manner of erroneous misspellings and pseudo homonyms - like "from the gecko" for "from the get go" - as "sveltes" which is cute once, and hugely tedious by the end of the book. It's fun though, and he dives down a lot of linguistic rabbit holes ("gutta percha" anyone?). It also forces page turning because each chapter/entry segues (not Segways) into the next:

END OF ONE ENTRY
But there is a disguise that makes a person into no one, as happened when, according to a CNN closed caption,

BEGINNING OF THE NEXT
9. the terrorist was wearing a baklava.

Still, it's playful and entertaining.

[wade · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you enjoy language and its use and abuse you will love this book. Chiefly the author takes expressions and shows how they are misused by the public. For instance, whet your appetite or wet your appetite. Mr. Menaker documents where the language abuse occurred. He also has a wealth of knowledge on the historical derivations of when and where words originated. The book is complimented by cartoons by Roz Chast that poke fun of these abuses. He does get bogged down with a little too much detail now and then but over all I learned a lot and enjoyed the book.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little book on language errors that are amusing and sometimes more apt than you would expect. I enjoyed many of these, but found that the best ones were at the beginning and the concept and originality seemed to be less interesting as the book went on. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if I had not tried to read the whole thing in one fell swoop -- little tastes would have gone down better.

[Peter Barr · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book seems to be about 101 incorrect uses of words that are turned into punchlines without jokes. Instead the author goes into the history of words to explain the correct and incorrect words. I read this after seeing a friend reading it. The examples given are humorous which makes the book a good read.

[AliceAnn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the artwork. I enjoyed the stories/snippets about each of the word groupings, but I read the book in 1 sitting. I got bogged down about halfway through, and found myself skimming. I should have simply put it down and read it in smaller segments at a later date, but by then I just wanted it to be done, so I could return it to the library.

[Turi Becker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fun, although I was a bit disappointed that he didn't tackle site/sight unseen...

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is good in small doses. Don't try to read it straight through, like I did. Other than that, I really enjoyed it and laughed a lot.

[nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

super fun. and refreshingly not prescriptivist or snobby about the english language!

[elstaffe · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favorite sveltes:
- "7. the throws of packing" (19)
- "101. a brick and mortal store" (213)

I think I would've liked this more without the transitions the author seemed compelled to put between sveltes. Perhaps it was just to show how they were used in a sentence, but the forced linkage of ideas made for some very stream of consciousness connections.

Pull quotes/notes
"Wright, when she was a child, had heard 'They hae slain the Earl o' Moray / And Lady Mondegreen.' Which makes its own kind of double-homicide sense.
The little girl must have thought, Poor Lady Mondegreen, executed surely because of some innocent connection to the doomed old Earl o' Moray. Mrs. Wright wrote, 'The point about what I shall hereafter call mondegreens, since no one else has thought up a word for them, is that they are better than the original.'" (xxii)

"... an obsessive but occasionally hilarious website, verbotomy.com, where visitors coin new words to express new and highly differentiated concepts. (For example, if you're 'shrimpatico,' you have sympathy and affection for lower life forms. If what you're eating contains harmful chemicals, call them 'badditives.') There, they have married 'feign" and 'faint' and come up with
'feignt,' which means 'to be physically overcome by a sudden illness or disability when asked to participate in unrewarding activities — like work, or household chores.'" (129)

"Sad to say, 'Garbidge' does not appear to be the name ofa rock band, unlike (courtesy of the website of the Memphis radio station Rock103), among many, many others:
• The Bambi Molesters
• Big Daddy Butt Jelly and the Smooth
• Here, Eat This
• Oedipus and the Mama's Boys
• Snotjet
• The Most Sordid Pies
• Johnny Urinal and the Excreations
• Linoleum Blownapart
• Flopping Bodybags
• Bulimia Blanket
• Pontius Pilate and the Nail Bangers
• Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments
and yes, quite famously, 'Garbage.'
'Linoleum Blownapart' makes it hard to go on. I will go on." (159-160)

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun read, maybe not quite as fun as it could have been, but enjoyable. The book began life as a snarky list of mangled phrases the uber-literate author has been collecting for decades, and maybe it should have stayed that way. Now, each entry on the list is accompanied by an essay explaining why each mistake seems stupid, but actually has a kernel of wisdom to it, if you go far enough back into the Old English, Norse, or Proto-Indo-European roots of each word. Now, I actually do find the Old English, Norse, and Proto-Indo-European roots of words interesting, but I think we all can agree they just aren't as much fun as reading lists of other people's mistakes and feeling smug as a result. The author takes the high road, but misses the chance to have a little fun along the way. I recommend this book to anyone who likes language, is fastidious about words, and is a better person than i am.

[Ryan Fohl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like what this book was doing but it could have been better. There are interesting mini essays on language, lots of fascinating etymology and humor. But the writing was sometimes confusing or jumbled. I really enjoyed the segues between examples, when this worked well it made the book impossible to put down. The art work by Roz Chast was, as always, off-putting and terrible. (and such small portions!) This book is loaded with great content, but it could have been a better book if they had given it more time.

What I learned: “Stress” in the psychological sense is only about fifty years old. “Breach” was once a euphemism for the hole in one’s butt, hence “breaches.” The expression is actually “TOE the line!” “Running the Gamut” refers to the musical scale. “Esprit de corps” in French literally means “breath of the body.”

It’s very funny to say “my girl wrought it at the club last night.”

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun little book that I picked up primarily because it was illustrated by Roz Chast, my favorite New Yorker cartoonist. And after having read it, I have to say that the best entries - the ones that made me actually laugh - had an accompanying illustration by Chast. Menaker obviously knew that Rox Chast was THE go-to cartoonist for a project of this type.
Definitely a book for logophiles, and people who appreciate the humor of misspellings (and mispeakings - is that a word?) such as "pass mustard" for "pass muster" and "pillow of strength " for "pillar of strength", even though you are simultaneously cringing. The illustration for "pass mustard" had me laughing out loud. It's just silly.