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Angels, Barbarians, and Nincompoops...and a Lot of Other Words You Thought You Knew
It's hard not to love this book, which introduces a diverse cast of characters ranging from C.S. Lewis and Emily Dickinson to Lily Munster and the Great Pumpkin to explain the historical, humorous, and even sacred origins of words most of us use without even knowing what they literally mean or where they come from. In this engaging discussion of the roots of everyday English, Anthony Esolen introduces readers to a linguistic heritage whose Christian and cultural origins are now largely forgotten. Join Professor Esolen in a fun, educational, and often downright hilarious romp through 98 of your soon-to-be favorite words.
Learn how -- to say nothing of when and where -- to properly use the word, "drunken." ("The bridegroom's mother has drunken a whole bottle of champagne, and is now drawing flowers on the floor with her lipstick.") Learn why, if you are faithful to the King's English, you really don't want Lily Munster to "dust" your furniture! And learn why Professor Esolen and other lovers of beauty in language and liturgy wince when faulty word choice reduces a mighty angel of God to the status of a mere messenger boy.
Again and again, you'll find yourself laughing along with Anthony Esolen, who channels his inner Boris Badenov (Bullwinkle the Moose's nemesis, for the philistines and millennials among you) and reminds us that "eees good" to know grammar and "eees fun" to play with linguistic style.
Buy this book. You'll be glad you did.
Learn how -- to say nothing of when and where -- to properly use the word, "drunken." ("The bridegroom's mother has drunken a whole bottle of champagne, and is now drawing flowers on the floor with her lipstick.") Learn why, if you are faithful to the King's English, you really don't want Lily Munster to "dust" your furniture! And learn why Professor Esolen and other lovers of beauty in language and liturgy wince when faulty word choice reduces a mighty angel of God to the status of a mere messenger boy.
Again and again, you'll find yourself laughing along with Anthony Esolen, who channels his inner Boris Badenov (Bullwinkle the Moose's nemesis, for the philistines and millennials among you) and reminds us that "eees good" to know grammar and "eees fun" to play with linguistic style.
Buy this book. You'll be glad you did.
220 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2017
8 people are currently reading
99 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Esolen
60 books483 followersAnthony Esolen is the author of over twenty-five books and over 1,000 articles in both scholarly and general interest journals. A senior editor of Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity, Esolen is known for his elegant essays on the faith and for his clear social commentaries. His articles appear regularly in Touchstone, Crisis, First Things, Public Discourse, The Catholic Thing, Chronicles, Inside the Vatican, and Magnificat, among others. An accomplished poet in his own right, Esolen is known for his widely acclaimed three-volume verse translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy (Modern Library). His Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child has been described as "a worthy successor to C.S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man." And its sequel, Life Under Compulsion, has been called "essential reading for parents, educators, and anyone who is concerned to rescue children from the tedious and vacuous thing childhood has become." His recent books of social commentary include Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture, Nostalgia: Going Home in a Homeless World, and the forthcoming, No Apologies: Why Civilization Depends upon the Strength of Men.
Anthony Esolen has been writing his own poetry for decades, but until recently most of his published poetry has appeared in his verse translations of the great poets, Dante, Tasso, and Lucretius. More than a hundred of his own poems have appeared in such venues as Fine Madness, The Plains Poetry Journal, and Modern Age. After studying and teaching great poetry for nearly thirty years, Professor Esolen set out to write a book-length unified poem of his own, a project which he hopes will show that serious and significant long poetic works can still be written in our time. The result of his effort is The Hundredfold: Songs for the Lord, a book-length single poem composed of 100 parts -- short lyrics, dramatic monologues, and hymns -- centered on the life of Christ. He is working now on a second such long poem, The Twelve-Gated City, a collection of 144 interrelated poems centered on the parable of the prodigal son.
The grandson of Italian immigrants to America, Anthony Esolen was born and raised in the coal-mining country of Northeastern Pennsylvania. He received his B.A. from Princeton University, and his Ph. D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead Fellow. He is the 2020 recipient of the CIRCE Institute's Russel Kirk Prize, awarded each year to a writer and scholar "in honor of a lifetime dedicated to the cultivation of wisdom and virtue." He is writer-in-residence at Magdalen College in Warner, NH.
For more from the mind and pen of Anthony Esolen, visit his online magazine called Word and Song, at https://anthonyesolen.substack.com
Anthony Esolen has been writing his own poetry for decades, but until recently most of his published poetry has appeared in his verse translations of the great poets, Dante, Tasso, and Lucretius. More than a hundred of his own poems have appeared in such venues as Fine Madness, The Plains Poetry Journal, and Modern Age. After studying and teaching great poetry for nearly thirty years, Professor Esolen set out to write a book-length unified poem of his own, a project which he hopes will show that serious and significant long poetic works can still be written in our time. The result of his effort is The Hundredfold: Songs for the Lord, a book-length single poem composed of 100 parts -- short lyrics, dramatic monologues, and hymns -- centered on the life of Christ. He is working now on a second such long poem, The Twelve-Gated City, a collection of 144 interrelated poems centered on the parable of the prodigal son.
The grandson of Italian immigrants to America, Anthony Esolen was born and raised in the coal-mining country of Northeastern Pennsylvania. He received his B.A. from Princeton University, and his Ph. D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead Fellow. He is the 2020 recipient of the CIRCE Institute's Russel Kirk Prize, awarded each year to a writer and scholar "in honor of a lifetime dedicated to the cultivation of wisdom and virtue." He is writer-in-residence at Magdalen College in Warner, NH.
For more from the mind and pen of Anthony Esolen, visit his online magazine called Word and Song, at https://anthonyesolen.substack.com
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 9, 2023
A tipsy review: The raucus Dr. Esolen is an extremely frustrating man. I read this book mainly bc i love etymology and the concepts he sets forth so well in the introduction concerning the Word and words. It was possibly under divine inspiration that I read the introduction and wrote my first real short story plot.
However his uncalled-for and out of context jabs at feminism were annoying as Hell. Like I would read them ahead of time just to get them over with. He made some good points that i would definitely argue with.
Has a lot of boomer humor. Admittedly a self indulgent work, a "romp" through the English language which was hard to follow. What's the point of publishing a romp if your readers can't follow you?
But anyways. Enjoyed some meditations and learning about etymology. Hated the rest. Glad it's over.
(Edits for spelling)
Later edits to the number of stars bc I realized 3 was too generous.
However his uncalled-for and out of context jabs at feminism were annoying as Hell. Like I would read them ahead of time just to get them over with. He made some good points that i would definitely argue with.
Has a lot of boomer humor. Admittedly a self indulgent work, a "romp" through the English language which was hard to follow. What's the point of publishing a romp if your readers can't follow you?
But anyways. Enjoyed some meditations and learning about etymology. Hated the rest. Glad it's over.
(Edits for spelling)
Later edits to the number of stars bc I realized 3 was too generous.
November 25, 2021
A very enjoyable and and informative ramble down sundry etymological rabbit trails. If you enjoy learning about the origins and history of English words and phrases, this is the book for you! My only criticism is that it lacks both a detailed table of contents and an index, which makes looking up and reviewing things you recall reading about (somewhere between the two covers) after the fact pretty difficult.
February 9, 2021
Esolen, Anthony. Angels, Barbarians, and Nincompoops: And other Words You Thought you Knew. Gastonia, NC: Tan Books, 2017.
Interacting with a word’s etymology is always dangerous in determining its meaning. Though it might appear that is what Anthony Esolen is doing, it is not. He is inviting us to enter the very shape of language. As he notes at the end of the book, paraphrasing Lewis and Tolkien, the study of words is the study of man.
Interesting notes:
“In English we don’t usually hear the difference between a single consonant and a double consonant.”
He makes a good point that “catholic” doesn’t mean universal. It means according to the whole. There is another word for “universal,” and it is “ecumenical.”
“All of our kn- words were cn- words in Anglo-Saxon, and were pronounced as such, as late as Chaucer.”
It’s okay to start a sentence with “because,” and not simply because (sorry) you will follow the subordinate clause with an independent clause. Rather, you can start a sentence with “because” if you are using that to build towards a climax.
In bible translations, don’t say “produce” when you could say “fruit.” Produce is an abstraction and robs the passage of linguistic force. Fruit suggests something fresh from God’s hand. Produce connotes Gross National Product.
In Milton conscience is “my conscience;” it is not a neutral umpire. It is important, nonetheless.
Say “eternal life” rather than “afterlife,” since the latter connotes aftertaste or afterthought.
The best way to develop style is not by using big words but by arranging ordinary words.
Dactyl: a pterodactyl is a “feather-finger.” However, in poetry a dactyl, reminiscent of the division of your finger, is long-short-short.
Humor
“Beside the word ‘nescient’ in Dr E’s Imaginary Dictionary stands an illustration of a bureaucrat, smiling at an ordinary citizen. The cross-reference reads: see ‘expert.’ The word means what you think it means: the property of knowing absolutely nothing.”
Esolen wrote this before the rise of the Branch Covidians.
A note on “boycott:” the word was tried in Italian novels in the 20th century. Small merchants united against their enemy, a man who was ahead of them in technology and thrift. “They being Italians, it didn’t quite work, but it did help to bring about political confusion, which is often better than political efficiency, because it means that politicians who mean mischief don’t get much done.”
He has an insightful entry on “patriarchy.” It did not originally mean “Ungus grunt and make woman cook.” It was father-as-arche, foundation. As Esolen notes, “A patriarch is not a male boss, nor even a father-boss. He is the father-founder.” Anything else moves quickly to idolatry and blood covenants.
Temperance is not tee-totaling. It is the virtue of judicious measure.
On hell: the cardinal sins are deadly, not because God simply judges them, but by their very nature they make us people who would rather writhe in agony than worship God.
While its use is somewhat limited due to the etymological angle of the book, this is a delight for those gourmands of language.
Interacting with a word’s etymology is always dangerous in determining its meaning. Though it might appear that is what Anthony Esolen is doing, it is not. He is inviting us to enter the very shape of language. As he notes at the end of the book, paraphrasing Lewis and Tolkien, the study of words is the study of man.
Interesting notes:
“In English we don’t usually hear the difference between a single consonant and a double consonant.”
He makes a good point that “catholic” doesn’t mean universal. It means according to the whole. There is another word for “universal,” and it is “ecumenical.”
“All of our kn- words were cn- words in Anglo-Saxon, and were pronounced as such, as late as Chaucer.”
It’s okay to start a sentence with “because,” and not simply because (sorry) you will follow the subordinate clause with an independent clause. Rather, you can start a sentence with “because” if you are using that to build towards a climax.
In bible translations, don’t say “produce” when you could say “fruit.” Produce is an abstraction and robs the passage of linguistic force. Fruit suggests something fresh from God’s hand. Produce connotes Gross National Product.
In Milton conscience is “my conscience;” it is not a neutral umpire. It is important, nonetheless.
Say “eternal life” rather than “afterlife,” since the latter connotes aftertaste or afterthought.
The best way to develop style is not by using big words but by arranging ordinary words.
Dactyl: a pterodactyl is a “feather-finger.” However, in poetry a dactyl, reminiscent of the division of your finger, is long-short-short.
Humor
“Beside the word ‘nescient’ in Dr E’s Imaginary Dictionary stands an illustration of a bureaucrat, smiling at an ordinary citizen. The cross-reference reads: see ‘expert.’ The word means what you think it means: the property of knowing absolutely nothing.”
Esolen wrote this before the rise of the Branch Covidians.
A note on “boycott:” the word was tried in Italian novels in the 20th century. Small merchants united against their enemy, a man who was ahead of them in technology and thrift. “They being Italians, it didn’t quite work, but it did help to bring about political confusion, which is often better than political efficiency, because it means that politicians who mean mischief don’t get much done.”
He has an insightful entry on “patriarchy.” It did not originally mean “Ungus grunt and make woman cook.” It was father-as-arche, foundation. As Esolen notes, “A patriarch is not a male boss, nor even a father-boss. He is the father-founder.” Anything else moves quickly to idolatry and blood covenants.
Temperance is not tee-totaling. It is the virtue of judicious measure.
On hell: the cardinal sins are deadly, not because God simply judges them, but by their very nature they make us people who would rather writhe in agony than worship God.
While its use is somewhat limited due to the etymological angle of the book, this is a delight for those gourmands of language.
June 9, 2023
A wonderful romp through a few score words in the English language. Esolen has always impressed me as a man deep in word & song, saturated by the beauty of language -- and he is like a boy, playing with his favorite words and showing them off to the reader, with too much delight to keep to himself. Given how serious Esolen's other works tend to be, I enjoyed this both for its content, and to experience Esolen's joy at his subject. It's a lovely mix of etymology, history, and a dash of Esolen's characteristic cutting wisdom.
February 28, 2024
Word play that Sings
This is a book to be read and bite-sized pieces and digested slowly. I loved reading it little by little and thinking about the words and their origins throughout the day. oLanguage is a true gift from the Lord above and Esolen explained much of its origins in a both whimsical and spiritual way. His Catholic sense of humor and optimism flow from his pen; a true brother in Christ.
This is a book to be read and bite-sized pieces and digested slowly. I loved reading it little by little and thinking about the words and their origins throughout the day. oLanguage is a true gift from the Lord above and Esolen explained much of its origins in a both whimsical and spiritual way. His Catholic sense of humor and optimism flow from his pen; a true brother in Christ.
May 27, 2020
If you love words. If you love how they work and how they are formed. If you are a grammarian of any sort, you will love this book. Esolen also adds to this often thought dry exercise of looking at words with a magnifying glass his own wit and charm. Delightful
May 14, 2024
An entertaining read on the etymology of words, mixed with reflections and anecdotes from Dr. Esolen's many years of teaching (and speaking) the English language. Definitely not meant to be sat down and read, but a fun book to slowly digest a few chapters at a time.
December 29, 2017
This is a fun (and thought-provoking) book to read one or two words at a time.
Read
November 28, 2017Wonderful collection of brief (1-3 pages) essays looking at the etymology/history of 100 or so words. Reveals often the depth of meaning that has been lost in common usage or the inter-relatedness of words and sometimes even how the original meaning of a word is opposite of its current use. The prose of the author is in keeping with the nature and tone of the book and makes the read even more enjoyable
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews