Word Nerd

by Michael Powell

The English language is full of beauty and surprises. If you're a lover of the weird and wonderful, from fascinating etymology to the ten most overused and useless English phrases, this book isn't averse to a peppering of persiflage!Did you - pilots and air traffic controllers at major air international airports have to speak English- the hashtag symbol is an "octothorpe"- "bumfiddle" means to spoil a piece of paper or document- the word "noon" originally meant 3pm; the literal meaning of "bamboozle" is to make a baboon out of someone. This book contains a boatload of things you didn't know about the English language and it's a guaranteed prolix-free zone.

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Linguistics

96 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2019

About the author

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Reviews

[Shelby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humorous, interesting and a worthwhile read for any Hyperlexic geek who wants to succeed at useless linguistic trivia questions at their next work quiz night, or roll eyes at irritating people and chastise them for using contrastive focus reduplication when they ask for a "drink drink". 5/5.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has assorted trivia about English words. Not really very interesting.

[riv_reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun book on the crazy words of the English language.