Amazing Words

by Phil Cousineau

Who knew that the word "baksheesh" stems from the Persian word "bakshidan" which means to give or forgive By exploring the delightful stories behind the 250 words in this book, readers are lured by language and entwined in etymologies. Author Phil Cousineau takes us on a tour into the obscure territory of word origins with great erudition and endearing curiosity. The English poet W. H. Auden was once asked to teach a poetry class, and when 200 students applied to study with him, he only had room for 20 of them. When asked how he chose his students, he said he picked the ones who actually loved words. So too, with Amazing Words - it takes a special wordcatcher to create a treasure chest of remarkable words and their origins, and any word lover will relish the stories that Cousineau has discovered.

332 pages, Paperback

Published June 3, 2019

About the author

Phil Cousineau is the award-winning author of The Wisdom of the Odyssey and over forty other books, including the bestselling The Art of Pilgrimage, The Hero’s Journey, and Once and Future Myths. With more than 40 books and 25 scriptwriting credits to his name, the "omnipresent influence of myth in modern life" is a thread that runs through all his work.

A writer, filmmaker, storyteller, and cultural historian, Phil has consulted on mythology and story for major studios including Warner Brothers, Pixar, and Lucasfilm. A protege of mythologist Joseph Campbell, Cousineau began his career teaching screenwriting classes on Myth and the Movies at the American Film Institute in the 1980s.

He was co-writer and host of Link TV/PBS-TV's Global Spirit, the "inner travel" television series, which Bill Moyers called "more important than journalism today." His documentary films have won more than 25 international awards, including the Academy Award-nominated, Forever Activists.

Born in an army hospital in Columbia, South Carolina, Cousineau grew up in Detroit, Phil Cousineau has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 40 years. All of his grandparents were French-Canadian.

Reviews

[Ambedkar Balasubramaniam Meganathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is clearly one of the best and interesting books on etymology. This book must be read leisurely and a couple of times to imbibe the wealth of knowledge it has.