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A Book Review © 2004
by Marci G. Baun
Wild Child Publishing.com © 2004
"Every word was once a poem. Each began as a picture. Our language is made up of terms that were all originally figures of speech." - Wilfred Funk
This is how the book begins -- a fitting one for something that exudes passion for and tells stories of the English language. This book, by Funk, a lexicographer, editor, author and president of Funk & Wagnalls before his death in 1965, entertains and educates. Words or sayings you think you know take on whole new meanings. For instance, when we think of the word "world", our thoughts turn to, well, the earth or what is around us, we do not associate it with its original, Old English weorold, which combines the words wer, "man," and yldu, "age". Taken literally, world means "the age of man." Certainly, that's not what it means today or how we use it in our language, but that is its origin. There are many more such instances, some logical, but many like world.
The book is set up in chapters of words that relate to each other like Where Words About Human Beings Come From, Sources of Words of Attitudes and Emotions, and Where Animal Names Come From. The chapters are broken up into sections: intro, alphabetical listing of words, and, in some chapters, miscellaneous words not included in the alphabetical listing. When Funk includes the miscellaneous words, he often connects one word to the next, much like James Burke links science, historical events and innovative ideas in the famous TV series Connections. However, on a few occasions, Funk is not always as adept in his explanations as Burke. In these instances, the explanations have left me with more questions than answers.
When my father was still alive, he could figure out the meanings of words because of his knowledge of prefixes, suffixes and roots of words. He used to tell me that one of the most helpful things he was forced to learn in his high school English class was all the Latin and Greek prefixes, suffixes and roots. In part, this is why if I had to choose a favorite section of the book, it would be the chapter titled The Makings of 50,000 Words. In this chapter, I found a wonderful reference for the meanings of many Latin and Greek prefixes, suffixes, and words in their various incarnations. It's a quick reference. While you can find this information in a dictionary, they are listed alphabetically throughout the dictionary and not all together as they are in this book.
Once again, this chapter is divided into sections. In the Greek Words in English section, I discovered that the word "archeology" is comprised of a Greek word and a suffix. Arche means "beginning" while ology means "the study of". So, the word "archeology", not surprisingly, means "the study of the 'first' days" or "the study of origins." I also found the word "chronos" in this same section. Now, I'll admit that Funk's explanation for this word disappointed me because I know that Chronos was the Greek god of time. This is something I expected the author to mention, but he does not. I'm not sure why he doesn't, but the omition surprised me. That being said, I was amazed at just how many words utilize chronos as their roots: chronic, anachronism, synchronize, etc. The same can be said for arche.
If you don't want to browse through the book, which I do frequently because, well, I am a wordophile, you can use the very thorough index in the back to find a specific word. I warn you, though, hell is not in there. (grin) I looked. However, I think Funk focused more on words that had stories behind them that the average person may not be able to find without doing the extensive research that he obviously did. I found hell's origin in my American Oxford Dictionary. Funk did includ Heaven, though. Hm... I wonder why...
So, if you are like me and love the English language and are curious about its origins, Word Origins is an excellent place to begin and to end. While I may have found a few things that disappointed me, overall, I was glad to add this book to my library.
For other books Funk wrote, follow the links below:
30 Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary
Six Weeks to Words of Power
25 Magic Steps to Words of Power
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