The Weird World of Words: A Guided Tour

The American English language is full of words that come from all over the world and this book finds some of the best ones. Lists of weird words, strange words, interesting sounding words, and everything in-between. This is an excellent book for anyone who needs to name a company, podcast, or product. It is a creative resource that will give you a tour of language that is entertaining and insightful. Plus, it will give you something to talk about at parties too!

For people who enjoy words and language (even English) this book is very entertaining. You don't have to read from the beginning; it's not that kind of book. Bits and pieces...odds and ends. This author has uncovered some truly amazing trivia... And if you need a good laugh there are some very funny "facts" inside. I have given two as gifts to a couple of teenagers I know who like writing stories; an imagination tickler. My mother, who needs one of those computer screen magnifiers in order to read, has my copy, and is getting a real kick out of some of the items in this little book. Yes, I would recommend it...in fact I'm going to order another one for myself, and let Mom keep the one I "loaned"her.

Many fun facts and things of interest here..........would just want more !

I checked this book out from the library and had so much fun reading it that I bought a copy. It's light and amusing, especially good to take on a trip or to bring if you want something to do while in a waiting room. A fun read for anyone who's into books on trivia.

There are lots of interesting trivia and humorous entries but, overall, it just left me a little flat.

Interesting book if you like reading and word trivia . I have enjoyed this book , it is perfect to put in a tote and glean info. while waiting in line.Fast Fun word facts!!!

I love books about language and interesting words and this book didn't disappointed. I have several books about words, but this book still had lots to offer and things that were new to me. It is really easy to flip through and read. Definitely one that I will keep on my book shelf and refer to often.

Fun book to read or share with others. My family laughed so hard. We really got a kick out of the humerous ways Symons made us rethink the English language. Very enjoyable.

stimulating, entertaining and insightful

words wise ok i was hoping to see more andrew pinder's illustration.

This book is interesting and informative as well. Being a logophile, I’d like to point out that: [1] ALMOST (p20) is not the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order. Cf: AEGILOPS, BILLOWY, ABHORS, BIOPSY. [2] Apart from QUEUEING (P62), another common word is COOEEING with five consecutive vowels. [3] There are many English words like- ARSENIOUS, CAESIOUS, ARTERIOUS.....where five vowels are in alphabetical order besides FACETIOUS & ABSTEMIOUS (p106). [4] UNCOPYRIGHTABLE (p19) is not the only 15-lettered word that can be spelled without repeating a letter. Cf: DERMATOGLYPHICS. [5] Apart from UNPROSPEROUSNESS (p106), there is a word ESOPHAGOGRAPHERS in which no letter occurs only once. [6] Not only Hijinks(P107), there are words like Fijian, Gaijin also found with 3 dotted letters in a row. [7] The word PRINCES, plural of princess as mentioned in p-107 is found nowhere! [8] –GRY words (p147) like HUNGRY & ANGRY has recently befriended with HANGRY. [9] Apart from STEWARDESSES (P19), English language welcomed many words those are typed with only the left hand. Cf: TESSERADECADES[=group of fourteen], DESEGREGATED, REVERBERATED. I’d also like to add that: (a) Some beautiful words like MALAYALAM, TATTARRATTAT ( longest palindromic word in English language, coined by James Joyce) are missing in Palindromes (p54). (b) Apart from EWE & YOU (p108), EYE & I is another such pair. (c) We have words like CHOWCHOW, LAVALAVA, COUSCOUS etc where letters occur twice (cf: p20). (d) In connection with 180° rotational symmetry word (p106), ZOONOSIS has not been mentioned. (e) Apart from OTTO, MAAM (p184), the commonly used word NOON should have been included. (f) ‘ The word thug comes from the Hindu word thag’ [sic] has been stated at page 168. The correct expression should be Hindi/Marathi word instead of Hindu word. (g) Not only Bulgarians (p166) our very own South Indians also shaking their heads from side to side to mean yes & nodding up and down to express no!

英語の語彙に関する意外なそして不思議な話に満ちあふれた本である。ワープロで左手だけで打てる最も長い語はstewardesses, アルファベット順に綴れる最も長い語はalmost, 人体の10の部位は3文字からなる：eye, hip, arm, leg, ear, toe, jaw, rib, lip, gum,など興味がつかない。in-は否定接頭辞で形容詞の原形についてマイナスの意味を表す。常識的に考えて原形の方が否定辞のついた派生形より頻度が高いと思われるが、そうでない場合もあるという。たとえば、inadvertent / advertent。念のためコーパスチェックをしてみると、COCAではinadvertent 591/advertent 4, BNCではinadvertent 76/ advertent 0であった。 どの頁からでも読める楽しい本である。かなりの英語語彙力を要求されるページもある。知的好奇心旺盛な方にお勧めする。

if you enjoy word play and much more. this is fantastic!