Strange Bedfellows: The Private Lives of Words

by Howard Richler

Overview

The bawdy English language has never been overly concerned with purity, and this promiscuous proclivity has contributed to many alluring word histories. Words, like species, evolve, and particularly those words that have been in existence for many centuries have undergone major evolutions in meaning. When you read Strange Bedfellows: The Private Lives of Words, you will discover the unexpected. For example, why gossiping in church is etymologically proper, and that words such as "avocado" and "porcelain" have past associations with some of the nether regions of the body. As Richler reveals, the English language has slept around for centuries and in the process has been "contaminated" by many foreign influences. Composed of short chapters with each containing ten words from specific fields, Strange Bedfellows will surprise and delight the reader.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781553802785
Publisher:	Ronsdale Press
Publication date:	03/01/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	164
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Howard Richler is a longtime logophile who has served as a language columnist for several newspapers and magazines. He is the author of seven books on language including: The Dead Sea Scroll Palindromes (1995), Take My Words: A Wordaholic’s Guide to the English Language (1996), A Bawdy Language: How a Second-Rate Language Slept Its Way to the Top (1999), Global Mother Tongue: The Eight Flavours of English (2006), Can I Have a Word with You? (2007), Strange Bedfellows: The Private Lives of Words (2010), and most recently How Happy Became Homosexual: and Other Mysterious Semantic Shifts (2013). Richler resides in Montreal with his partner Carol and his wheaten terrier Molly, fascinated by the changes in both official languages.

Table of Contents

Introduction 9

Part I Words Stranger Than Fiction

Ten Words You Never Knew Came from Unmentionable Body Parts 13

Ten Words You Never Knew Came from Mentionable Body Parts 19

Ten Words You Never Knew Were Fart-or Fecal-Related 23

Ten Words You Never Knew Were Originally Insults 29

Two Dozen Words You Never Knew Came from Animals 37

Ten Words You Never Knew Came from Religion 51

Ten Words You Never Knew Came from the Military 57

Ten Words You Never Knew Came from Foods 63

Ten Words You Never Knew Came from Mythology 69

Ten Words You Never Knew Were Related to Death,Torture & Blood 75

Ten Words You Never Knew Came from Our Vices 81

Ten Words You Never Knew Came from People's Names 85

Part II Strange & Exotic Bedfellows of English

Ten Words You Never Knew Came from French 93

Ten Words You Never Knew Came from Yiddish/Hebrew 99

Ten Words You Never Knew Came from Arabic 105

Ten Words You Never Knew Came from Persian 111

Ten Words You Never Knew Came from India 117

Fifty-Five Words Whose Pedigree Will Delight and Amuse You 123

Bibliography 153

Index 157

About the Author 163

Editorial Reviews

"an etymological delight." — Concordia University Magazine; "one of the more delightful books to hit my desk this season. . . . It's a fascinating, informative, and engrossing book on a great number of words, their origin, original meaning, and for some of them, where the English language has stolen them from. It's also often amusing, and I find myself still—weeks after getting the book—dipping into it." — The Commentary, Interview; "Word nerds rejoice! . . . Howard Richler delivers another riotously funny and informative text." — Telegraph-Journal

From the Publisher