Interesting and funny | Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends

Linguistic Urban Legends Debunked | Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends | David Wilton

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	• Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends David Wilton Oxford University Press, USA, 2004 - 240 pages average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A lively read

Wilton has a lively writing style, his research is impeccable, and his choice of topics is interesting. I particularly liked the article on which the clever cover is based. He is the author also of A Way With Words, an electronic newsletter that presents linguistic facts and debunks factoids, a word probably related to truthiness, a recent entry.

Interesting and funny

It is rare for a book about language to be both informative and entertaining. This is a light read, with content broken up into easily-digested bites, yet it manages to be smart and instructive. Some of the myths in the book are ones I've heard debunked before, but it was still worthwhile to read about them because Wilton provided details and documentation...and best of all, he takes a subject that many people find stuffy and dry, and makes it fun.
Some readers may be irritated by the dead-end etymologies. Personally, I appreciate honest scholars. Wilton acknowledges that it is sometimes impossible to be certain of a word's etymology, and refuses to state "likely" or "probable" origins of words or phrases as fact.

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Linguistic Urban Legends Debunked

Have you heard that Eskimos have 500 words for "snow"? What does the international distress signal "SOS" mean? Do you know what an "aptronym" is? Have you noticed that some nautical enthusiasts attribute a maritime origin to nearly every word or phrase? This observation prompted one participant of an online discussion group to use the acronym "CANOE" to mean the "Conspiracy to Attribute Nautical Origins to Everything"! You'll discover that many etymologies you thought you "knew," you really didn't know at all. This little 200-page book was just great fun and most enlightening to read. I've referred to it often in my university communication classes -- a great resource for anyone interested in the origins and use of English words and phrases -- well researched and well written. Kudos to author David Wilton!

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Do you "know" that posh comes from an acronym meaning "port out, starboard home"? That "the whole nine yards" comes from (pick one) the length of a WWII gunner's belt; the amount of fabric needed to make a kilt; a sarcastic football expression? That Chicago is called "The Windy City" because of the bloviating habits of its politicians, and not the breeze off the lake?
If so, you need this book. David Wilton debunks the most persistently wrong word histories, and gives, to the best of our actual knowledge, the real stories behind these perennially mis-etymologized words.
In addition, he explains why these wrong stories are created, disseminated, and persist, even after being corrected time and time again. What makes us cling to these stories, when the truth behind these words and phrases is available, for the most part, at any library or on the Internet?
Arranged by chapters, this book avoids a dry A-Z format. Chapters separate misetymologies by kind, including The Perils of Political Correctness (picnics have nothing to do with lynchings), Posh, Phat Pommies (the problems of bacronyming--the desire to make every word into an acronym), and CANOE (which stands for the Conspiracy to Attribute Nautical Origins to Everything).
Word Myths corrects long-held and far-flung examples of wrong etymologies, without taking the fun out of etymology itself. It's the best of both worlds: not only do you learn the many wrong stories behind these words, you also learn why and how they are created--and what the real story is.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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