The Secret Lives of Words - Hardcover

West, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0151004668 ISBN 13: 9780151004669

Publisher: Thomson Learning, 2000

Synopsis

We are often unaware of the unique and intriguing stories of the words we love. Thousands of our words have been so twisted, tangled, misused, and muddled over the centuries that their original meaning has been obscured. You'll be surprised to learn that table napkins were once made of and referred to as asbestos, that atom means uncuttable, that a cloud was once a hill, and that a companion is one who eats bread with you. Compiled over the years in his handwritten notebooks, acclaimed prose stylist Paul West offers us an album of treasures. The Secret Lives of Words is an "Antiques Road Show" of language, in which West chronicles the centuries-long travels of words across continents and through cultures. For word enthusiasts, speakers, writers, thinkers, and all readers, this volume recounting the intimate ancestry of language will enrich our understanding of and appreciation for the words we use every day.

About this title

Review:

Paul West delights in the vicissitudes of language, and his enthusiasm is exquisitely catching. West particularly loves a good etymology (and who, deep down, doesn't?) and he's dedicated this most recent of his 30-odd books to 500 or so of his favourite words and phrases, and the stories that go with them.

West tells a good tale, and he uses his gift to explain the derivation of words such as "Hottentot" and "humble pie", "patter", "conkers", and "nurdle". He starts with "abacus" and "ablative absolute" and works his magic alphabetically through his personal lexicon, ending with "zoot suit" and "zymurqist" (i.e. one who works with yeast, from the Greek zume for leaven, and urqist for worker, as in metallurgist). Along the way he provides definitions, usage and derivations for "snite" (to blow one's nose without a tissue or handkerchief) and "scranny" (nuts, crazy, as in "driven scranny", from the Yorkshire dialect) as well as more common words such as "leotard" (named after James Léotard, the 19th century French aerialist) and "decimate" (which means to kill one tenth of, despite common misusage, and comes from the Roman practice of killing one of 10 soldiers in times of mutiny). West's entry on "nun" explores the many food items containing that name--such as the Portuguese barriga de freira (nun's tummy) and the Neapolitan coscia de monaca (nun's thigh)--and his short essay on pumpernickel explains how (and why) the name derives from words meaning devil fart.

The Secret Lives of Words is selective instead of comprehensive, and therein lies some of its charm. It's informal. It's a taste. It's purely for the joy of the language. In his introduction, West reflects that, "Sadly, all words seem much the same to many people, like checkers, and they feel about them much as I do about Vivaldi's Four Seasons: all sound like Winter." Yet it's hard to imagine anyone skimming through the boondoggles and dead-cat bounces of The Secret Lives of Words and emerging without a joyous smirk and a hunger for more. --Stephanie Gold, Amazon.com

Review:

"His is one of the most original talents in American fiction."-The New York Times Book Review "Paul West is a writer splendidly attuned to history."-Walter Abish "A sorcerer of language."-Publishers Weekly "West is a master."-the Washington Post Book World

About this edition

• Publisher: Thomson Learning
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0151004668
• ISBN 13: 9780151004669
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304