Ologies and Isms: A Dictionary of Word Beginnings and Endings (Oxford Paperback Reference) - Softcover

Quinion, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0192806408 ISBN 13: 9780192806406

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2005

Synopsis

Aquaculture? Haemophilia? Isochronous? Neuralgia? Polyunsaturated? Rodenticide? How often do we see a technical word without quite knowing what it means? If we can decipher it - undo its language code - we can start to understand others of a similar kind. For example, if we know that words beginning with aqua are to do with water, then we are half way to understanding the word aquaculture. Ologies and Isms is about the building blocks of the English language - the beginnings and endings, and sometimes the middles - that help form or adapt many of the words we use. Whether you're a student or a practitioner, a teacher of English, an inveterate word-user, or just a seeker-out of linguistic trifles, Ologies and Isms will help you understand better the language of your workplace and the world around you.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Quinion has had a varied career, including BBC studio manager and producer in radio, heritage interpreter, freelance audio-visual scriptwriter and producer, museum curator, tourism consultant, and computer software writer. He has been a freelance researcher for the Oxford English Dictionary since 1992, focussing particularly on new words, and is now also a technical consultant for it. He contributed about a third of the entries to the Second Edition of the Oxford Dictionary of New Words.

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0192806408
• ISBN 13: 9780192806406
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288