A Word A Day: A Romp through Some of the Most Unusual and Intriguing Words in English - Softcover

Garg, Anu; Garg, Suti

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0471230324 ISBN 13: 9780471230328

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 2002

Synopsis

Anu Garg's many readers await their A Word A Day rations hungrily. Now at last here's a feast for them and other verbivores. Eat up! -Barbara Wallraff Senior Editor at The Atlantic Monthly and author of Word Court Praise for A Word a Day ""AWADies will be familiar with Anu Garg's refreshing approach to words: words are fun and they have fascinating histories. The people who use them have curious stories to tell too, and this collection incorporates some of the correspondence received by the editors at the AWAD site, from advice on how to outsmart your opponent in a duel (or even a truel) to a cluster of your favorite mondegreens."" -John Simpson, Chief Editor, Oxford English Dictionary ""A banquet of words! Feast and be nourished!"" -Richard Lederer, author of The Miracle of Language Written by the founder of the wildly popular A Word A Day Web site (wordsmith.org), this collection of unusual, obscure, and exotic English words will delight writers, scholars, crossword puzzlers, and word buffs of every ilk. The words are grouped in intriguing categories that range from ""Portmanteaux"" to ""Words That Make the Spell-Checker Ineffective."" each entry includes a concise definition, etymology, and usage example-and many feature fascinating and hilarious commentaries by A Word A Day subscribers and the authors.

About this title

Review

"Anu and Stuti Garg?s many readers await their A Word A Day rations hungrily. Now at last here′s a feast for them and other verbivores. Eat up!" Barbara Wallraff, senior editor at The Atlantic Monthly and authors of Word Court

"AWADies will be familiar with Anu and Stuti Garg?s refreshing approach to words: words are fun and they have fascinating histories. The people who use them have curious stories to tell too, and this collection incorporates some of the correspondence received by the editors at the AWAD site, from advice on how to outsmart your opponent in a duel (or even a truel), to a cluster of your favorite mondegreens." John Simpson, Chief Editor, Oxford English Dictionary

"A banquet of words! Feast and be nourished!" Richard Lederer, author of The Miracle of Language

Synopsis

This is a romp through more than 250 obscure, abstruse, wacky, and wonderful words from the founders of the world's no. 1 word-lovers' Web site. Written by the founders of the wildly popular A Word A Day Web site and daily e-mail (500,000 subscribers, worldwide), this collection of unusual, obscure, and exotic English words is a must-have for writers, scholars, crossword puzzlers, and word buffs of every ilk. Like their e-mails, the book is organized around weekly themes and offers readers a different word for each day of the week in categories ranging from "Portmanteaux" to "Words That Make Spell-Checker Ineffective." Each entry includes a concise definition, etymology, and usage example, and many entries feature fascinating and amusing commentaries by A.W.A.D. subscribers and the authors. Representing fifty-five weeks worth of words, the 273 words compiled in "A Word A Day" includes some of the most popular weekly themes that have appeared on the Web site since its founding in 1994.

Edition details

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0471230324
• ISBN 13: 9780471230328
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 224