| Title | : | The Hidden History of Coined Words |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0190466766 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780190466763 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 392 |
| Publication | : | First published March 1, 2021 |
He also finds some fascinating patterns, such as that successful neologisms are as likely to be created by chance as by design. A remarkable number of new words were coined whimsically, originally intended to troll or taunt. Knickers, for example, resulted from a hoax; big bang from an insult. Casual wisecracking produced software, crowdsource, and blog. More than a few resulted from happy accidents, such as typos, mistranslations, and mishearing (bigly and buttonhole), or from being taken entirely out of context (robotics). Neologizers (a Thomas Jefferson coinage) include not just scholars and writers but cartoonists, columnists, children's book authors. Wimp originated with a book series, as did goop, and nerd from a book by Dr. Seuss. Coinages are often contested, controversy swirling around such terms as gonzo, mojo, and booty call. Keyes considers all contenders, while also leading us through the fray between new word partisans, and those who resist them strenuously. He concludes with advice about how to make your own successful coinage.
The Hidden History of Coined Words will appeal not just to word mavens but history buffs, trivia contesters, and anyone who loves the immersive power of language.
The Hidden History of Coined Words Reviews
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Delightful look at coined words
I loved this book. The writing is excellent and the book was hard to put down. I especially liked that Ralph Keyes gives great backgrounds to the coined words, including historical context. There is enough detail to understand the context, but never too much, so the book never gets bogged down. I also enjoyed the art in the book that gave additional context. If I had to compare this book to any other that I’ve read about the English language, it would be Dreyer’s English, which I also loved. I strongly recommend this book for people interested in learning more about the English language. Thank you to Edelweiss and Oxford University Press for the advance reader copy. -
One presumes that those who read care about words. Certainly those who write do - or ought to; I once encountered online a character who claimed to be a writer, but insisted that what he meant in a particular instance was the exact opposite of what he'd actually written. I both read and write, even if the writing is only posts on MeWe and reviews on Goodreads, and I certainly do care about words. I endorse Nero Wolfe's contention that "infer" and "imply" are not interchangeable, and I love reading William F. Buckley even when he's not talking politics, because of the way he uses words.
Naturally, in light of all this, when I saw this book on a table at the library I had to check it out. And Keyes does an admirable job. I would quarrel with some of the things he treats as coined words - using an extant word in a different way isn't inventing a new word. And his egregious, unnecessary, and self-conscious insertion of anti-Trump politics is embarrassing. But I don't expect fallible people to produce infallible books - only God can do that, and He's already done it - so I eat the fish and leave the bones.
Keyes is a good writer, which those who produce such books aren't always. Academics unlearn, somewhere along the line, plain English, and learn the clotted jargon of their professions, and most of them ever after can only speak that jargon, to the confusion of their readers and the obfuscation of anything useful they might have to say. Keyes eschews such jargon, and indeed inveighs against it briefly at one point. He understands that if people are going to read what he writes, he has to make it readable - and that he does, admirably so. -
Normally, I would love books like this. But this one was poorly laid out and not enjoyable.
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Was there ever a book so learned, and so entertaining? Never, in my view. Ralph Keyes has opened my eyes to hundreds of words that I use, or at least recognize, without ever thinking of them as inventions. But coined they were. Do you want to know where munchkin came from, and bunkum, mugwump, Saran Wrap, serendipity, world music and dipstick? I do.
It helps that Keyes is such a deft writer, and how many words delight him. What fun he has in this scholarly tome. Take this passage on why z is such a seductive letter: “I think it has something to do with the buzzing-bee-ness of its harmonics. The ear appeal of this letter is especially evident when words with z’s are spoken aloud: jazz, razz, fizzle, dazzle, razzledazzle, snazzy, tizzy, wazoo, zig-zag, zap, zip, zipper, zing, zoom, and zounds. Get some zzzzz’s. Amazon. Zuit suit. Shazam! Such words have pizzazz. They’ve got razzamatazz.”
Here are 260 pages of quite dense text, followed by 130 more of bibliography, notes and index. It’s stunning, the research that went into this book. And when the main chapters ended, all I wanted was more. -
How to take a fascinating subject and make it totally dull. This book has no arc and no style. It's just a tedious compendium of anecodotes and half-baked musings on the subject named in the title. It goes nowhere, nowhere near fast enough.
According to the concluding section, to which I jumped forward after about 70 pages of boredom, the "central theme" of the book is "the unpredictability of word coinage". So there you have it: you can't predict what words will get coined or what coinages will catch on. Now you can skip the book. -
Mentioned in this episode of The Intelligence:
https://pca.st/iegoplwp#t=1095
That link will take you to the start of the segment, a clip of Malcolm Tucker's first use of "omnishambles"... highly listenable! -
A joy to read. I am going to become a prolific neologizer via my stand up act.
