A POTPOURRI OF BOOKS FOR LINGUAPHILES

Bierce, A. “The Devil’s Dictionary", 1993. (var. editions; available on-line).

Black, D. “Spoonerisms Sycophants and Sops”, 1988. (Harper and Row).

Byrne, J. “Mrs. Byrne’s Dictionary", 1974. (University Books).

Bryson, B. “Made in America”, 1994. (Avon).

Bryson, B. “The Mother Tongue”.

Buckley Jr., WF. “The Lexicon”, 1998. (Harcourt and Brace).

Ciardi, J. “Good Words To You”, 1987. (Harper and Row).

Dickson, P. “Words”, 1982. (Delacorte).

Feldman, D. "Who Put the Butter in Butterfly?", 1989. (Harper and Row).

Ehrlich, E. “Amo, Amas, Amat, and More", 1985.  (Harper and Row).

Ehrlich, E. “You’ve Got Ketchup on Your Muumuu”, 2000. (Henry Holt and Co.).

Elster, C. “There’s a Word for It! ”, 1996. (Pocket).

Espy, W. “An Almanac of Words at Play”, 1975. (Clarkson N. Potter).

Espy, W. “Another Almanac of Words at Play”, 1980. (Clarkson N. Potter).

Gordon, K. “The Disheveled Dictionary”, 1997. (Houghton Mifflin).

Grambs, D. “The Endangered English Dictionary", 1997. (WW Norton and Co.).

Hale, C. “Sin and Syntax", 1999. (Broadway Books).

Hook, J.N. “The Grand Panjandrum", 1991. (Collier).

Lederer, R. “Crazy English", 1990. (Pocket).

LeMay, H. Lerner, S., and Taylor, M. “New Words Dictionary", 1985 (Ballantine).

Lipton, J. “An Exhaltation of Larks", 1968. (Grossman).

McCrum, R., Cran, W., and MacNeil, R. “The Story of English", 1992. (Penguin).

McKean, E. (Ed.). “Weird and Wonderful Words", 2003. (Oxford).

Metcalf, A. “Predicting New Words", 2002. (Houghton Mifflin).

Morris, E. “The Word Detective", 2001. (Plume).

Novobatzky, P. and Shea, A. “Depraved and Insulting English”, 2001. (Harcourt).

Nunberg, G. “The Way We Talk Now”, 2001. (Houghton Mifflin).

Onions, CT (Ed.). “The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology”, 1966. (Oxford).

Rocke, R. “The Grandiloquent Dictionary”, 1972. (Prentice-Hall). Please note: this is NOT the same as the online Grandiloquent Dictionary.

Safire, W. “Watching My Language”, 1997. (Random House).

Sheidlower, J. "Jesse's Word of the Day: From Abacinate to Yonic", (19??); out of print but available thru Amazon.com.

Shipley, J. “In Praise of English", 1977. (Times Books).

Syatt, D. “Like We Say Back Home", 1980. (Citadel).

Train, J. “Remarkable Words with Astonishing Origins", 1980. (Clarkson N. Potter).

Urdang, L. (Ed.). “Misunderstood, Misused, Mispronounced Words", 1972. (Weathervane).

Webber, E. and Feinsilber, M. “Merriam Webster’s Dictionary of Allusions”, 1999. (Merriam Webster).

Webster’s New International Dictionary, “Picturesque Word Origins, 1933. (G&C Merriam Company).