A History of English in Its Own Words

English is perhaps the richest of the European languages, with a wealth of words deriving from many other tongues. In A History of English in Its Own Words, author Craig M. Carver traces the history of more than 750 words in order of their entrance into the English language, thus unfolding the intriguing story of culture from which the language arose. The words are organized chronologically in six chapters that correspond to broad historical periods in the development of English: Old English (Anglo-Saxon), Middle English (Chaucer), Early Modern English (the Renaissance and Shakespeare), English of the new middle class (the Industrial Revolution and the Victorians), American English, and twentieth-century English.Each chapter opens with an overview of the period it covers, but the histories of the individual words give the most insight into the life and times of the language. Peppered with odd anecdotes and historical facts, the entries explain how particular words were introduced and how their meanings have evolved and changed over time.A History of English in Its Own Words is an entertaining view of the English language and its speakers that will appeal not only to etymologists and philologists, but to anyone curious about the surprising origins of everyday words.