Another Word A Day: An All-New Romp through Some of the Most Unusual and Intriguing Words in English

241 Pages·2005·1.94 MB·English

by  Anu Garg

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Another
Word A Day
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Also by Anu Garg
A Word A Day:A Romp through Some of the Most
Unusual and Intriguing Words in English
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Another
Word A Day
An All-New Romp
through Some of the Most
Unusual and Intriguing
Words in English
Anu Garg
John Wiley & Sons,Inc.
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Copyright © 2005 by Anu Garg.All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley & Sons,Inc.,Hoboken,New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
Composition by Navta Associates,Inc.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Garg,Anu.
Another word a day :an all-new romp through some of the most unusual and intriguing
words in English / Anu Garg.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 13 978-0-471-71845-1 (pbk.)
ISBN 10 0-471-71845-9 (pbk.)
ISBN 13 978-0-471-77878-3 (cloth)
ISBN 10 0-471-77878-8 (cloth)
1. Vocabulary. 2. English language—Glossaries,vocabularies,etc. I. Title.
PE1449.G3345 2006
428.1—dc22 2005004284
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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All words are pegs to hang ideas on.
—HENRY WARD BEECHER
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Contents
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
1 Words to Describe People I 5
opsimath ● agelast ● losel ● nebbish ● cruciverbalist
2 Earls Who Became Words
(or Places That Became Words) 9
orrery ● cadogan ● Oxfordian ● derby ●Yarborough
3 Words Having Origins in Chess 14
zugzwang ● checkmate ● gambit ● stalemate ● endgame
4 Words That Appear to Be Misspellings of
Everyday Words I 18
passible ● monestrous ● cloture ● nutriment ● assoil
5 Archaic Words 21
clepe ● sennight ● anon ● gainsay ● hearken
6 Toponyms 24
Chautauqua ● Pax Romana ● Gibraltar ● seltzer ●
Kilkenny cats
vii
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viii CONTENTS
7 Words about Books and Writing 28
roman à clef ● orihon ● amphigory ● conspectus ● magnum opus
8 Words Borrowed from Yiddish 31
chutzpah ● mensch ● zaftig ● kvetch ● schlep
9 Terms from the World of Law 36
estoppel ● laches ● solatium ● sui juris ● mittimus
10 Words That Appear to Be Misspellings of Everyday
Words II 40
eagre ● imprest ● endue ● biennial ● quacksalver
11 Words Borrowed from Arabic 44
alembic ● nadir ● jihad ● houri ● talisman
12 Words Formed Erroneously 48
niddering ● obsidian ● helpmeet ● zenith ● derring-do
13 What’s in a Name? 52
randy ● tony ● ted ● bobby ● brad
14 Words from Poetry 56
cataract ● dreary ● nosegay ● collyrium ● tarry
15 Fishy Words 61
minnow ● gudgeon ● remora ● inconnu ● tope
16 Discover the Theme I 66
ubiety ● irade ● ambit ● estival ● lanate
17 Terms Employing Various Nationalities 71
French leave ● Chinese wall ● Roman holiday ● Irish bull ●
Dutch auction
18 Words with Double Connections 75
diplopia ● double entendre ● ambsace ● satchel ● doppelgänger
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CONTENTS ix
19 Words Related to the Calendar 79
ides ● bissextile ● Greek calends ● menology ● fin de siècle
20 False Friends 83
sacrilegious ● scission ● oust ● impregnable ● mellifluous
21 Red-Herring Words 87
undulate ● fartlek ● conversant ● assize ● valorize
22 Words Related to the Human Body 90
nares ● oxter ● pollex ● nevus ● glossal
23 Words Related to Buying and Selling 93
emptor ● nummary ● duopoly ● monopsony ● chandler
24 Miscellaneous Words 98
astrobleme ● pudency ● aporia ● remontant ● loricate
25 Words That Have Changed Meaning with Time 101
demagogue ● decimate ● feisty ● egregious ● officious
26 Words about Words 107
hapax legomenon ● metaphor ● vulgat ● hyperbole ●
metaplasm
27 Anglo-Saxon Words 111
meed ● fen ● lief ● fain ● wight
28 Words Borrowed from Other Languages 115
cumshaw ● smorgasbord ● baksheesh ● taboo ● honcho
29 Words from Medicine 118
sequela ● nosology ● idiopathy ● placebo ● nyctalopia
30 Numeric Terms 123
sixty-four-dollar question ● eighty-six ● twenty-twenty ●
deep-six ● catch-22