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missmiow's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
3.25
As someone who studied both Latin and ancient Greek in university, this book was rather fun. It made me want to dive back into the world of ancient languages and linguistics in general. If you like history or have a fascination with the origins of certain words, this book is for you.
brampton's review
2.0
I was so looking forward to this when I read the title and the blurb. Sadly it didn't live up to expectations. After a few chapters it was a bit like reading the dictionary, but not quite as well organised. Footnotes appeared at random and seemed to have little to do with the text they were attached to. As topics recurred in the various sections it became a bit repetitive. The jokes were mildly amusing, and gave the impression that they've gone down very well in classrooms for many years. Mr Jones is obviously very well read, but I found this format too disjointed and a chore to plough on to the end.
paul_cloutier's review
3.0
Super fun concept and lots of great insights but kind of more of a dictionary/encyclopedia. It’s formatted by word and feels like it could have had a little more narrative flow. But still learned a lot of interesting roots of words and how English got this way.
abanym's review against another edition
5.0
I personally liked this book as it reminded me of those days when I used to read dictionaries. But this was even more fun with the historical anecdotes and the author’s witty remarks. This made me look at English in a different light and learning how it developed over the centuries was intriguing. How some words were completely different from what they used to be before, to how a lot of factors contributed to make them what they’re called today; this just kept me asking for more eccentric stories.
I want to learn Latin even more now.
I want to learn Latin even more now.
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