The Penguin Book of Exotic WordsPenguin Books, 1996 - 159 sider The unusually rich vocabulary of the English language is the result of new words from all over the world being freely assimilated. House, man, bread, and speak, among our most basic words, arrived with the Saxons, while the Vikings added law, egg, sister, and sky. From the 11th century onwards, new vocabulary was introduced from France and from classical Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Traders, explorers, and settlers enriched the English language further with words like alcohol, sofa, and candy from Arabic, canoe from Arawakan, and curry, shampoo, bungalow, and dungaree from the Indian subcontinent. All these and many other words are collected here. As well as exploring their often exotic source, there are also famous, unusual, or funny examples of their use, with entries arranged thematically. For anyone interested in the extraordinary richness of the English language, this highly original reference work is a must. |
Vanlige uttrykk og setninger
African Ages American Anatomy of Melancholy ancient animal apparently Arabic Australia become bird Britain British called chiefly China cloth comes commented course creature described Dictionary drink Dutch early East England English Europe European existed expression fact familiar figuratively French gave German given goes Greek hand Hindi horse idea important India instance invented Irish island Italian Italy Johnson kind King known language late later Latin less lived mean meant medieval Middle military natural nineteenth century North one's originally particularly Penguin perhaps Persian person plant Portuguese probably reached recently recorded referred rhyme Roman seems sense seventeenth century sixteenth century someone sort South Spanish speak spelling suggests term things thought travellers tree turn usually various verb West wind word write wrote