Words and etymology books
Words and etymology books to start from. Open one to see books like it, or tell BookSense what you loved for four picks made for you.
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New to the genre? These 5 are the books to read first.
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Raymond WilliamsShort essays on loaded words like culture and class, showing how their meanings shifted with social history.
Words from the Myths
Isaac AsimovTraces English words back to Greek and Roman myths, with the stories that explain them.
Words of Science, and the History Behind Them
Isaac AsimovExplains the origins of scientific terms, many coined from Greek and Latin roots.
Word Origins and Their Romantic Stories
Wilfred John FunkAn early popular collection of anecdotal word histories, typical of its era's approach to etymology.
A Sanskrit-English Dictionary
Monier Monier-WilliamsA long-standing reference dictionary for Sanskrit, used by generations of scholars of Indo-European languages.
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- The Latin Cognomina
The Latin CognominaIiro Kajanto - The Surgeon of Crowthorne
The Surgeon of CrowthorneSimon Winchester - Wisdom Sits in Places
Wisdom Sits in PlacesKeith H. Basso - What Language Is
What Language IsJohn H. McWhorter - Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue
Our Magnificent Bastard TongueJohn McWhorter - The Etymologicon
The EtymologiconMark Forsyth - Wordslut
WordslutAmanda Montell - The Murder of Reality: Hidden Symbolism of the Dragon
The Murder of Reality: Hidden Symbolism of the DragonPierre Sabak2010 - The White Goddess
The White GoddessRobert Graves1920 - S/He
S/HeMinnie Bruce Pratt1995 - Etymological Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew
Etymological Dictionary of Biblical HebrewSamson Raphael Hirsch2000 - Harper's English grammar
Harper's English grammarJohn B. Opdycke1941