The Cabinet of Linguistic Curiosities: A Yearbook of Forgotten Words

By Paul Anthony Jones

The ultimate gift for wordsmiths and lovers of language: a word for every day of the year

Open the Cabinet to leap back in time, learn about linguistic trivia, follow a curious thread or wonder at the web of connections in the English language.

1 January quaaltagh (n.) the first person you meet on New Year's Day

1 April dorbellist (n.) a fool, a dull-witted dolt

12 May word-grubber (n.) someone who uses obscure or difficult words in everyday conversation

25 September theic (adj.) an excessive drinker of tea

24 December doniferous (adj.) carrying a gift

Paul Anthony Jones has unearthed a wealth of strange and forgotten words: illuminating some aspect of the day, or simply telling a cracking good yarn, each reveals a story. Written with a light touch that belies the depth of research it contains, this is both a fascinating compendium of etymology and a captivating historical miscellany. Dip into this beautiful book to be delighted and intrigued throughout the year.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elliott & Thompson
• Release date: Oct 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9781783963591

Reviews for The Cabinet of Linguistic Curiosities

[pdcread · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The English language has a huge number of words; there are over 170,00 words in current use and over 45,000 words that are now considered obsolete. As the average person in the street has a vocabulary of around 20,000–35,000 words meaning for almost everyone there is a whole world of undiscovered words and their meanings for us to discover. One man who is aiming to unlock this Cabinet of Linguistic Curiosities for us all is Paul Anthony Jones. He is the man behind Haggard Hawks, another wonderful place for everything wordy and some fiendishly difficult anagrams, and boy has he found some corkers in this book.

Some words here will make you smile, some will make you wince, but this is a cabinet full of precious treasure, an etymological gold mine. It is a labyrinth as one word leads to another and yet another word loops back past. We will learn the origins and root of words like viaticated, something that you will need to be for this journey, when you’ll need a paragrandine, just what the noise is that the word mrkgnao describes. Whilst all of this may seem mysterifical, you will start to become someone who could be called a sebastianist as you uncover this etmological Wunderkammer. You will learn how long a smoot is, when you need to scurryfunge a house, and just what a yule-hole is and at the end of all that you’ll either be a word-grubber or be in need of a potmeal

Not only is this a book for those that love all things about the English language, Paul Anthony Jones has written a book for the general reader too. Each day of the year has been given a unique word, that is either relevant for that day, or is picking up on the threads earlier in the year. There is a little history behind the word and often more in the text as I can imagine that this could have been twice the size. The first word I looked up was my birthday, as I guess that most people will do, followed by family members and other significant dates. Thankfully it is very readable and can be dipped into as and when you want to. It is great follow up to the Accidental Dictionary and I will be reading his other books, Word Drops, when I can squeeze it in.

[pardamustang · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Linguistics is fascinating, even if it's not my area of expertise in anthropology. As a writer and poet, I love language and playing with words! Learning words lost to time is fun, and Jones' A Cabinet of Linguistic Curiosities didn't disappoint. There's a word for each day of the year, with a bit about how it entered the language, and a little trivia story that applies to said word. I learned so many new words, now squirreled away for later use in my own writing. I loved learning the bits of history too. So many things I didn't know. Sometimes it can be quite humbling to think about the weight of time and history, of all that's come before, and faded into obscurity. To think, some day linguists, and other curious folk will be looking back on our time, pondering words lost, or mutated, conjuring images of an era long lost with snapshots of history. Among the words I learned were esculate, esculation, and luscition, all of which refer to closing or blinding an eye, or being purblind. I'm missing an eye, so these were all very relevant. The story accompanying esculate is an apocryphal legend about the famous Admiral Nelson putting a telescope to his blind eye and saying he didn't see the signal to retreat. Then there was arsefeet, a colloquial term used to describe a penguin. Agerasia refers to looking younger than actual age. That trivia bite discussed the first use of the abbreviation OMG. It was 1917. Wow!This book is perfect for word lovers, and those who enjoy trivia! Well worth the read. ***Many thanks to the Netgalley & University of Chicago Press for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

[pomo58 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Cabinet of Linguistic Curiosities: A Yearbook of Forgotten Words from Paul Anthony Jones is a word-lover's delight. It can be read in one of several ways and think it would work any of them.This is set up to give an obscure word and an etymological story every day for a year (a leap year at that). While that would certainly be a great way to utilize the book, I chose a different way. If I were going to do one entry a day I would consider reading the one page in the morning upon waking, I think it would energize your mind and get you thinking for the day. In my case, if I read it at night as I imagine is common, I can imagine it keeping me awake because I would be thinking about it.Another way to read it is simply as a book with 366 very short chapters. Since each "chapter" is independent from the others I would think, if you're actively reading and engaging with it, you'll read only a few dozen a day so you can ponder the words and stories. This isn't a book that should be speed read unless one just wants to say "I read it in a day." But since pretty much any book can be read in a day, what is the point?The way I chose was to read it as I would a collection of essays or short stories. I usually have a couple novels and a couple single topic nonfiction books I read at a time. To fill in the times when I just have a few minutes and don't want to get back into one of those longer reads, I keep a book of essays and/or short stories at hand. This provides short self-contained items for me to read when I don't have time to get back into a longer work. At only one page per entry, this is ideal for that kind of use. Especially since each one tended to make me think about the word and/or the story and when I went back to whatever I was doing I had something to think about.I highly recommend this to anyone who genuinely likes words and their origins and not just for the sake of saying "I love words." There isn't really anything to dislike here and a lot to pique one's curiosity.Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[atticusfinch1048 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Cabinet of Linguistic Curiosities – For the Word NerdsPaul Anthony Jones, the ultimate word nerd, has published a new series of obscure and old words to use over the year. The Cabinet of Linguistic Curiosities really does do what it says on the jacket, it is a yearbook of forgotten words. This book will take you on a journey across history to forgotten and under used words, one for every day of the year.I am sure that anyone who receives this book will automatically look to their birthday, I know I did, and it is mountweazel. I will have to remember to use the idea of mountweazel in my reviews and other writings. For Christmas day the word is yule-hole and I will certainly have to do that after my Christmas dinner, as usual and I am sure many others will too.What the reader will enjoy about this book, besides the nerdiness, is the ability to dip in and out of the book, without feeling guilty. It is one thing about all of Paul Anthony Jones’ previous books, is they are enjoyable, and you are able to dip in and out of those too.This is a book for those of us who would like to be real word nerds, and I am sure when I play scrabble, some of these words will reappear.

[veronica.sparrow · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I love reading random facts. I also have a fascination with the English language. The Cabinet of Linguistic Curiosities is filled with forgotten words which lead to an explanation of the origin of the words themselves. There is an entry for every day of the year. I actually read this as a book which I definitely do not recommend as it gets a bit dry but reading one entry per corresponding day would be a lot of fun. I am actually reading it again that way. It would definitely be a fun and welcome present for anyone who likes random facts and learning about obscure words.

[beammey · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

*I was given an ARC of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*

This book is so fun! I ended up devouring it and can't wait to use some of these words in my daily life. The stories behind some of the words is so entertaining and I found myself laughing sometimes. I learned so much. What a great resource, and so fun too. I would recommend this to anyone. 5 out of 5 stars.