The Illustrated Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language

By Mark Forsyth

A NEW, BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED EDITION OF THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER, PUBLISHED ON ITS TENTH ANNIVERSARY.

'Witty and erudite ... stuffed with the kind of arcane information that nobody strictly needs to know, but which is a pleasure to learn nonetheless.' Nick Duerden, Independent.

'Particularly good ... Forsyth takes words and draws us into their, and our, murky history.' William Leith, Evening Standard.
The Etymologicon is an occasionally ribald, frequently witty and unerringly erudite guided tour of the secret labyrinth that lurks beneath the English language.

What is the actual connection between disgruntled and gruntled? What links church organs to organised crime, California to the Caliphate, or brackets to codpieces?

Mark Forsyth's riotous celebration of the idiosyncratic and sometimes absurd connections between words is a classic of its kind: a mine of fascinating information and a must-read for word-lovers everywhere.
'Highly recommended' Spectator

• Language: English
• Publisher: Icon Books
• Release date: Nov 4, 2021
• ISBN: 9781785788758

Book preview

Reviews for The Illustrated Etymologicon

[qaphsiel-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An utterly delightful and whimsical book that any appreciator of language and its history is sure to love.

[kropferama · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Amazing book that brings life to language. Forsyth is a talented writer combining the story of history and language together in one highly entertaining read. (I found I kept wanting to share passages with anyone around me). Language is clearly alive and as the author says its almost impossible to know where a word has come from and where its going. The very act of speaking and writing is laden with history. Read this book.

[kevn57-163679 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Fast paced and fun stroll through the origins of words in the English language.

[tobinelliott · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a completely enjoyable stroll through the origins of hundreds of words, told in a conversational style, with lots of personality and wit.

Seriously, what's not to love about this?

And, as an added bonus, every time I go to some insipid party where they have the inevitable pumpernickel and spinach dip, I can tell everyone that "pumpernickel" originally meant "the devil's fart," and it doesn't get any better than that.

[riida_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

this is a very difficult book to describe...although the subtitle really says it all: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language. The author starts with the word 'book', describes its etymology and developmental history, and meanders his way (in that typical british fashion) into how it etymologically relates to other seemingly unrelated words, and so on, and so forth...and before you know it, he's filled an entire book's worth of trivia you didnt know you didnt know.mostly, i find it difficult to describe because i cannot remember any of it...well, two things stuck with me:1. butterflies are so named because their poo is yellow, like butter (i dont know why of all the interesting facts in this book, this is the one i did not forget)2. Buffalo is not just a name for the bovines, its also a name for a handful of north american towns. It also previously meant the verb 'to bully' or 'bullies'. Which means that this sentence makes sense somehow:"Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo"Very fun read :)

[paul_s-289480 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Light and funny, it's a bit like meaning of liff except with real words and it's about their etymologies... OK, it's nothing like the meaning of liff. I liked it and was amused by it but not in any thoughtful way.

[arewenotben · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very readable journey through the meanings of words in the English Language. Forsyth has a very breezy writing style and the short sections makes this one to easily get through.

Some fascinating tales, love how rich the English Language is - bastardised from countless languages whether it be through mishearings, mispronunciations, evolution through time or just plain stealing.

[geoffsc-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I used this as my waiting room book. You can pick it up any time, read as much or alittle as you want. It's always interesting. It's a fascinating romp through the english language, finding where words come from, linking them in strange ways. Excellent and enjoyable.

[pdcread · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I like books on words and language, and lots of them that I have read can be a bit dry. But this one isn't.

Forsyth has a way with words that makes you smile, and in this book he leads the reader on a meander through the words and phrases of the English language. Each mini chapter leads onto the next, sometimes a little tenuously, until the final chapter, which links right back to the first.

I was quite surprised how many words that are unlinked now have common roots. a good example is mortgage and mortuary, which have the common route mort which means death.

Great book for words smiths.

[ashleytylerjohn · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Listened to the introduction and about 2 minutes of the first chapter on Audible ... this may be easier to take in written form, but as a read-aloud it was torture. In the intro he jokes about assailing a companion with unwanted tidbits about word origins--but once the book starts, that's how it feels--imagine Grandpa Simpson's tedious nonsensical soliloquies but with some word origins thrown in.

I just couldn't stand it. Sorry. Switched to Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman instead (totally different, nothing to do with word origins).

[ajbraithwaite_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not a book to read in one sitting (it has taken me 10 months of dipping to get through it!), but entertaining, educational, and funny.

[murderbydeath · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book took me FOREVER to finish, and not because it was bad, boring or dense. It took me forever because I couldn't read more than a paragraph without having to stop and read it aloud to MT, much to his amusement and increasing irritation, so I found myself avoiding it for stretches at a time so he wasn't tempted to hide the book somewhere, like the recycle bin. As he's gone for the weekend, my impulse to share was thwarted and I was able to power through the rest of the book. Truly, for word lovers out there, I can't recommend this book highly enough. It's so interesting and so easy to read; Forsyth breaks the book into sections, rather than chapters, but really it's more a free-association type of narrative. Talking about the origins of one word brings him to another, that leads him to another and so on. Did you know there's a direct etymological connection between the Old/New Testaments and a mans testicles? Sex and bread? Torpedoes and turtles? I didn't, but now I do. Etymology might strike people as bland, but those people will have never read Forsyth; part of why I read so much of this out loud is because he's hilarious, especially in his footnotes (which are not overdone). If kids were allowed to learn with texts like these, we'd have a lot more smarter adults.

[krazykiwi-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Mark Forsyth’s Etymologicon is exactly the kind of smart funny distraction I needed after wading through the romance novel box set from hell. I’ve read this before, and it’s followup, but there’s so very much packed into them, that I can and probably will read them a dozen more times.
Full review @Booklikes

[lukerik-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A superb little book. Consistently interesting with lots of jokes and a certain manic headlong rush. His explanation of the word 'partridge' is particularly fine.I think etymologicons should be a new genre, defined as a circular stroll through the hidden connections of a language.

[jkdavies · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

stuffed full of amusing etymological anecdotes... wryly written & self deprecating

[kristelh_15 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An enjoyable rapid march through words in the English language, their origins and it flows to the next word, thus the circular. The author is funny. The longest one word sentence, Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. It is grammatically correct, referring to the town, to bully, the animal, It also covered such sayings as we are accustomed to and whether their origin is what is claimed or myth, Words like Halcion days which is about the weather when the kingfisher (Halcion) lays her eggs on the water--the origin, Ovid and his Metamorphoses. A fun book and I will read it again.

[karenduff · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A really good interesting read about the development of words and their origins.

[meggo_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What a fun look at language and where words and phrases come from. Connections abound in this book, which is surprisingly engaging for an in-depth study of English language. Recommended, and not just for hard-core linguists.

[martensgirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book as so many books on etymology can be dreary and pedantic. This book is lighthearted and witty- a great introduction to this topic.

[annbury_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This amusing book explores some of the more obscure linkages between apparently unrelated English words. In doing so, it takes the reader on a merry tour of word origins, word borrowing, word change, and word almost everything. It is more of a "Hey look at this" book that a "these relationships suggest that --- " book, but if you are looking for fun with English words it is a good place to go. Would make a great stocking stuffer for word mavens.

[vguy_6 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Just great fun! some of the jokes creak a bit but he's enjoying himself so I did too. One or two of his etymologies looked a bit doubtful but the ones i tried to verify seems OK. and anyway etymolgy is a bit of a speculative science. His account of the origins of Assassin, which i'm familiar with, is a gem of history linguistics and humour.

[stuart10er_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Entertaining short articles on word origins and how they are related to each other

[passion4reading_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A funny, enlightening and ingenious book about the origins and hidden connections between words in a light-hearted and often irreverent way, which starts and ends with books, and covers everything else in-between: from chickens, testicles and sausages to Bohemia, California and assassins on drugs. You will never think about certain words in the same way again.

[jtck121166 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Really delightful tour around the thesaurus that is the author's mind.The tone is perfectly matched to form and contents: an interesting and lovely little book.

[fueledbycoffee · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is jammed pack with some of the best etymological histories Ive ever read. Its not one of those books you sit down and plow through. I usually read it while waiting for kids at the dentist or in the kitchen watching a pot boil (which completely, methodically, and scientifically invalidated the notion that a watched pot never boils...watched pots boil, too, in case you wondered.)

I recommend this as a carpool/bathroom reader/waiting room/pot watching book for those logomaniacs and lexorcists who love a turn of phrase and relish epic wordsmith butchery birthed from verbal provenance.

[adonisguilfoyle · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Being the type of pedantic reader who double checks the vocabulary of historical novels at Etymonline, and whose favourite fun fact is that 'feisty' means a little farting dog, I couldn't resist this book. I think the paper version might be more accessible than the ebook, however - this is one to browse, not devour page by page. A host of interesting, obscure and quotable word origins, from avocado testicles to injecting sausage poison (Botox), plus 'who coined what', this is the perfect gift for anyone who gens up on episodes of QI so that they can bore people silly with pointless 'Did you know ...?' trivia.

[readingwithtea · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

"It was after an incident such as this that my friends and family decided something must be done. They gathered for a confabulation and, having established that psychiatric care was beyond their means, they turned in despair to the publishing industry, which has a long history of picking up where social work leaves off."Mark Forsyth is the author of the Inky Fool blog where he delights in revealing the little known evolutions of some of our favourite words and phrases (today's option: Bob's Your Uncle). This book is a collection of similar thoughts, "organised" in a constant stream so that one chapter links to the next. He does manage to cover monkeys, film buffs and the Rolling Stones, so the structure of the book does not limit its content!Forsyth has a wonderful sense of humour, and uses it to great effect to break up what could otherwise have been a very informative but dry work. Some of my favourite quotes:"Do you know the difference between the clouds and the sky? If you do, you're lucky, because if you live in England, the two are pretty much synonymous.""The Latin word for sausage was botulus, from which English gets two words. One of them is the lovely botuliform, which means sausage-shaped and is a more useful word than you might think. The other word is botulism.""If you were caught stealing a loaf of bread in early Victorian Britain you were sent to Australia, where there was less bread but much more sunshine. This system was abolished in 1850 when word got back to Britain that Australia was, in fact, a lovely place to live and therefore didn't count as punishment."I found myself wondering as to the scholarly provenance of some of his explanations, but he provides a bibliography and references, so I suppose I shall have to put my Wikipedia-esque "citation needed" thoughts to one side.This is a really delightful book for about 10-15 minutes. You can dip in, learn a few things, have a chuckle at some of what Forsyth has to say, and carry on with your day. However, my commute is usually 30-60 minutes, and in that time the light and fluffy tone got on my nerves. A minor quibble perhaps, but one that meant this book dragged on far too long for me. I would quite happily have read something half the size.

[shirezu · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

As someone who really loves words and their meanings and histories I can't say enough how much I loved this book. I did not want it to end and now I want to find more books just like it. Some things I knew but I learned a lot. The joy is in finding them out so I won't give any away on here.

This book was great from start to finish and for anyone with a love of words it is a must-read.

[adpaton · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Blogs are sooo previous decade and Finnegan’s Wake forever soured me toward stream of consciousness writing - however The Etymologicon, by English man of letters and brilliant blogger Mark Forsyth, aka The Inky Fool, encompasses both yet is, quite simply, brilliant. He focuses on the connection between words in a meandering but entirely logical stream which is as entertaining as it is intriguing: like all great raconteurs – although this account is literary rather than verbal – the Inky Fool is erudite and witty, and sweeps his audience along with him. For example, Turkeys are so named because they resemble the helmeted Guinea Fowl which were imported by Turkish traders and so became known as ‘Turkeys’: since the American Turkey looked like and tasted like the Guinea Fowl, they were assumed to be the same bird, hence the name. When people Talk Turkey however, it has nothing to do with the bird or with Turkish, but is connected with some amazingly unfunny 19th Century American joke regarding a Red Indian, a Turkey and a buzzard. ‘Talking cold turkey’ was even blunter and more direct, thus giving up an addiction became know as going ‘cold turkey’ – so cold turkey is not food, but giving someone the ‘cold shoulder’ originally was. Fascinating stuff and impossible to stop once started because – as the title suggests – the interconnectivity of our language is circular and the only end is when, all too soon, the last page is reached.

[the7ken7petersen · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have this book on my Kindle and I heard the original BBC series so; why do I feel the need to own it as an audio book too?If you have yet to come across the Etymologicon, then you have a real treat awaiting you. Get it NOW! It doesn't matter whether it be in the original paper form, the e-book or this audio book - they're all great. The Etymologicon describes itself as, "a circular stroll through the hidden connections of the English language". Sounds a bit grand, but the reality is a fun book that is packed with fascinating stories of the origins, and unexpected links, between English words. It started life as the Inky Fool blog, created by Mark Forsyth and evolved into a humorous, but educational, tome.Each chapter follows a different strand through our beloved language and, whilst I am content to acknowledge my ignorance, I will not believe any of you who tells me that they knew all the intricate links in any chapter - and that includes aficionados, such as myself, who have read and heard the book on many occasions! This audio version does not scimp, it covers the complete book on 6 CD's. I do wonder about some audio books; when you've listened once to a whodunnit, will you want to listen again? On the other hand, the Etymologicon is so packed with information that one can read it, several times and listen to the disc copy on multiple occasions and STILL not glean all the information that Mr Forsyth offers. If one is ever invited to a dinner party, given by a superior friend, then put part of this collection on your car's media player. I guarantee that, when you arrive, you will have a whole bunch of interesting facts to work into your conversation: indeed, I have invented the game of how many such facts one can introduce in a single evening (double points are awarded for the most esoteric!) Three players, in the know, can completely banjax a condescending host, with in minutes - try it!