ACCIDENTAL DICTIONARY

Sub-titled 'The Remarkable Twists and Turns of English Words' and brimming with hidden histories, the book tells the extraordinary stories behind ordinary words. Busking for instance originally meant piracy. Grin meant to snarl. A bimbo was a man. Nice meant ignorant. Glamour was magic and a cupboard was a table. Buxom used to mean obedient, a cloud was a rock and raunchy originally meant dirty. As we find out the origin of the word aficionado as borrowed from the Spanish, about bullfighting in the mid 1600s and how its original meaning was translated into fanatic in the 1802 English edition of Fischer's Travels in Spain. Focussing on 100 surprising threads in the evolution of English, the book reveals the etymological origins and quirky developments that have led to meanings we take for granted today. Short, witty essays on each chosen word packed with fascinating and entertaining info. 242pp.