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Jess Zafarris

Goodreads Author

Born

in The United States

Website

http://uselessetymology.com

Twitter

jesszafarris

Genre

Nonfiction, History, Children's

Member Since

September 2011

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/jzafarris

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Jess Zafarris is an author and speaker whose work primarily addresses words and language, but also social media, advertising, communications, and TTRPGs. She’s the author of Once Upon a Word (2020), Words from Hell (2023), and Useless Etymology (2025). A former content director for Writer’s Digest, Adweek, and Ragan Communications, she now joyfully discusses word origins on TikTok and Instagram, cohosts the podcast Words Unravelled, and runs the blog Useless Etymology. She is an adjunct professor at Emerson College, Editor-at-Large for Ragan and PR Daily, a contributor and social media partner for Dictionarycom, a regular speaker for Writer's Digest, and a writer at Indie Agency News. She produces and hosts events including PR Daily’s Socia ...more

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Jess Zafarris’s books

Average rating: 4.28 · 524 ratings · 244 reviews · 9 distinct works • Similar authors

	Useless Etymology: Offbeat Word Origins for Curious Minds 4.28 avg rating — 234 ratings — published 2025 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Words from Hell: Unearthing the Darkest Secrets of English Etymology 4.21 avg rating — 168 ratings — published 2023 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Once Upon a Word: A Word-Origin Dictionary for Kids―Building Vocabulary Through Etymology, Definitions & Stories 4.36 avg rating — 118 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Game Master’s Book of Legendary Locations: 150+ mythic sites, fables ruins, cursed temples and forgotten lairs, plus dozens of random tables, BBEGs, ... RPG adventures (The Game Master Series) by Jeff Ashworth, Jess Zafarris (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), Colby Whittaker (Contributor) 4.67 avg rating — 3 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Miscellany of Weird and Wonderful Facts for Curious Humans Who Have Nothing Better to Do Than Read: (You know who you are.) by Jess Zafarris (Goodreads Author), Shannon Miller (Goodreads Author) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Into the Words: An Etymologist's Field Guide to Plants, Animals, and Nature 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Into the Words: An Etymologist's Field Guide to Plants, Animals, and Nature 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Into the Words: An Etymologist's Field Guide to Plants, Animals, and Nature 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Game Master's Box of Worldbuilding: Hundreds of random tables, towns, cities, lairs, factions, villains, mysteries and other tools for building ... for all of your 5th edition RPG adventures by Jeff Ashworth, Robert "Bob World Builder" Mason (contributor), Tristan Fishel (contributor) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Jess Zafarris is currently reading

Persepolis Rising (The Expanse, #7)

by James S.A. Corey (Goodreads Author)

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Feb 10, 2020 07:19PM

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