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A Garden of Words
An exploration of the origins and development of twenty-four flower names, from aster to zinnia, weaves together the root words, idioms, legends, and folklore that have formed each flower name's etymological history.
- GenresNonfiction
188 pages, Hardcover
First published May 5, 1992
About the author
Martha Barnette
7 books22 followersI’ve cohosted “A Way with Words,” the public radio show and podcast about words and how we use them, for 21 years now! My new book Friends with Words is a warm, witty memoir about the joys of language and the power of words to connect us.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 16, 2024
BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS:
*-Print: COPYRIGHT: May 5, 1992 (paperback 2005); ASJA Press; ISBN 0595347495 (Info from Amazon . com)
-Digital: N/A
-Audio: N/A
-Feature Film or tv: N/A
SERIES: N/A
SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
-SELECTED: When I spotted this little gem at a used book shop, despite evidence of a trace of mold around the edges, I didn’t even bother to look inside before purchasing. I love words and I love flowers, so the title combined with the pretty book cover adorned by flowers was all it took to send me running to the cashier.
-ABOUT: The book has 22 chapters, each devoted to a different flower. In the process, it also discusses other flowers that link etymologically or conceptually—usually both, to the one under discussion. The author explains the derivation of the flower’s name, usually from Indo-European roots and then usually provides similar names from other languages-often springing from the same ancient root, and explains how they relate, and how other words from English, or other languages, or both, came to be associated with the root or the flower or both. The author heads off on trails of interconnected associations, that lead away from the initial topic, but never looses track of the primary thread, hopping back to move along to the next syllable, or another good reason for the name.
-OVERALL: The illustrations are great and the descriptions are fascinating.
Amazingly, in looking this author up in Wikipedia (see below), I have learned that I had been listening to a podcast of hers for several months last year, until I got too busy to keep up with the weekly editions.
What a fun coincidence!
I had no idea the host had such an extensive background in languages and am inspired to take up listening again.
AUTHOR:
Martha Barnette (From Wikipedia)
“Martha Barnette (born November 18, 1957) is an American writer, radio host, and public speaker. She is the co-host and co-producer of A Way with Words, a weekly, hour-long show about language broadcast nationally in the United States, and is the author of four books, three of them about etymology.[1]
Early life and education
Barnette was born in Louisville, Kentucky to Helen and Henlee Hulix Barnette.[1] Her father was a Baptist minister and professor of Christian ethics and her mother a teacher.[2] After attending Stetson University and Vanderbilt University, she graduated from Vassar College with a bachelor's degree in English in 1981.[1] She subsequently did graduate work in classical languages at the University of Kentucky and studied Spanish at the ILISA Language Institute in Costa Rica.[3]”
NARRATOR:
N/A
GENRE:
Nonfiction; Botany
SUBJECTS:
Flowers; Etymology; Languages; Word Roots; Indo-European; Greek; Latin; French; Spanish; English
TIME FRAME:
N/A
DEDICATION:
“This book is dedicated to my parents,
Helen and Henlee Barnette,
and to
The memory of
Professor Leonard Latkovski, St.
1905-1991
EXCERPT (From Exordium)
“Exordium is a Latin word that was adopted into English to mean “the introduction to a written work.” Originally, however, the word exordium indicated “the beginning of a web” or “the threading of a loom.” In a sense, that’s what this book is all about: It begins to weave a web of words and reveals the linguistic threads that link a host of seemingly unrelated words and languages.
This book had its beginnings a dozen years ago, when I was struggling through introductory college Greek. Classical languages are notoriously difficult to master, in part because these so-called “dead” languages don’t afford the chance to practice rudimentary conversations—Hello, How are you?, What’s your name?—and other everyday exchanges that provide a feel for the spoken language. Instead, the first chapter of an ancient Greek or Latin textbook introduces students to students to such terms as the Greek words for “metaphor” and “bowstring,” or the Latin word for “treachery”—not exactly the stuff of everyday conversation. In addition, anyone who wants to learn a classical language faces formidable lists of noun declensions and seemingly endless charts of verb forms.
It all seemed so arbitrary, so artificial, so far removed from real life. Who, I wondered, had decreed that a noun should have so many different endings, depending upon its use in a sentence? How did the ancients ever come to decide that a Greek verb should have three voices, four infinite moods, seven tenses, three numbers, six principal parts—and why? How, for that matter, did any ancient Greek kid ever learn to carry on a conversation at all? The old expression “It’s Greek to me” took on a new and painful meaning, and I finally decided to drop the course and try again the following year.
In the meantime, I wrote to the university in my hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, to ask whether some graduate student there might tutor me in Greek over the summer. I received a letter back—in not entirely perfect English—from someone who said he’d be glad to help. Leonard Latkovski, Sr., was a retired professor of classics who had taught for many years at Louisville’s Bellarmine College. He began his teaching career in his native Latvia at the University of Riga. In 1944 he and his young family fled to Germany, just hours ahead of the advancing Russian Army. Eventually they emigrated to the United States. Although now officially retired, Professor Latkovski regularly worked as a freelance translator in several languages, taught Latin in a Catholic elementary school, and tutored adults in the evenings. He agreed to teach me Greek on Monday nights.”
RATING:
5 stars
STARTED READING – FINISHED READING
2/13/2024 to 3/15/2024
*-Print: COPYRIGHT: May 5, 1992 (paperback 2005); ASJA Press; ISBN 0595347495 (Info from Amazon . com)
-Digital: N/A
-Audio: N/A
-Feature Film or tv: N/A
SERIES: N/A
SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
-SELECTED: When I spotted this little gem at a used book shop, despite evidence of a trace of mold around the edges, I didn’t even bother to look inside before purchasing. I love words and I love flowers, so the title combined with the pretty book cover adorned by flowers was all it took to send me running to the cashier.
-ABOUT: The book has 22 chapters, each devoted to a different flower. In the process, it also discusses other flowers that link etymologically or conceptually—usually both, to the one under discussion. The author explains the derivation of the flower’s name, usually from Indo-European roots and then usually provides similar names from other languages-often springing from the same ancient root, and explains how they relate, and how other words from English, or other languages, or both, came to be associated with the root or the flower or both. The author heads off on trails of interconnected associations, that lead away from the initial topic, but never looses track of the primary thread, hopping back to move along to the next syllable, or another good reason for the name.
-OVERALL: The illustrations are great and the descriptions are fascinating.
Amazingly, in looking this author up in Wikipedia (see below), I have learned that I had been listening to a podcast of hers for several months last year, until I got too busy to keep up with the weekly editions.
What a fun coincidence!
I had no idea the host had such an extensive background in languages and am inspired to take up listening again.
AUTHOR:
Martha Barnette (From Wikipedia)
“Martha Barnette (born November 18, 1957) is an American writer, radio host, and public speaker. She is the co-host and co-producer of A Way with Words, a weekly, hour-long show about language broadcast nationally in the United States, and is the author of four books, three of them about etymology.[1]
Early life and education
Barnette was born in Louisville, Kentucky to Helen and Henlee Hulix Barnette.[1] Her father was a Baptist minister and professor of Christian ethics and her mother a teacher.[2] After attending Stetson University and Vanderbilt University, she graduated from Vassar College with a bachelor's degree in English in 1981.[1] She subsequently did graduate work in classical languages at the University of Kentucky and studied Spanish at the ILISA Language Institute in Costa Rica.[3]”
NARRATOR:
N/A
GENRE:
Nonfiction; Botany
SUBJECTS:
Flowers; Etymology; Languages; Word Roots; Indo-European; Greek; Latin; French; Spanish; English
TIME FRAME:
N/A
DEDICATION:
“This book is dedicated to my parents,
Helen and Henlee Barnette,
and to
The memory of
Professor Leonard Latkovski, St.
1905-1991
EXCERPT (From Exordium)
“Exordium is a Latin word that was adopted into English to mean “the introduction to a written work.” Originally, however, the word exordium indicated “the beginning of a web” or “the threading of a loom.” In a sense, that’s what this book is all about: It begins to weave a web of words and reveals the linguistic threads that link a host of seemingly unrelated words and languages.
This book had its beginnings a dozen years ago, when I was struggling through introductory college Greek. Classical languages are notoriously difficult to master, in part because these so-called “dead” languages don’t afford the chance to practice rudimentary conversations—Hello, How are you?, What’s your name?—and other everyday exchanges that provide a feel for the spoken language. Instead, the first chapter of an ancient Greek or Latin textbook introduces students to students to such terms as the Greek words for “metaphor” and “bowstring,” or the Latin word for “treachery”—not exactly the stuff of everyday conversation. In addition, anyone who wants to learn a classical language faces formidable lists of noun declensions and seemingly endless charts of verb forms.
It all seemed so arbitrary, so artificial, so far removed from real life. Who, I wondered, had decreed that a noun should have so many different endings, depending upon its use in a sentence? How did the ancients ever come to decide that a Greek verb should have three voices, four infinite moods, seven tenses, three numbers, six principal parts—and why? How, for that matter, did any ancient Greek kid ever learn to carry on a conversation at all? The old expression “It’s Greek to me” took on a new and painful meaning, and I finally decided to drop the course and try again the following year.
In the meantime, I wrote to the university in my hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, to ask whether some graduate student there might tutor me in Greek over the summer. I received a letter back—in not entirely perfect English—from someone who said he’d be glad to help. Leonard Latkovski, Sr., was a retired professor of classics who had taught for many years at Louisville’s Bellarmine College. He began his teaching career in his native Latvia at the University of Riga. In 1944 he and his young family fled to Germany, just hours ahead of the advancing Russian Army. Eventually they emigrated to the United States. Although now officially retired, Professor Latkovski regularly worked as a freelance translator in several languages, taught Latin in a Catholic elementary school, and tutored adults in the evenings. He agreed to teach me Greek on Monday nights.”
RATING:
5 stars
STARTED READING – FINISHED READING
2/13/2024 to 3/15/2024
July 21, 2013
Loved this book. I loved how it married flowers and linguistics - two personal passions.
February 22, 2025
Ultimately one of the best readings of 2025. I was pursuing this book for several years, and was it worth it!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews