There is No Zoo in Zoology, and Other Beastly Mispronunciations: An Opinionated Guide for the Well-Spoken

by Charles Harrington Elster

Lists nearly four hundred of the most commonly mispronounced words and discusses the history and origins of each word

Genres: Nonfiction, Language, Reference

182 pages, Paperback

Published January 19, 1989

About the author

Charles Harrington Elster is a writer, broadcaster, and logophile—a lover of words.

He is the author and narrator of the audio vocabulary-building program Verbal Advantage and the book by the same name. His other books include Tooth and Nail and Test of Time, vocabulary-building novels for high school students preparing to take the college entrance exams; There's a Word for It, a lighthearted look at unusual—and unusually useful—words; and The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations, which William Safire of The New York Times hailed as "the best survey of the spoken field in years." In 2005 Harcourt published What in the Word? Wordplay, Word Lore, and Answers to Your Peskiest Questions About Language, and in 2006 Houghton Mifflin released the second edition of The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations, featuring nearly 200 new entries.

Charlie was pronunciation editor of the seventh and eighth editions of Black's Law Dictionary and a consultant for Garner's Modern American Usage. He is a guest contributor to the "On Language" column of The New York Times Magazine, and his articles have appeared in the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune, and other publications.

Charlie has also been talking about language on the radio since 1985. He has been interviewed on NPR’s Talk of the Nation, Weekend Edition, and All Things Considered and been a guest on hundreds of radio shows around the country. For five and a half years he cohosted a weekly public radio talk show on language called A Way with Words.

Charlie was born in New York City in 1957 and earned his B.A. cum laude from Yale in 1981. He lives in San Diego with his wife and two daughters.

Reviews

[Patrick · Rating 1 out of 5]

An utterly pedantic and outdated guide to "proper" pronunciation of specific words. Elster consults dictionaries to determine which pronunciations are correct, and then happily disregards those dictionaries when he prefers a newer or older pronunciation.

I tend to be a prescriptivist when it comes to grammar and definition of words, but my experience with friends and colleagues from all over the world tells me that accents and pronunciations are fluid, and guides like this are mainly used to make oneself feel superior.

That all said, most word entries did have interesting etymological information, and it is that alone that kept me reading.

[Bernie4444 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spell it as it sounds.

Sure, that is easy for you to say. 90% of my misspelling is because of pronunciation. No, pronounce no chance of spelling it as it sounds. Yes, and the other way around (there I have some excuse) my word does not spell as they sound due to the word base history. But that is a matter for a different book. Or in the last few pages of this book.

In “There is no Zoo in Zoology” we are helped with overcoming many of the most common mispronounced words. We start with aberrant a-BER-ant and end with zounds ZOWNDZ.

You will have fun trying it out on people.

[Judi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because I didn't learn English from my parents, as most native English speakers do, I have always had to choose what pronunciation I used. This is my current reference to properly pronounce words, along with the dictionaries that I own. Funny and educational, I think most people need a copy.

[elstaffe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now I want to go find a current pronunciation guide and see how it stacks up.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bathroom reading best!

[Mirhanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most fun books on language I've ever read. Love the author and am so sad that he died so young. RIP Mr. Elster.