Genres

Etymology

Lists

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary by Merriam-Webster

The Oxford English Dictionary by John Andrew Simpson

Hope in the Valley by Penelope Bourdillon

Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary by A.S. Hornby

Dictionaries

401 books — 78 voters

Course in General Linguistics by Ferdinand de Saussure

An Introduction to Language by Victoria A. Fromkin

Best Books about Linguistics

264 books — 229 voters

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr.

181 books — 41 voters

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“ Etymology” is from the Greek and means the study (logia) of the “literal meaning of a word according to its origin” (etymon).... It can be a huge help in spelling. For instance, people sometimes misspell “iridescent.”... Rather than just try to memorize the spelling, if you look at the etymology—study the entrails of the word—you find that “iris, irid” is a combining form that comes from the Greek Iris, the goddess of the rainbow and the messenger of the gods.... [O]nce you know that “iridescent ...more ”
― Mary Norris, Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen

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“ IN THE fifteenth century, a swampy parcel of land in the sestieri of Cannaregio was set aside for the construction of a new brass foundry, known in the Venetian dialect as a geto. The foundry was never built, and a century later, when the rulers of Venice were looking for a suitable spot to confine the city’s swelling population of unwanted Jews, the remote parcel known as Ghetto Nuovo was deemed the ideal place. The campo was large and had no parish church. The surrounding canals formed a natur ...more ”
― Daniel Silva

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