Status Updates From Index, A History of the: A ...

do you ever start a book you are very aware is going to make you even more insufferable to have a conversation with after you’re done

An etymology provided by this interesting work... Did you know our word syllabus, now referring to a course outline, came from a tag that identified the contents of scrolls so each of the scrolls did not have to be unrolled for the reader hunting for specific information?

Only took to page 221 to finally run across an index I've heard of - Poole's! Heard of and know where in my library it's shelved, but never actually used (LOL, I am a business librarian after all).

I know there's a tendency in humans to distrust new technologies (i.e. along the lines of the internet is making us stupid), but I can't say that I ever thought indexes inspired such back in the day (though convenient they could *gasp* deskill users [p. 137]). Even more jawdropping was that Socrates generally thought along the same lines about written language (see the end of chapter 4 for the juicy details).