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Lädt ... Anonyponymous: The Forgotten People Behind Everyday Words (2009)von John Marciano
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Melde dich bei LibraryThing an um herauszufinden, ob du dieses Buch mögen würdest. Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch. This book was great fun. Marciano's writing style is breezy and fun and entertainingly silly in places (like defining "malapropism" as "an accidental masseuse of a word"). It's a fairly quick read, and is good for when you want to read in bits and bites instead of a lengthy reading. (I chose the latter way, though, because every definition made me want to read more!) I definitely recommend this if you enjoy language history and wordplay. Four stars. ( ) I've always liked word origin stories, especially when they have interesting tales behind them. And what could be more interesting than eponymous words, those words that were created based on the name of a person. These sorts of words are most obvious in areas like science (will someone name a flower or pleasant smell or star or something like that after me, please?), literature, and when someone actually creates a new tangible something that they can name after themselves. But Marciano isn't entirely concerned with these words in his Anonyponymous; he's interested in the words we use frequently but have long since forgotten the person for whom they were named. Anonymous and eponymous both. This is a slight book, very casual in tone, and set up like a dictionary. The words (and people) chosen for inclusion are sometimes indeed what the title suggests but other times they are more common than the author seems to think (or maybe I'm just smarter than the average bear, but I don't really believe that). I was interested to learn about some of the people behind dog breeds (Jack Russell and Dobermann), Candido Jacuzzi and the reason behind his invention, how a man who neglected to brand his cattle inspired the word maverick, that silhouette came about as tribute (?) to a French official who was incredibly cheap, that syphilis was named for a shepherd but not for the reason you think, and many more. Etymology geeks like me will enjoy this although I'd caution that it is best read in small snippets rather than all at once. One or two entries might not be entirely true but it is mostly well-researched if very superficial and brief. It is a breezy, occasionally funny book of the sort of random trivia with which I cheerfully stuff my brain. If this sounds like you too, enjoy! Curioso libro sobre el origen de algunas palabras que derivan de un nombre propio, de alguien en concreto. Desde el consabido Sandwich, creado por el duque de Sandwich para no tener que levantarse de la mesa y poder comer mientras trabajaba/jugaba a las cartas (hay dos versiones de la historia), nuestro viejo y querido al-Khwarizmi y sus algoritmos (que no logaritmos), el sorprendente número de personas que han dado nombre a flores (Empezando por Louise-Anton de Bouganville, Mr. Garden el de las gardenias, Joel Poinsett el de las ponsetias...). Hay un montón de palabras de uso común que vienen de un nomber propio. Muchas de las palabras son sólo de uso común en inglés, por lo que al lector español se la trae un poco al pairo, pero otras, muchas, nos llenarán de ese asombro breve cuando descubrimos lo inesperado. Muy entretenido. keine Rezensionen | Rezension hinzufügen
An encyclopedia of linguistic biographies: the witty, illustrated stories of the Earl of Sandwich, Charles Boycott, and other historical figures better known as words than people. Eponymous, adj. Giving one's name to a person, place, or thing. Anonymous, adj. Anonymous. Anonyponymous, adj. Anonymous and eponymous. The Earl of Sandwich, fond of salted beef and paired slices of toast, found a novel way to eat them all together. Etienne de Silhouette, a former French finance minister, was so notoriously cheap that his name became a byword for chintzy practices--such as substituting a darkened outline for a proper painted portrait. Both bequeathed their names to the language, but neither man is remembered. In this clever and funny book, John Bemelmans Marciano illuminates the lives of these anonyponymous persons. A kind of encyclopedia of linguistic biographies, the book is arranged alphabetically, giving the stories of everyone from Abu "algorithm" Al-Khwarizmi to Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. Along with them you'll find the likes of Harry Shrapnel, Joseph-Ignace Guillotine, and many other people whose vernacular legacies have long outlived their memory. Accented by amusing line portraits and short etymological essays on subjects like "superhero eponyms," Anonyponymous is both a compendium of trivia and a window into the fascinating world of etymology. Carefully curated and unfailingly witty, this book is both a fantastic gift for language lovers and a true pleasure to read. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
LibraryThing Early Reviewers-AutorJohn Marcianos Buch Anonyponymous wurde im Frührezensenten-Programm LibraryThing Early Reviewers angeboten. Aktuelle DiskussionenKeineBeliebte Umschlagbilder
Google Books — Lädt ... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)423.1Language English Dictionaries of standard English Speller-dividers--English languageKlassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt:
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