Ologies and Isms
Michael Quinion
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2002 Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192801236

Word Beginnings and Endings.

Aquaculture? Haemophilia? Ecosystem? Isochronous? Neuralgia? Polyunsaturate? Rodenticide? Centrifuge? Kaleidoscope? Heliotrope?

How often have you seen such a technical word without quite knowing what it meant? Tired of not exactly knowing what the ingredients on a food box in the store really are?

I was browsing the Web looking for an explanation of a turn of phrase when I came upon Michael Quinion's www.worldwidewords. What a Pandora's Box of Delights! At last a place to explore the origins of English words & those everyday phrases we use without thinking -- “spitting feathers, double-dog dare, minding your Ps & Qs”.

It has always bothered me that I don't quite know what prefixes & suffixes really mean. I figured if I could decipher them -- undo the language code -- I could start to understand others of a similar kind.

So I was thrilled to learn that Michael Quinion has compiled such a dictionary: Ologies and Isms -- about the building blocks of the English language that help form or adapt many of the modern words we use.

Ologies and Isms is a splendid resource for writers & students, & anyone who plays with words as in Scrabble^® or crosswords, or readers who simply want to know more about this salamagundi of a language.

Michael Quinion has had a varied career since gaining his science degree at Cambridge University. He has been a BBC studio manager & producer in radio, heritage interpreter, audio-visual scriptwriter, museum curator, tourism consultant, & computer software writer. He is a researcher of word usage for the Oxford English Dictionary. His www.worldwidewords intrigues & entertains readers from around the world who interested in the history & evolution of the English language.

Do check out my editorial on Hunting for Isms
(12/28/03)

Rebecca