The Etymologicon: Mark Forsyth

The Etymologicon is a beautiful book all about the strange connections between words in the English language. It explains the link between film buffs and buffaloes, monks and monkeys, science and going to the lavatory.

This morning I’ve been reading a book by an author I’m calling “the Etymologicon” but since that’s the title of his book I probably should correct that and call him, Mark Forsyth, the etymologician, which sounds more magical or at least logical. Anyway, he’s first a blogger.

And at his blog the inky fool is already making his own corrections:

http://blog.inkyfool.com/2012/01/crorections.html

So let me add one. Early in his book, Forsyth writes, “This book is the papery child of the Inky Fool blog, which was started in 2009.” That may be true, but there’s little papery or childish if there’s much paperish with sophisticated child’s play in the ebook version I’m enjoying very much. (Furthermore I should add – not to rip him off but – the book author’s kindle edition is now being sold at amazon.com for a mere $1.99, which I say is both extremely cheap and nearly priceless. It’s well worth the many pennies and the minutes or hours you’ll spend with it. I’ve laughed out loud a lot already and learned even more.)

Now I’ll just end this short review before I’ve finished the papery pages by sharing my favorite quotation so far:

“The greatest joy a human being can achieve in this sorrowful world is to get one up on his or her fellow man or woman by correcting their English.” – what sort of correct English is that Mark Forsyth? Your turn. Greatly enjoy.