Look at the history of the English dictionary over the past 400 years, culminating with today's online resources. You'll meet the likes of Samuel Johnson and Noah Webster, discover the origins of American spellings, and hear the story of how the monumental OED was created.
It's a human impulse to play with language and to create new words and meanings - but also to worry about the decay of language. But by studying how and why language changes and the story behind the everyday words in our lexicon, we can learn a lot about ourselves - how our minds work and how our culture has changed over the centuries.
Language
English
Format
Audiobook
Release
January 01, 2012
Treasure Houses, Theft, and Traps (The Secret Life of Words: English Words and Their Origins, #4)
Look at the history of the English dictionary over the past 400 years, culminating with today's online resources. You'll meet the likes of Samuel Johnson and Noah Webster, discover the origins of American spellings, and hear the story of how the monumental OED was created.
It's a human impulse to play with language and to create new words and meanings - but also to worry about the decay of language. But by studying how and why language changes and the story behind the everyday words in our lexicon, we can learn a lot about ourselves - how our minds work and how our culture has changed over the centuries.