Reddit mentions of Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins (Oxford Quick Reference)

I'm currently reading a really excellent collection of articles by Elizabeth Gordon called Living Language: Exploring Kiwitalk. It's (obviously) heavily focused on New Zealand English, but there's a lot of general English stuff there too (For example, one article outlines all the different countries of origin of different food words).

Letter Perfect is an easy read about the history of the written alphabet.

I'm seconding Mother Tongue already mentioned, though be warned he gets a few things wrong.

In that vein (of people being wrong) , Word Myths is a collection of dubunked language myths (such as "Eskimos have 1000 words for snow") that still persevere through culture.

If you're interested in anything about how language works in development/the mind, I urge you to check out any of Steven Pinker's books on the subject. They are among the most accessible linguistic work I've ever read. (I highly recommend starting with The Language Instinct. The Blank Slate is by far my favourite but quite removed from language proper).

Advanced/Reference/Kinda boring:

The Dictionary of Word Origins is an excellent reference, if not actually something you can just sit down and read.

A Short History of Linguistics is pretty dry, but it sheds some light on why we adopt so many Greek and Latin word forms. I'd call it advanced because you need a pretty firm grasp of grammar. This book is also great for dealing with some of the interesting theory oppositions through history. Technically this is a short history of Western/Germanic linguistics, but still very good.

If you're interested in the how along with the actual histories, I really have to recommend Lyle Campbell's Historical Linguistics, especially the chapters on semantic change (skip the whole part on sound change. It's tedious and unnecessary). His examples are numerous, clear and usually entertaining. But be aware there are a lot of errors in special character printing.

Finally, some Links!!

The Language Log

A walk in the woRds

The Eggcorn database (sound change in action!)


I wish this hadn't been posted when I was in the middle of a move. I went to check my (ridiculous) bookshelf for other titles on the subject only to be greeted by a pile of boxes.

TLDR; I love language