word-of-the-day-2-wordwatching-a-wonderful-look-into-the-world-of-words

The world of words is a fascinating one. Aficionados of the English language pore over dictionaries, thumb through thesauruses and can be sent into a positive swoon with books such as Word of the Day: Wordwatching. It introduces more rare and obscure words to baffle and impress your friends, and explains the strange stories behind many of our common and familiar words. Why are Americans called 'Yankees'? If you buy 'a pig in a poke' what do you end up with? Why is pink associated with being tickled but blue with being murdered? Is 'runcible' a real word? And how did a building style come to name the wattle tree? Filled with such compelling and compulsively interesting information, and the odd 'terse verse', Word of the Day: Wordwatchingis a book for dipping into, to be savoured in small slices, to be quoted until you send your friends nuts. Welcome to a small but wonderful corner of the world of words.